Early life of Hugo Chávez

Edit links
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hugo Chávez
Chávez as an adolescent
Born
Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías

(1954-07-28)28 July 1954
Sabaneta, Venezuela
Died5 March 2013(2013-03-05) (aged 58)
Caracas, Venezuela

The early life of Hugo Chávez spans the first twenty-one years (1954–1975) of the former President of Venezuela's life. Leader of the "Bolivarian Revolution", Hugo Chávez is known for his socialist governance, his promotion of Latin American integration, and his radical critique of neoliberal globalization and United States foreign policy.[1]

Born on 28 July 1954 in rural

1992 coup d'état
, seeking the overthrow of Venezuela's government.

Family and ancestry

The second son of

Andes Mountains to the west and south. Both Chávez's mother and father were local schoolteachers there. His father, Hugo Sr., had dropped out of school after completing the sixth grade. However, he later qualified to teach primary school.[2]

The ancestry of the Chávez family has roots in central Venezuela's

Maisanta". Maisanta was a lifelong rebel leader who helped spur an uprising that, before his capture in 1922, left dead both a Venezuelan ex-president and a state governor.[3]

Childhood (1954–1971)

Barinas, the home state of Chávez. Sabaneta, Chávez's home town, is located deep in the Venezuelan hinterland and far from the more urbanized northern coastal strip facing the Caribbean Sea
.

Chávez grew up in a small house composed of large palm leaves constructed over a bare dirt floor. His family lived in a small village just outside Sabaneta. Chávez and his siblings were urged by his parents to embrace education as a way of escaping their rural surroundings and attain better lives in the more prosperous cities. Chávez's mother wanted him to become a Catholic priest, and so he was made to serve as an altar boy for one year. One of his duties was to clean and polish figurines depicting the saints and Jesus; Chávez developed a dislike of Jesus' depiction as a simple figurine. Specifically, Chávez was offended by what he saw as his church's portrayal of Jesus as "an idiot" and not, as Chávez considered Jesus to be, "a rebel". These experiences resulted in Chávez's lifelong distrust of religious hierarchies.[4][5]

Later, Chávez's parents sent him and his older brother Adán to live with their paternal grandmother, Rosa Inés Chávez, who lived in Sabaneta proper. This resulted in Chávez developing a stronger relationship with his grandmother than with his own mother. Later, Chávez's own parents and his siblings moved to a nearby house,[2] Chávez recounts the odd situation of his parents' move to a different house (than that where he and his paternal grandmother lived) in Sabaneta:[2]

"[They moved to Sabaneta] and my father built a little house... diagonally across from my grandmother's house, which was made of thatch. My parents lived there with the other children as they came along .... [Theirs] was a little house made of [cement blocks], a rural house, but it had an asbestos roof and a cement floor."[2]

Thus, Chávez and Adán remained with their grandmother. Yet Chávez did have regular contact with his parents.[6] Although the majority of children in the region where he grew up never pursued higher studies, Chávez proved to be one of the exceptions. He began by attending elementary school at Julián Pino School. Meanwhile, he pursued such hobbies as painting and singing. At the ages of twelve and thirteen, Chávez was a very thin child with unusually large feet, and Chávez's peers dubbed him "Tribilin", the Spanish name for the Disney character Goofy.[7] After school, Chávez worked as a street vendor, selling the caramelized fruit sweets that his grandmother made.[2]

Chávez would later recall developing an appreciation for nature; this stemmed from his family's proximity to the Guanare River. There, he would take fishing trips with his father; on days such as

Zulia State,[8] in the second worst airplane crash in Venezuela's history,[9] Chávez was saddened to the extent that he refused to go to school for two days. Five years later, Chávez was still writing about Látigo in his personal diary,[10] and Chávez would continue to play and enjoy baseball throughout his life.[11] Chávez also played baseball and softball with the Criollitos de Venezuela, who played in the 1969 Venezuelan National Baseball Championships. He also wrote poems, stories, and dramas.[12]

From his early childhood on, Hugo Chávez was also interested in the life, ideology, and writings of Simón Bolívar. Bolívar is widely respected both in Venezuela and the rest of South America as a Venezuelan revolutionary and freedom fighter. He is particularly well-remembered for his central role in the Spanish American wars of independence. Indeed, from his childhood onwards, Chávez would tie key dates in his own life with important anniversaries relating to Bolívar's actions.[2]

Chávez later moved to the larger town of Barinas, where he attended high school at the Daniel Florencio O'Leary School.

Venezuelan armed forces. He later recalled that he joined so that he would be eligible to play in the military baseball leagues.[14]
He subsequently enrolled in 1971 as a fourth class cadet of the then Military Academy of Venezuela.

Life as a cadet (1971–1975)

Aside from his regular studies in college, Chávez also read history books and debated politics with fellow cadets. Between 1971 and 1973, a group of Panamanian military cadets came to Chávez's academy. From them, Chávez first learned of Panama's leader, Omar Torrijos, and the recent leftist Panamanian revolution. Chávez's curiosity was piqued by Torrijos' efforts to regain control of both the Panama Canal and the Panama Canal Zone from its traditional owner, the United States government. Thereafter, Chávez looked at Torrijos as a model leader.[15]

In 1974, Chávez and around one dozen fellow cadets and soldiers—all youths—traveled to

1992 Venezuelan coup attempt. Twenty-five years later, as president, Chávez ordered the printing of millions of copies of his government's new Bolivarian Constitution—only in the form of miniature blue booklets, a partial tribute to Velasco's gift.[15]

While studying at the military academy, Chávez generally avoided all discussion of politics with his family, especially whenever he stayed with them during holidays. He particularly disliked political discussion with his father, who was then a member of the

COPEI political party—indeed, his father would eventually rise to the position of education director of Barinas during the COPEI administration of Luis Herrera Campins. However, Chávez did enjoy such talk during his regular visits to the Ruiz family household.[17] For several months during 1974, Chávez maintained a personal diary; in it, he was careful in his usage of proper Spanish language. Chávez also expressed a leftist political orientation; writing of his dislike of U.S. foreign policy and Venezuela's perceived lack of a distinct national or cultural identity. As an example, he noted that both Venezuela's national sport (baseball) and Venezuela's popular music ultimately were American in origin.[18]

As a so-called provinciano ("provincial person", that is, an implication of backwardness regarding the social graces of urban life), Chávez was prima facie regarded by his peers as both polite and shy. However, by the time he had graduated, Chávez had emceed a beauty contest as well as taken charge of his own obscure radio program.[2] As a young man, Chávez had two girlfriends, who were considered by other students as unattractive. Chávez too was widely considered unattractive,[19] and these girlfriends were more interested in two of Chávez's best friends, the Ruiz brothers, than in Chávez himself. Chávez also had his share of social upsets; for example, when a young woman whom he considered attractive refused to pay any attention to him, Chávez found a rotting donkey head on the side of the road and left it in front of her door.[17] Later, Chávez found another girlfriend, Herma Marksman, who helped draft a capstone thesis required of him prior to graduation. Chávez would—after his marriage at age 23.[20] to Nancy Colmenares— later commit adultery with Marksman. His relationship with Marksman lasted nine years.[2][21]

Chávez graduated eighth in his class[2] on 5 July 1975 as a sub-lieutenant with a degree in military arts and science. After receiving his sword of command personally from the hands of President Carlos Andrés Pérez during an annual parade, Chávez entered military service.[22]

Notes

  1. ^ (O'Keefe 2005).
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i (Guillermoprieto 2005).
  3. ^ (Ellner 1999).
  4. ^ a b (Chávez 2005b).
  5. ^ (Chávez 2005).
  6. ^ (Marcano & Barrera Tyszka 2005, p. 56)
  7. ^ (Marcano & Barrera Tyszka 2005, pp. 54–55).
  8. ^ (Chávez 2002).
  9. ^ (Organización Rescate Humboldt 2005).
  10. ^ (Marcano & Barrera Tyszka 2005, pp. 58–59).
  11. ^ (BBC 2005).
  12. ^ a b "Presidente Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías", Gobierno en Línea, Government of Venezuela, 2005, archived from the original on 7 February 2006, retrieved 21 January 2006
  13. ^ (Marcano & Barrera Tyszka 2005, pp. 52–54).
  14. ^ (Gott 2005, p. 35).
  15. ^ a b (Marcano & Barrera Tyszka 2005, pp. 71–72).
  16. ^ (Gott 2005, pp. 35–36).
  17. ^ a b (Marcano & Barrera Tyszka 2005, p. 66).
  18. ^ (Marcano & Barrera Tyszka 2005, p. 77).
  19. ^ (Marcano & Barrera Tyszka 2005, p. 58).
  20. Japanese Foreign Ministry
    : "同じ頃、23歳 のチャベスは、最初の妻となるナンシー・コルメナレス（Nancy Colmenares）と結 婚するが、家族に対しては中立、無党派で通しており、状況によって2つの立場を 使い分けていたようである。"
  21. ^ (Byrne 2005).
  22. ^ (Gott 2005, p. 36).

References

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Early_life_of_Hugo_Chávez&oldid=1273593772"