González, Juan Vicente (1810–1866)

Juan Vicente González (b. 28 May 1810; d. 1 October 1866), Venezuelan politician, writer, and journalist. Associated with the Liberals in 1840, González subsequently distanced himself from them to the extent that by 1845 he had become one of their most radical opponents, promulgating his politics through various newspapers: Cicerón y Catilina, Diario de la Tarde, and La Prensa.

González ceased political activity during the regime of José Tadeo Monagas, founded the El Salvador del Mundo school (The Savior of the World School) in 1849, and did an extensive and varied amount of literary and historiographic work. His Biografía de José Felix Ribas (1858) is representative of what is known in Venezuela as romantic historiography. Later on he opposed pro-federation propaganda and, together with defenders of civilian rule during the Federal War (1859–1863), opposed the dictatorship of José Antonio Páez. In 1863 González supported the regime of Juan Crisóstomo Falcón, and then left his public activities to dedicate himself primarily to literary work, founding the Revista Literaria in 1865.

See alsoFederal War (Venezuela 1859–1863); Monagas, Josê Maria.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

See Marco Antonio Saluzzo, Juan Vicente González (1901); Héctor Cuenca, Juan Vicente González (1811–1866) (1953); and Luis Correa, Tres ensayos sobre Juan Vicente González, 1810–1866 (1987). A selection of his most important political and literary writings can be found in Pensamiento político Venezolano del siglo XIX, vols. 2 and 3 (1961).

Additional Bibliography

Caballero, Miguel and Sheila Salazar. Diez grandes polémicas en la historia de Venezuela. Caracas: Fondo Editorial 60 Años, 1999.

Machado Guzmán, Gustavo. Historia gráfica de la Guerra Federal de Venezuela: Período de la federación. Caracas: s.n., 2002.

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