Andrés Bello

Who was Andrés Bello?

Andrés de Jesús María y José Bello López was a humanist, diplomat, poet, legislator, philosopher, educator and philologist, whose political and literary works constitute an important part of Spanish American culture. He was born in what is now Venezuela, then a colony of Spain, but later in life became a citizen of Chile. Bello is featured on the old 2,000 Venezuelan bolívar and the 20,000 Chilean peso notes. There is also a decoration, the Venezuelan Order of Andrés Bello.