Rubén Alonso Rosales

Who was Rubén Alonso Rosales?

Rubén Alonso Rosales was one of a six-man junta government that took control of El Salvador by peaceful coup in 1960.

Born in the tiny village of Paraiso De Osorio, La Paz department, El Salvador, to Vicente and Maria Soriano Rosales as the third child of seven. Despite his father's effort to have his male children help in the farm, his mother, a school teacher, insisted that all their children obtain an education and made all efforts to ensure that they obtained at least a high school education, having to send all children to a larger town, Cojutepeque, to achieve that. Showing interest to enter the military at the age of fifteen, his parents worked hard to enroll him into the country's military academy, despite being of little means.

On February 2, 1941, he joined the academy, as one of 124 new recruits. However, by July, his parents could no longer afford his tuition but his stay at the academy was assured when he received one of the two scholarships that were being granted to the new recruits. Also, during his first year at the academy he was befriended by Colonel Óscar Osorio, who was the sub-director of the academy and would later be a member of the Revolutionary Council governing the country and eventually President of the Republic.