Alberto Arvelo Torrealba
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Alberto Arvelo Torrealba (Barinas, Venezuela, September 4, 1905 - Caracas, March 28, 1971) was a Venezuelan lawyer, educator and poet, author of the famous poem Florentino y El Diablo.
Torrealba went to primary school in his native city whereas, he went to Caracas to attend secondary school, where he graduates in 1927, went to college at the Central University of Venezuela, where he received the lawyer degree and later doctor in political sciences in 1935. Poet of the venezuelan plains traditions, he publishes his first volume of verses, Música de Cuatro, in 1928. Dedicated to teaching, he taught classes in Castilian and Literature in several schools of the metropolitan area of Caracas, (1935-1936): School of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Sucre school, Pedagogical Institute, Caracas grammar school, Andrés Bello and Fermín Toro. Technical inspector of secondary education in the Federal District, also was inspector of primary school in Barinas and Apure (1936), soon is named secretary of government of the Portugesa state, (1937). He was the president of the Technical Council of Education in 1940. In that same year publishes his Glosas al cancionero, that constitutes a folkloric poetry model, and in where in addition, published the first version of his poem Florentino y El Diablo. Between 1941 and 1944 was the president of the Barinas state. During his government, cleaned the channels of the rivers Pagüey and Masparro and restore the commercial routes in the west plains. He was a full member of the Court of Appeals (1948).
Also was ambassador of Venezuela in Bolivia from 1951 to 1952 and Italy in 1952, also Minister of Agriculture from 1952 to 1955. Retired of the politics, dedicates to the exercise of his profession and his literary vocation. Translator of Giuseppe Ungaretti (1969), publishes a study on the poet Francisco Lazo Martí (1965) and reunites his Obra poética in (1967). On May 31, 1968, was incorporated like an Individual number number of the Venezuelan Academy of Language. Between the main works of Arvelo Torrealba they appear: Caminos que andan; Cantas, poems:Florentino y el diablo; Lazo Martí: vigencia en lejanía; Música de Cuatro and Obra Poética.
