Andrés Eloy Blanco

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Andrés Eloy Blanco
Born	August 6, 1897(1897-08-06) Cumaná, Sucre state
Died	May 21, 1955 (aged 57) Mexico City, Mexico

For Major League Baseball shortstop and switch-hitter batter who plays with the Kansas City Royals of the same name, see Andrés Blanco.

Andrés Eloy Blanco Meaño (Cumaná, Sucre state, Venezuela, August 6, 1897 - Mexico City, Mexico, May 21, 1955) was an important Venezuelan poet, a member of the Generación del 28. A politician, was also the founder of Acción Democrática (AD).

Blanco spent his childhood in the state of Nueva Esparta (Margarita Island), until he moved to Caracas in 1908 to attend the National School, graduates from the Central University of Venezuela with a law degree in 1918. In 1943, he married Liliana Iturbe, with whom had two sons, Luis Felipe and Andrés Eloy Blanco Iturbe.

His great literary talent was recognized from an early age. One of his first poems, "La espiga y el arado", was honored in the Floral Games of Ciudad Bolívar in 1916. In 1921 he published his first book, Tierras que me oyeron. In 1923, was brought to international attention when one of his poems, Canto a España, won a competition promoted by the Real Academia Española, in the city of Santander (Spain).

In 1928, was one of a group of university students who raised against the dictatorship of Juan Vicente Gómez (the Generación del 28) and was subsequently sentenced to seven years imprisonment, at first (1928 - 1933 in La Rotunda, later in the Castillo Libertador of Puerto Cabello (1933-1934). While in prison continued to produce original works, that soon were fixed by his sisters. When he gets sick, is confined to Valera (1935). In the lapse that was prisoner, made contact with the farmers and illiterate workers, which inspired some of his works: Barco de Piedra, Malvina Recobrada (1937), Abigail (1937) and Baedecker 2000.

In these books, used a treatment of the reality that he denominated like colombismo, and that derived from a discoverer attitude of the poet, in contact with the Latin American reality. After the death of Juan Vicente Gómez, initiates his political career in the Partido Democrático Nacional (PDN), is elected president of the Municipal Council of the Federal District, was charter member of Acción Democrática (AD), also participates in the foundation of the humoristic weekly magazine El Morrocoy Azul (1941), deputy by the Federal District (1945) and president of the Constituent National Assembly (1946-1947), evolves as minister of Outer Relations in the Government of Rómulo Gallegos and represents Venezuela in the Assembly of the United Nations (Paris, 1948). After the overthrow of Gallegos, went into exile, in Cuba and Mexico, where he died in an automobile accident.

In 1973, the Venezuelan Congress issued a ten-volume edition of his complete works, five of which gather his journalistic work, that contains short chronicles and texts. In this edition, also were contained his speeches. Andrés Eloy Blanco was a great orator, perhaps one of the best of the Venezuelan XX century. His rest, are at the National Pantheon, since July 2, 1981.