Venezuela Heroica is a Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

n novel. It was written by Eduardo Blanco

Eduardo Blanco (writer)

Eduardo Blanco , Venezuelan writer and politician, was aide-de-camp to General José Antonio Páez, independence hero and first president of Venezuela after the breakup of Gran Colombia in 1830....

 and published in 1881. It is Blanco's main work, and presents a classic romantic view of history as an epic. Venezuela heroica is structured in five vignettes that depict the main battles and heroes of the Venezuelan War of Independence

Venezuelan War of Independence

-The First Republic:Criollos resented the mercantilist policies of Spain. Trade was only allowed in Pacific ports which was a terrible burden for Argentina, Paraguay and the Caribbean colonies. This is significant as Cuba and Puerto Rico were forced to allow free trade in 1763 by Britain and...

. It was from General José Antonio Páez

José Antonio Páez

José Antonio Páez Herrera was General in Chief of the army fighting Spain during the Venezuelan Wars of Independence, in addition to becoming the President of Venezuela once it was independent of the Gran Colombia...

 himself that Blanco heard the stories of the Battle of Carabobo

Battle of Carabobo

The Battle of Carabobo, 24 June 1821, was fought between independence fighters, led by Simón Bolívar, and the Royalist forces, led by Spanish Field Marshal Miguel de la Torre. Bolívar's decisive victory at Carabobo led to the independence of Venezuela....

, during an encounter with Marshal Juan Crisóstomo Falcón

Juan Crisóstomo Falcón

Juan Crisóstomo Falcón y Zavarce , was the 20th President of Venezuela as well as military commander during the Federal War. Member of the Liberal party, first served as the supreme chief of a rebel movement in August 1859, but the rebellion was soon crushed. After the Coche treaty, is recognized...

 to end the Federal War

Federal War

The Federal War - also known as the Great War or the Five Year War - was a civil war in Venezuela between the conservative party and the liberal party about the monopoly of the conservatives of the land and the government positions, and their reluctance to grant any reforms. This drove the...

 (1859–1863) near the site of the battle. Páez was so moved from his memories of youth, the anecdote goes, that he could not stop telling his aide (Blanco) the details of the battle. It was Falcón who then told Blanco "you are listening to the Iliad

Iliad

The Iliad is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles...

from the very lips of Achilles".