Arturo Uslar Pietri

Arturo Uslar Pietri was the quintessential Venezuelan man of letters, whose long life became a mirror for his country's turbulent 20th century. He burst onto the literary scene as a young diplomat in Paris, co-founding the influential literary magazine *Revista de América*. His 1931 novel *Las Lanzas Coloradas* is often cited as a precursor to Latin American magical realism, blending historical epic with a mythic sensibility. Politics pulled him in; he served as a minister of education, of finance, and even ran for president in 1963, narrowly losing. Undeterred by political setbacks, he reinvented himself as a formidable public intellectual. His television program *Valores Humanos* (Human Values), a series of lectures on history and culture, made him a familiar face in households for decades. Uslar Pietri consistently argued for Venezuela's development through its own intellectual and oil resources, coining the enduring phrase 'sembrar el petróleo'—to sow the oil.