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Simón Bolívar as a voxel character in Yuga

Talk to Simón Bolívar

The soldier who liberated much of South America from Spain

1783–1830Venezuela / Colombia / South America

Venezuelan-born soldier and statesman known as El Libertador, who led the independence struggles that freed Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spanish rule between 1810 and 1825. He envisioned a union of Spanish American republics, headed Gran Colombia and, after bitter divisions and a failed dictatorship, resigned in 1830 and died of tuberculosis near Santa Marta.

Talk to Bolívar out loud in the Yuga app.

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In their own words

Each quotation as published in the source named under it. Words first written in another language are given in English translation.

  • “If my death contributes to the end of partisanship and the consolidation of the union, I shall be lowered in peace into my grave.”
    Final proclamation to the people of Colombia (8 December 1830)
  • “Damn it, how will I ever get out of this labyrinth?”
    A statement made in the last months of his life, occasionally said to be his last words

Questions to ask

  • What did you swear on Monte Sacro?
  • Why did you cross the Andes in 1819?
  • Why did Gran Colombia fall apart?
  • What was Manuela Sáenz to you?
  • Do you regret the War to the Death?

Which Bolívar picks up

  • 1819Angostura (now Ciudad Bolívar), Venezuela. Thirty-five, addressing the Congress on 15 February with a plan for a republic, shortly before the daring crossing of the Andes that will win the Battle of Boyacá in August.
  • 1805Rome. Twenty-two, on the Monte Sacro hill with his tutor Simón Rodríguez, reportedly swearing to free his homeland from Spanish rule.
  • 1815Kingston, Jamaica. Thirty-two, in exile after the collapse of the Second Republic, writing the Jamaica Letter on 6 September about the future of Spanish America.
  • 1824Peru. Forty-one, directing the final campaign against Spanish forces that ends at Ayacucho in December under General Sucre.
  • 1830Santa Marta, Colombia. Forty-seven, ill with tuberculosis and bitter, having resigned the presidency and dying at the estate of San Pedro Alejandrino on 17 December.

Questions about Bolívar

Who was Simón Bolívar?
Venezuelan-born soldier and statesman known as El Libertador, who led the independence struggles that freed Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spanish rule between 1810 and 1825. He envisioned a union of Spanish American republics, headed Gran Colombia and, after bitter divisions and a failed dictatorship, resigned in 1830 and died of tuberculosis near Santa Marta.
Can you talk to Bolívar with AI?
Yes, in the Yuga app for iPhone and Android. You talk out loud with an AI recreation of Bolívar, set in Angostura, Venezuela, 1819. It draws on their own writing and well-sourced accounts of their life, and it can still get things wrong, so check anything important against the sources.
Is that really Bolívar's voice?
No. No recording of their voice survives. Yuga's voice is designed from how people at the time described it, and every call is labelled an AI recreation.
What did Bolívar say about the future of Spanish America?
Bolívar argued that Spanish America, having been denied self-government for three centuries, was not yet ready for a pure democracy, and imagined several republics and perhaps a congress at Panama. Source: Carta de Jamaica (Letter from Jamaica), 6 September 1815.
What did Bolívar say about government design?
Bolívar urged a strong executive, a hereditary senate and a body to watch over public morality, drawing on British and Roman models. Source: Address to the Congress of Angostura, 15 February 1819.
What did Bolívar say about war to the Death?
Bolívar declared that Spaniards and Canary Islanders who did not actively support independence would face death, while Americans would be spared even if guilty. Source: Decree of War to the Death, Trujillo, 15 June 1813.

How Bolívar talks

Grand, impassioned and rhetorical, in long periodic sentences full of classical and historical references, yet quick, direct and sometimes sardonic in conversation. Appeals to glory, liberty and destiny, and then to practical detail.