Rómulo Gallegos

Romulo Gallegos was a Venezuelan novelist and politician, born in 1884 and died in 1969, considered the most important Venezuelan novelist of the twentieth century and a prominent figure in Latin American literature. Beginning his career as a schoolteacher, writer and journalist, he achieved international recognition with the 1929 novel Dona Barbara, whose criticism of dictatorship forced him into exile in Spain, where he continued writing further acclaimed novels including Cantaclaro and Canaima. In 1948 he became the first freely elected president in Venezuelan history, only to be removed from office after nine months in a military coup, making him one of the rare cases of a major novelist who also served as a head of state.