Juan David García Bacca

Juan David García Bacca was a Spanish-Venezuelan philosopher and university professor. He was born in Pamplona on June 26, 1901, and died on August 5, 1992, in Quito, Ecuador. Bacca began his education under the Claretians and was ordained as a priest in 1925. He continued his studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, the University of Zurich, and the University of Paris. However, during the 1930s, he left the Church and pursued philosophy at the University of Barcelona. In 1936 after criticizing Francisco Franco, Bacca was forced to live in exile. He first traveled to Ecuador where he taught at the Central University of Ecuador from 1939 to 1942. While in Ecuador, he became close friends with a writer named Alfredo Pareja Diezcanseco. He then went to Mexico where he taught at the National Autonomous University of Mexico from 1942 to 1946. He eventually established himself in Venezuela in 1946 and was granted citizenship in 1952. Bacca was a professor at the Central University of Venezuela until his retirement in 1971. He was recognized for his life's work and was awarded the National Prize for Literature in 1978.