Family and Education
Rafael Caldera, was born in San Felipe, Yaracuy. His parents were Tomás Rafael Caldera Izaguirre and Rosa Sofía Rodriguez Rivero. Orphaned at a young age, he was adopted by his aunt Maria Eva Rodriguez Rivero, who was married to lawyer Tomás Liscano, and became part of a wealthy Venezuelan Roman Catholic family. He married Alicia Pietri de Caldera (granddaughter of Juan Pietri, and first-cousins with Arturo Uslar Pietri and Andres Boulton Pietri) in 1941 with whom he had six children: Mireya, Juan José, Rafael Tomás, Alicia Helena, Cecilia, and Andrés Antonio Caldera Pietri.
Caldera attended elementary school in San Felipe 1921–1922, entered San Ignacio school of the Society of Jesus in Caracas 1923–1925, in 1926 returned to Yaracuy studying at Padre Delgado school, and secondary education again in Caracas (San Ignacio school) 1927–1931, made his superior studies in this city, at the Central University of Venezuela (UCV) 1931–1938, obtained a doctorate in the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, later was professor of sociology and law in several universities including the UCV, where he was a student leader, which took him into the political world.
Due to his education, Caldera was fluent in languages including French, English, Italian, while being somewhat fluent in German and Portuguese. Caldera was also a leading student on the 19th century humanist and educator Andrés Bello and wrote multiple books on politics, literature and Christian Democracy, and was a member of the Venezuelan Academy of the Language. As such, one of his achievements is the acceptance of millardo ("milliard", 109) by the Royal Spanish Academy in 1995 as an alternative to mil millones (in English: one billion).
Caldera participated in educative and political circles, like the direction of the Venezuelan Institute of Labor rights (1958–1966) and the presidencies of the Venezuelan Association of Sociology (1958–1967), the Christian Democratic Organization of Latin America (1964–1968) and the Worldwide Christian Democratic Union (1967–1968).
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