In 1907 they found the book of the original Act of Independence

Published at: 23/10/2026 09:07 AM

On October 23, 1907, Ricardo Smith handed a publication to his historian friend Francisco González Guinand, telling him: “Here is the book, it also contains the Act of Independence”.

González commented that as he flipped through the material, his heart beat, because he felt such a strong sense of patriotism.

It was in the house of María Josefina Gutiérrez de Navas Spinola, in Valencia, Carabobo state, hidden between a piano bench, characteristic of colonial furniture, which allowed documents and values to be kept in its background.

The news of the appearance of the Book of Minutes, a manuscript of the Constituent Congress, which included the original of the Solemn Act of the Independence of Venezuela, was reviewed by the press, which generated great joy and patriotic sentiment among the population.

The document was lost after the fall of the First Republic in 1812, when the royalist troops of Monteverde took Valencia, where the National Congress had been installed since February of that year.

After the flight of the deputies, who abandoned the Congress archive and the two minutes books that contained all the provisions they had enacted, the whereabouts of the original manuscript of the 1811 book of Minutes of the Congress, which contains all the decisions taken by that body, was dispelled.

The manuscript is currently in the Elliptical Hall of the Legislative Palace in Caracas under the protection of the Venezuelan State and can be seen by the people.

R MAZO EDITORIAL OFFICE