Manuel Carlos Piar (April 28, 1774 – October 16, 1817) was General-in-Chief of the army fighting Spain during the Venezuelan War of Independence.The son of Fernando Piar, a Spanish merchant seaman of Canarian origin and a Dutch mulatta born in Willemstad, Curaçao, Piar grew up as a humble mestizo subject to the discriminating limits imposed by the social norms of colonial times.He arrived in Venezuela with his mother when he was ten years old and set up residence in La Guaira. Without formal schooling he acquired by himself a good level of general knowledge and taught himself several languages. Wikipedia