Adelante Bilingual publication

BUSCADOR

Bolivar, MO
Habitants: 9,143
Hispanic Habitants: 128

One thing makes Bolivar different from the rest of small town America. Among the barber shops, the wide streets and the geometrically organized gray buildings, the statue of Simón Bolívar, the Latin American counterpart to George Washington, overlooks a city that has grown under his legend. The figure of the Liberator of the Americas is everywhere: on the fire trucks and the branch office of the regional bank, on the logo of the school's sports teams and in the name of the Simon B's restaurant that serves “Liberator Burgers.”
Located in the Ozark Mountains, Bolivar has at least five other homonyms: Bolivars can be found in West Virginia, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Tennessee.
Tennessee was the first to use the name. In the beginning the town was called Hatchie, but later it was changed when the founders heard of the heroism of the South American leader.
Their descendents came to Missouri and formed a town with the same name in 1835. Since then, Bolivar, Mo., has grown into the biggest city with this name in the United States and the one that has the most contact with Venezuela. For more than five decades, the Venezuelan government has strengthened its ties with the city by granting gifts such as two statues of Simón Bolívar, the replica of the Liberator's sword and the Order of the Liberator, one of the highest medals awarded by the Venezuelan government.
The link of this town with its South American counterpart is celebrated every year during the Simon Bolivar Days, which fall during the week of the Fourth of July.
"We are in contact with Venezuela all the time, on different levels," says the mayor of Bolivar, Charles Ealy.

— Suan Pineda

Choose your destination please!