Anita Arnon

There is a story that goes behind this legend.

If you have this kind of legendary status, there is a legend that goes with it.

Every child in Latin America certainly knows.

The year is 1805 and this young man from Venezuela stands on a small hill in Rome with two friends.

He looks out into the distance and he makes this grand declaration.

Monte Sacro, the sacred mountain, was a very well-chosen location because the same place in 494 BC, the Roman plebeians revolted against the patrician classes and it was an uprising that changed the course of Roman history.

But this is the year 1805 in the same spot.

This is the place where this young Venezuelan raises his hand, looks wistfully into the distance, and speaks words that will echo across two centuries.

I think you should read them.

He was just a 22-year-old man when he made that statement, Simon Bolivar.

And, Willie, over the next 25 years, he would make good on the promise.

I will tell you why.

Because he would travel in his lifetime more than 75,000 miles on horseback.

Now, just to put that into some context, that is three times the circumference of planet Earth.

And if you're in the saddle for that long, you get an iron ass.

And that's what they called him.

It was a loving moniker for him.

Thank you.

I mean, you know I'm not interested in such things.

He leads armies through crocodile infested jungles, frozen peaks of the Andes.