Carlos Stohr Breuer

• Name — Carlos Stohr • Native Name — Karel Franšitek Stöhr Breuer • Other Names — Tacaricheco • Born — September 29, 1931 • Birthplace — Prague, Czechoslovakia • Died — December 24, 2017 (aged 86) • Place of death — Caracas, Venezuela • Occupation — Engineer, painter, writer, chronicler • Spouse — Karen Fossing • Children — 4 - Martin, Niels, Diana, Karina

Stohr was born on 29 September 1931 in Prague to Franšitek Josef Stöhr and Maria Breuer. After World War II, the family emigrated to Venezuela in 1947 to escape war and communism, settling in El Trompillo, Carabobo State. He studied at the Don Bosco secondary school in Valencia and the Simón Bolívar secondary school in San Cristóbal, completing his studies in 1951. In 1959, he graduated as a surveying engineer (agrimensor) from the Central University of Venezuela, where he later taught. He worked on several urban development projects in Caracas, including the Ciudad Satélite La Trinidad residential complex.

In 1953, Stohr visited Margarita Island for the first time and fell in love with it. He returned repeatedly over the following decades and settled there permanently at the age of 75 (around 2006), devoting himself to documenting the history and culture of Nueva Esparta. The village of Tacarigua held a special place in his life, which he described as "his other love." There he forged close friendships with chronicler José Joaquín Salazar Franco — known by his hypocoristic Cheguaco — for whom he produced 286 illustrations for six books on Margaritan customs and traditions, and with Pedro Rivero Navarro, with whom he worked at the National Agrarian Institute. His daughter Karina recalls that every visit to the island included an obligatory stop in Tacarigua.

In 1958, Stohr married Karen Fossing, a Danish national. They had four children: Martin, Niels, Diana and Karina. A man of wide-ranging talents, he spoke six languages and sang the traditional Venezuelan galerón in all of them. In his youth he was an accomplished diver and represented Venezuela at the 1955 Pan American Games in Mexico City, where he won a silver medal in springboard diving. He also played bridge in international tournaments, collected vintage automobiles — part of his collection was donated to the Caracas Transport Museum — and was an avid philatelist. He died on 24 December 2017 in Caracas, aged 86.

It was José Joaquín Salazar Franco who first proposed Stohr as Graphic Chronicler of Margarita in 1993. The Association of Chroniclers of Nueva Esparta formally recognized him in 1996, and in 1999, at the 29th Convention of Official Chroniclers of Venezuela held in Mérida, he was sworn in as the only Graphic Chronicler in the country's history. He was a member of the Association of Writers of Nueva Esparta, the Venezuelan Association of Plastic Artists — Nueva Esparta Section (AVAPNE), the Venezuelan Association of Watercolorists (AVA), the Circle of Draftsmen of Nueva Esparta (CIRDINE) and the Circle of Drawing of Caracas.