Marco Antonio Rivera Useche

• Name — Marco Antonio Rivera Useche • Born — 19 June 1895 • Birthplace — San Cristóbal, Táchira, Venezuela • Died — 15 July 1990 • Occupation — * Musician • composer • Years Active — 1912–1968 • Style — Classical • Children — 5 • Relatives — Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera (cousin)

Rivera was of humble origins. After completing primary education, he began to work, eventually practicing the trades of carpentry, jewelry, heraldry and shoemaking. In 1910, he began studying music with the Italian master Nicolas Constantino Chicaroni (Bitonto, Italy, 1857 – San Cristóbal, 1927), who had arrived in San Cristóbal in the company of other Italian musicians to be incorporated into the Táchira State Band, including Angelo Mottola (1881–1966), author of the state Hymn of Anzoátegui.

From 1912, Rivera became a full member of the Táchira State band, and from 1913, he started to receive a salary of 100 Venezuelan bolívars per month. In 1916, he was exiled for a short period to Colombia for a confrontation with the president of the state, Eustace Gomez, cousin to the president of Venezuela, Juan Vicente Gómez. On his return, he began to study English with a German professor named Sildner. He again went into exile in Colombia in 1919 but continued his musical studies there. He returned to Venezuela to join a band in Maracaibo with the misfortune that Eustace Gomez was present at the premiere of the band, who had him arrested along with other Táchira musicians. He was taken to San Cristóbal and imprisoned for two years. During his confinement, he began composing his first waltz, and on his release in 1921, he moved back to Maracaibo where he contracted malaria. While in Maracaibo, and through an American friend, he studied orchestration and harmony by correspondence in an American school. He returned to San Cristóbal in 1924, where he dedicated himself to the composition of waltzes, foxtrots and bambucos. In 1927, on the death of Nicolas Constantine, who also directed the Infantil de la Iglesia band, the pastor Maldonado made Rivera responsible for the management of this band. He also took charge of the Táchira Band from 1929.

He married Juanita Moreno Morales in 1937, with whom he had five children.