Rafael Bento y Travieso

He was born in Guía de Gran Canaria on 2 August 1782. In his hometown he studied the first letters. In 1797 his father requested his son's admission to the Seminary, and he entered it in December of that year. In 1803 he returned to Guía, married the following year, and in 1805 he joined the Provincial Regiment of Guía as a cadet. His military duties did not prevent him from developing his poetic vocation. His muse would encompass everything: the political, the religious, the civil, the everyday.

In 1806 the poet Bento had his first run-ins with the Inquisition, and from then until 1819 his name was present in several cases brought against him by the Holy Office, as his liberal disposition, his avant-garde ideas and his enlightened education were the focus of the inquisitors' investigations. From 1816 to 1818 the poet travelled around the Iberian Peninsula, visiting Seville, Barcelona and Madrid. He spent the last years of his life in his hometown, serving for a time as secretary of the Gáldar Town Council.

Through his work he denounced the felling of the forest of Doramas, praised the figure of General Tomás Morales on his return from America, praised the work of the militiamen of Guía, satirised certain military, civil and ecclesiastical figures, mainly from Guía and Gáldar.  

Rafael Benito y Travieso died on 26 November 1831 in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, at the age of 49.