José Antonio Caro de Boesi (14/11/1758 - 16/10/1814), a Venezuelan composer; born in Caracas, Venezuela. Musicians of African descent also pursued successful careers in Venezuela. Like Brazil, colonial society in Venezuela was divided into whites (in this case Spanish descent), people of mixed Afro-European descent, slaves, and Indians. During the later half of the eighteenth century a group of Venezuela’s most significant church-music composers formed around the composer Juan Manuel Olivares at the Academia de Musica. According to musicologist Gerard Behague, most of the younger composers of the [group] Escuela de Chacao were "free mulattos, since the circumstance of exercising the music profession put them in a privileged social position. "Prominent Escuela members of African descent included Jose Francisco Velasquez (c. 1755-1805), Jose Antonio Caro de Boesi (c. 1760-1814), Juan Jose Landaeta (c. 1780-1812), and Lino Gallardo (1773-1837).