José Ignacio Cabruja Lofiego (July 17, 1937 – October 21, 1995 in Porlamar, Margarita Island) was a Venezuelan playwright, theater director, chronicler, soap opera writer, drama librettist, screenplay writer, radio moderator, humanist and political campaigns designer. He is considered as one of the founder and innovator of the modern telenovela genre in Latin America and he's called the "Maestro de las Telenovelas."

Biography

José Ignacio Cabrujas was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He spent his childhood in the Caracas neighborhood of Catia. His parents was José Ramón Cabruja Esteso and Matilde Lofiego of Cabruja. His original name is "Cabruja" so he was changed it when he lived a singular anecdote during his tenure in the Teatro Universitario (TU). The confusion arises from the renowned journalist Lorenzo Batallán, who published a note on the performance of Cabrujas in TU, adding the "S". Apparently the young actor was pleased and decided to continue using the 'S', so he came to be known as "José Ignacio Cabrujas."

He decided to be a writer on his youth, when he just finished reading Les Miserables by Victor Hugo . In fact, he couldn't stop crying and involved in exaltation he said: "This is what I want to do in life; these letters, these pages have produced in me all this emotion ...it's a miracle; I want to be part of that miracle"

In 1946, his sister Martha Cabruja [1] was born . Today she's dedicated to the plastic arts.

In 1956, thanks to a grant he began studying law at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. After two years of studying law his second brother, Francisco Cabrujas was born (Today, he's dedicated to film and soap opera's scoring ). But José Ignacio's raid in the university theater reveals his true vocation and then he left the University.

He married three times: Democracia Lopez (1960-1965), Eva Ivanyi [2] (who was his Costume maker and Producer), and the famous Venezuelan singer, musicologist and choral director Isabel Palacios (1985 - 1990). Also he had 2 sons: Juan Francisco Cabruja (1961) y Diego Cabruja (1987)

Man of immense culture and wit, he had a passion for opera, theater and literature.