When Juan Vicente turned 25, his father told him that the company of a woman was necessary to be a complete man, but at the time he still didn’t have a woman whom he liked. Around that time, his brother Miguel lived in the nearby village of Los Paujiles, and Juan Vicente started working for him. One day, while visiting the house of Bartolomé García to carry a load of panela (an unrefined whole cane sugar) sent by his brother Miguel, he saw a girl with whom he fell in love. He learned her name was Ediofina, the daughter of Bartolomé García and Victoria Carrero, and he remembered her, saying: “Oh, how time flies! Like she was just a little cart yesterday” (They had previously met while they were children). A week later, he visited them again with his father, but this time to ask for Ediofina’s hand. After having spoken with Juan Vicente’s father, Bartolomé told Juan Vicente how they would also have to talk with Ediofina’s mother too. Her mother, Victoria, told him that Ediofina was old enough, but the young couple should get to know each other a little better first. After that day, Juan Vicente and Ediofina dated for three years before being married. Weeks before the wedding, they went to the city of La Grita, alongside Ediofina’s mother Victoria. They went to look for the fabrics for Ediofina’s dress and Juan Vicente’s liqui liqui (the Venezuelan national costume for men). On 28 January 1938, the couple was married in the church of Queniquea by Father José Ignacio Moncada. After the marriage, the couple settled for a while in La Hoyada while Juan Vicente was finishing their new house on the Caricuena site. Their first child was born in Los Paujiles – a son whom he named José Juan (José was based on Saint Joseph to whom Juan Vicente became devoted, while Juan was the name of his ancestor from the 18th century).