He was born on May 31, 1902, in
Alessandria della Paglia,
Piedmont region, during the period of the
Kingdom of Italy. His parents were Pietro Lava and Maria Boccardo. As a teenager he was part of the
Italian diaspora that sailed to the
Americas after the
First World War, promoted mainly by the economic crisis of the
interwar period, the rise of
Fascism in
Italy with
Benito Mussolini as the main leader, and the promise of great opportunities for personal growth in the
New World. Upon arriving in
Venezuela in 1921, he settled in
Maracaibo at a time of great economic boom in the
oil industry. He contracted
nuptials in
Maracaibo on October 14, 1931, with Panamanian Dolores Sánchez Martín, from a distinguished family of Spanish immigrants formed by Luis Sánchez Caicedo and Elvira Martín. He procreated two daughters: María Elvira (born in
Maracaibo in 1932), and Luisa Antonia (born in
Maracaibo in 1935); and two sons: Antonio Pedro (born in
Maracay in 1937) and Pedro Alejandro (born in
Maracay in 1940). Between 1935 and 1945 he was the director of the
Maracaibo and Las Delicias (
Maracay) zoos. The latter was originally built to house the personal collection of
Juan Vicente Gómez in a section of the Hacienda Sabana de Paja (later called Las Delicias) in 1915. His wife Dolores Sánchez Martín died suddenly from undetermined causes, on May 11, 1943, in
Maracay. On August 13, 1945, he participated in the inauguration of the El Pinar Zoological Park in
Caracas as director of the new enclosure intended mainly for the exhibition of local wildlife
specimens. The land where this new zoological garden was installed was part of the Hacienda La Vaquera, a property previously owned by
Juan Vicente Gómez which had been confiscated in 1935. On June 13, 1950, the Government of the
United States of Venezuela issued the decree by which it issued a naturalization letter and granted him Venezuelan citizenship. That act determined his resignation to his
Italian citizenship. He died on August 16, 1971, at the age of 69 in the
Military Hospital of
Caracas as a consequence of a
stroke. == References ==