His mother, Rosalia Rodríguez, was the daughter of an owner of farms and livestock; her father was originally from the Canary Islands.

[citation needed] His role in the failed Gual and España conspiracy against the Spanish crown in 1797 forced him to leave Venezuela.

In Kingston, Jamaica he changed his name to Samuel Robinson, and after staying some years in the United States he traveled to France (1801).

But Antonio José de Sucre, president of Bolivia since October 1826, did not have a good relationship with him, and Rodríguez resigned the same year, working during the rest of his life as educator and writer, living alternatively in different places of Peru, Chile and Ecuador.

His work Sociedades Americanas (American Societies) was divided in several issues and published in Arequipa (1828), in Concepción (1834), Valparaíso (1838), and Lima (1842).