<sod>Guillermo Arévalo Valera was born in a village near [[Pucallpa]] in 1952. His father, Benito Arévalo, was a vegetalista,<ref name="james"/> but Arévalo Valera went to work in Pucallpa. There he had a son, James, in 1972.<ref name="james"/><eod>
<sod>Guillermo Arévalo Valera was born in the village of Yarinacocha{{sfn |Caruso |2005 |p=65}} in 1952. He is the son of Benito Arévalo Barbarán and María Valera Teco. At age seven, he was matriculated into a [[Catholic school|Catholic]] [[mission school]] near Puerto Inca, a village on the bank of the [[Pachitea River]].{{sfn |Caruso |2005 |p=65}} This was a [[boarding school]], and Guillermo lived there until he was 18.{{sfn |Caruso |2005 |p=65}} When this phase of his education was complete, his parents pressed him to go to Brazil to study [[nursing]].{{sfn |Caruso |2005 |p=65}} However, he cut his nursing studies short and returned to Yarinacocha, where he accepted a position as a nurse at the Hospital Amazónico.{{sfn |Caruso |2005 |p=65}} It was around this time that he had a son, James, who was born in [[Pucallpa]] in 1972.<ref name="james"/><eod>