La Perricholi
María Micaela Villegas y Hurtado de Mendoza , called La Perricholi (born September 18, 1748 in Tomayquichua or in Lima , Peru ; † May 30, 1819 ibid) was an actress and, as the mistress of Viceroy Manuel de Amat y Juniet, one of the most famous personalities in the 18th century Peru. Her son Manuel de Amat y Villegas was one of the signatories of the Peruvian Declaration of Independence on July 28, 1821.
Life
La Perricholi was born in humble circumstances as the sixth child of Don José Villegas and Doña Teresa Hurtado de Mendoza. She learned to read and write, was passionate about literature and made her debut on the stage of the Coliseo de Comedias at the age of 15 (1763). For 14 years she was the official mistress of the viceroy, to whom she gave birth to the son Manuel in 1769. Her self-confident demeanor at the side of the viceroy and her impulsive character made her unpopular in the aristocracy, which she especially felt after the viceroy was recalled. The episode after which she is said to have given her golden car to a pastor of the poor shows the spontaneously charitable side of her character. Although she was considered a famous beauty, no portraits of her are known. In 1788 she retired from the stage, but bought a theater, the Real Coliseo de la Comedia, together with Vicente Fermín de Echarri, whom she married in 1795. Her son Manuel tried in vain to become the only (albeit illegitimate) son of the viceroy after his death in Spain.
The fate of Perricholi served as the basis for Prosper Mérimée's comic one-act play Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement in 1830 , which again served as a template for Jacques Offenbach's operetta La Périchole (1868) and Jean Renoir's film Le Carrosse d'or (1953) with Anna Magnani served in the main role. Perricholi also plays an essential role in Thornton Wilder's novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey .
There were film adaptations of Wilder's novel in 1929, 1944 and 2008.
literature
- Luis Alberto Sánchez: La Perricholi , Univ. Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, 1955.
- Carlos Pardo Figueroa: El Virrey Amat y su tiempo , Pontificia Univ. Católica de Chile, Santiago 2005
- Carmen Márquez Montes: Mujer y teatro en Hispanoamérica: una visión panorámica , Revista Ciber Humanitatis Nº 35, Santiago 2005
- Thornton Wilder: El Puente de San Luis Rey
- Alonso Cueto: La Perricholi - Reina de Lima (2019)
Web links
- Tradiciones Peruanas: Genialidades de la Perricholi
- Tradiciones Peruanas: ¡Pues bonita soy yo, la Castellanos!
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | La Perricholi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Villegas y Hurtado, María Michaela |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Peruvian actress and mistress of the viceroy |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 18, 1748 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lima |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 30, 1819 |
| Place of death | Lima |