Manuela Sáenz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Manuela Sáenz

Doña Manuela Sáenz de Thorne (born December 27, 1797 in Quito , today's Ecuador ; † November 23, 1856 in Paita , Peru ), Libertadora del Libertador , was a South American freedom fighter and lover of the South American liberation hero Simón Bolívar (1783-1830).

Manuela Saénz is seen as the first feminist on the American continent and as a "major fighter for the liberation of South America". The Venezuelan historian Denzil Romero calls her "perhaps the most important woman in the history of Latin America " and says that she "had even more political influence than Evita Perón ."

Life

Manuela was born out of wedlock in 1797 to the married Spanish nobleman Simón Sáenz Vergara and the local María Joaquina Aizpuru in Quito. Her mother was rejected by her simple family and the young Manuelita was sent to school in the convent of Santa Caterina. She was forced to leave the convent at the age of 17 when her affair with an army officer was discovered.

In the following years she lived with her father, who in 1817 arranged her marriage to the wealthy English merchant Jaime Thorne, who was twice her age. She moved with him to Lima in 1819 , where she lived like an aristocrat and gave receptions in her house where important politicians and officers also frequented. These guests also exchanged military secrets about the progress of the revolution and after Simón Bolívar was involved in the successful liberation of New Granada in 1819 , Manuela Sáenz took an active part in the conspiracy against the Peruvian viceroy José de la Serna in 1820 .

In 1822 she separated from her husband and was one of the first women to receive the Peruvian Order of El Sol in gratitude for her services during the revolution. In June 1822 she accompanied her father to Quito and met Simón Bolívar there. Both were immediately drawn to each other. In the following eight years, she devoted her life to the common liberation struggle. The love letters written to each other are known. Sáenz accompanied Bolívar on his military campaigns through South America and supported the cause of the revolution by collecting information, distributing leaflets and campaigning for women's rights.

In the spring of 1825 and then from February to September 1826, she lived with Bolívar in a palace near Lima until Bolívar had to flee due to the civil war situation. On September 25, 1828 mutinous officers attempted an attack on Bolívar, but with Manuela Sáenz's help, the latter was able to escape. This earned her the nickname "Libertadora del Libertador" (Liberator of the Liberator). She was caught herself and had to leave the country for Jamaica , but later returned to Quito and then went to Bogotá in what is now Colombia .

Bolívar left Colombia in 1830 and likely died of tuberculosis en route to the Caribbean without Manuela Sáenz receiving any of his inheritance. She attempted suicide and went into exile in Peru that same year , where she lived until the end of her life in the small northern Peruvian coastal town of Paita . For those last 25 years, impoverished and despised, she made a living selling tobacco and translating love letters that North American whalers wrote to their South American lovers.

In 1847 her husband was murdered in Pativilca , but she refused to accept any of the inheritance he had left her. Physically handicapped after falling from her domestic staircase, Manuelita died in Paita on November 23, 1856 as a result of a diphtheria epidemic. Her body was buried in a mass grave. In the course of fighting the disease, her property, including Bolívar's love letters, was burned.

Manuela Sáenz Museum

The Museo Manuela Sáenz on Calle Junin in the San Marcos district in the historic old town of Quito displays testimonies of their lives, pictures, stamps and personal items.

Secondary literature

  • Sarah Chambers: Republican Friendship. Manuela Saenz Writes Women into the Nation, 1835-1856 . In: Hispanic American Historical Review. Vol. 81, No. 2, May 2001, pp. 225-257.
  • Victor Wolfgang von Hagen : Manuela's seasons of love. Manuela Saenz and Simón Bolívar (in the original: The Four Seasons of Manuela ). Rowohlt, Reinbek 1967 (biography).
  • Gregory Kauffman : Manuela. RLN Press, Seattle, WA 1999, ISBN 0-9704250-0-7 ( English reading sample ).
  • Pamela S. Murray: “Loca” or “Libertadora”? Manuela Sáenz in the Eyes of History and Historians, 1900 – c.1990. In: Journal of Latin American Studies. Vol. 33, 2001, pp. 291-310.

Biographical Films

radio play

Web links

Commons : Manuela Sáenz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Source is missing!
  2. ↑ Museo Manuela Sáenz. ( Memento of the original from February 3, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Sistema de Museos Quito (Spanish). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.museosquito.gob.ec
  3. ↑ Museo Manuela Sáenz. Eventseeker.com (English).
personal data
SURNAME Sáenz, Manuela
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sáenz de Thorne, Doña Manuela (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South American freedom fighter
DATE OF BIRTH December 27, 1797
PLACE OF BIRTH Quito , Ecuador
DATE OF DEATH November 23, 1856
Place of death Paita , Peru