María Dolores Veintemilla de Galindo

Other names/titles:
Gender: F
Ethnic origin: White

Biographical details

The only daughter of an "honourable family", she was born in Quito in 1829. She was a writer who was extremely beautiful. She married a Colombian medic, Sixto Galindo when she was aged 18. It was not a happy marriage and shortly afterwards she was left on her own to bring up her son. She moved to Guayaquil and later to Cuenca, where she was received with respect in intellectual and social circles. She read French romantics writers, and Spanish mystics. She defended a case of a presumed case of parricide by the father of five children who was condemned to death. This led to extreme criticism by a conservative society. Veintemilla was unable to endure it and committed suicide in 1857, aged 28. (Jiménez, 33-34.)

“La autura había desafiado al sistema legal y a la iglesia con un artículo que criticaba la ejecución de un indígena condenado a muerte por parricidio. La polémica desatada en torno al artículo la empuja al suicidio.” (Arambel-Guiñazú, 58-59.)

Coester states "she staged an unequal battle for better consideration for women in Ecuador. Accused unjustly by a priest she committed suicide, and the only mourner at this suicide was the Chilean poet Guillermo Blest Gana, then minister to Ecuador, who attended in full diplomatic dress." (Coester, 269)