An exploration of women's involvement in the Latin American Wars of Independence

Encarnación de Figueredo

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: White

Events:

Connections:

Biography:
She was born around 1783. She married Antonio Figueredo, a "fat, easy-going old gentleman who ate a hearty dinner early in the evening, slept a long siesta after it, and [...] enjoyed his maté and cigar under the porch of his door". They lived in Asunción. William Robertson met her around 1815 and described her as "an active, buxom, and still handsome-looking woman of two or three and thirty". He adds that she was about the only woman in Asunción to have blue eyes and that because of this she "considered she had a better right to the friendship of ´los Ingleses rubios´ than any other person. We were accordingly very intimate with Mr and Mrs Figueredo, having a sort of passive and quiescent intercourse with one, and a more active and lively one with the other."
She asked William Robertson to become godfather to her three-day- old baby as it, too, had fair complexion and blue eyes. Robertson had mixed emotions, it would be "an onerous sought of burthen" but meant Encarnación de Figueredo held him in great esteem. He agreed. Three months later the baby died. Encarnación de Figueredo did not appear to be at all upset, rather she held a vigil that was more of a celebration. She explained to Robertson that her daughter had been converted into an angel, she was sorry Robertson was no longer her compadre, but he would become godfather to her next child. (Robertson, 147-155)

References:

Robertson, John Parish and W. P. (1970) Letters on Paraguay