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

Andrea Ricaurte de Lozano

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: Unknown

Events:

Connections:

Texts:
1875 - Testimonio

Biography:
She married Judas Tadeo Lozano, was widowed in 1853 and died in 1872. (Monsalve, 263)

She was part of the González Manrique, Alvarez, Ricaurte, París, Pardo, Nariño clan. (Monsalve, 139)

She was probably connected to José María Lozano and to José Antonio and Juan Esteban Ricaurte, who both attended the Nariño tertulias.

Related to Antonia Ricaurte? She was among a group of women who marched through the streets of Bogotá against the Spanish government on 20 July 1810. She married Judas Tadeo Lozano in 1809. Lozano's family all supported the independence movement. Her home became a centre of conspiracy in which La Pola played a leading role. She gathered arms for the patriots and distributed messages. (Monsalve, 85, 87-88, 263)

Her home was a centre of underground anti-royalist activities for the independence movement. Policarpa Salavarrieta ("La Pola") was arrested there in 1817. (Knaster, 488-489.)

La Pola was being persecuted by the authorities of her town of Guaduas, and Ricaurte's compadres Ambrosio Almeida and José Ignacio Rodríguez asked Ricaurte to take her into her home. Ricaurte describes La Pola as in her 20s, "joven, bien parecida, viva, inteligente, de color aperlada". Her house was used as a posada by campesinos who brought messages and news of the patriots. She also held tertulias there. She kept lists of the soldiers, contributions to the independence cause and messages from the chiefs at Ricaurte's home. Ricaurte managed to destroy these when La Pola was arrested. (Arciniegas, 80, 82-84.)

When she was aged 20 La Pola moved to Bogotá and together with Andrea Ricaurte de Lozano, Carmen Rodríguez de Gaitan and Juana Petronila Nava de García Evía formed a revolutionary group. They passed information on about the guerrillos de Casanare, royalist troops, state of arms, forces and municions. (Zabala, 40-42)

Carmen Rodríguez de Gaitan was her comadre. The two ran a house that was a spy network centre, where independence meetings were held and at which funds were gathered for the patriot troops. (Monsalve, 190)

Monsalve repeats her testimony of 20 April 1875 (in texts below). (Monsalve, 191-195)

References:

Romero de Valle, Emilia (editor). (1948) Mujeres de América
Arciniegas, Germán (1961) América mágica: II Las mujeres y las horas
Davies, Catherine, Brewster, Claire and Owen, Hilary (2006) South American Independence. Gender, Politics, Text
Díaz y Díaz, Oswaldo (1962) Los Almeydas: Episodios de la resistencia patriota contra el ejército pacificador de tierra firme
Knaster, Meri (1977) Women in Spanish America: An Annotated Bibliography from Pre-Conquest to Contemporary Times
Monsalve, José D (1926) Mujeres de la independencia