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

Sor Tadea de San Joaquín (García de la Huerta)

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Sor Tadia

Sor Tadia

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: White

Events:

Connections:

Texts:
1784 - Romance
1784 - Romance

Biography:
Her parents were both from wealthy families in Santiago de Chile. She entered the Monasterio del Carmen de San Rafael, Santiago, on 4 November 1770 and was noted for her intelligence and ingenuity. On 16 June 1783 the Mapocho River burst its banks and flooded the convent. The nuns cells were under water; they managed to escape with the help of a Franciscan monk who waded waist-deep through the water to meet them. They were housed in the Casa de Observancia while the convent was repaired. Sor Tadea wrote a poem about this event and sent it to her confessor who gave it to one of her relatives. It was published in Lima in 1784 and in Santiago de Chile in 1862. (Urzana y Adriasola, 13-14)

Uribe Echevarría notes that Sor Tadea's confessor, fray Manuel de la Puente, was aware of her talent and had asked her to compose religious poems. She resisted and fray de la Puente enforced the rule of obedience to insist that her "Romance" was written very quickly. Less than one week later, she sent her "Romance" to de la Puente who was absent. The poem was passed around, ending up with her brother who had it published in Lima. (Uribe Echevarria, 166-167)

A poet who narrated the inundation of the Convent San Rafael by the Mapocho River in 1784. This is considered to be the first poem by a Chilean woman. (Knaster, 75.)

She was inspired by the 1606 poem "El temblor de Lima" by Pedro de Oña, also Juan del Valle Caviedes (1652?-1697?) who wrote about an earthquake in Lima on 20 October 1687, and by Rasco histórico sobre la ruina de Lima e inundación del Callao (author and date unknown). (Uribe Echeverría, 170, 172)

She died on 24 December 1827.

References:

Davies, Catherine, Brewster, Claire and Owen, Hilary (2006) South American Independence. Gender, Politics, Text
Knaster, Meri (1977) Women in Spanish America: An Annotated Bibliography from Pre-Conquest to Contemporary Times
Uribe Echeverría, Juan (1963) El Romance de Sor Tadea de San Joaquín
Urzua, María, and Adriasola, Ximena (1963) La mujer en la poesía chilena, Antología 1784-1961
Vera Lamperein, Lina (1994) Presencia femenina en la literatura nacional: Una trayectoria apasionante 1750-1991