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

Manuela Beltrán

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: Unknown

Events:

Connections:

Biography:
A former cigarette seller, she led the 1780 comuneros rebellion, a revolt against high taxation. On 16 March 1781 Socorro, Nueva Granada, she tore down a Spanish tax edict to the cheers of a crowd. (Pallis, 24; Pratt, 48)

She had a shop close to the Alcalde's house in which she sold goods from Castille. On 16 March 1781 she tore down the edict bearing the royal seal crying "Viva el Rey y muera el mal Gobierno" before the delighted crowd. An archival search shed no light on who she was nor what happened to her afterwards. All that Monsalve discovered was that she had some short of shop on the main plaza of Socorro and that she must have been a respectful person as she was given the title doña, then reserved for distinguished people. One cronista describes her as a "vieja", but Monsalve finds nothing to substantiate this and claims her enthusiasm and behaviour were not those usually attributed to "viejas". (Monsalve, 5-7)

References:

Bergmann, Emilie; Masiello, Francine; Miller, Francesca; Pratt, Mary Louise; Greenberg, Janet. (editor). (1990) Women, Culture and Politics in Latin America
Davies, Catherine, Brewster, Claire and Owen, Hilary (2006) South American Independence. Gender, Politics, Text
Monsalve, José D (1926) Mujeres de la independencia
Pallis, Michael (trans.) (1980) Slaves of Slaves: The Challenge of Latin American Women