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

Author: Flora Tristán Y Moscoso

Type of publication: Book

Title: Peregrinations of a Pariah

Year of publication: 0

Place created: Paris

Language: English

Location of text: Extract from Jean Hawkes, (ed.),Peregrinations of a Pariah, pp.302-305. in University Library, Cambridge

Abstract: Descriptions of Francisca Zubiaga de Gamarra

Content:
Flora Tristán describes her, giving a childhood friend of Pencha Gamarra as her source:

Pencha was very devout and when aged 12 she wanted to enter a convent and become a nun. When she was 17 her parents made her return home due to her poor health. Many officers wanted to marry her. Her father took her to Lima to restore her health and introduced her to society. After 2 years she returned to Cuzco.

"[She married] an ugly, stupid little officer, the least distinguished of all her suitors [...] a humble captain". [... Pencha was] still in poor health and nearly always pregnant" [...but followed Gamarra] wherever the war took him".

She thus gained sufficient strength to conceal her illness and it was only after Gamarra became president that it became public knowledge.

"Her solicitation and intriguing had raised her husband to the presidency, and once he was installed she took [Bernardo] Escudero as her confidant and skilfully exploited everybody she thought capable of furthering her interests. [...] This woman, raised in a convent, without education, but gifted with a strong, moral sense and an uncommonly powerful will, governed a people even Bolívar found ungovernable with such success that in less than a year order was restored, rival factions were tamed, trade flourished, the army regained confidence in its leaders; and even if parts of Peru were still unsettled, most of the country enjoyed peace." (pp.302-305)

She suffered from epileptic fits that worsened and were apparently brought on by strong emotions: "You can judge what an obstacle it has been to my career. Our soldiers are so badly trained and our officers so cowardly that in every serious engagement I had to take command myself. For the past ten years, long before I had any hope of getting my husband nominated president, I have taken part in every battle to accustom myself to fire. Often when the fight was fiercest I would grow so angry at the apathy and cowardice of the troops under my command that I would foam with rage and then I would have one of my attacks. I had only enough time to throw myself onto the ground; several times I was trampled by the horses and carried off for dead by my servants."

Tristán claims that Gamarra had said that her enemies spread rumours that these symptoms weren’t caused by any illness, but fear :
"The noise of the cannon, and the smell of gunpowder were attacking my nerves and making me faint away like some little lady of fashion!" (Tristán, 300)

Tristán was deeply affected by her two meetings with Gamarra:
"It wrung my heart to see one of God’s élite, herself a victim of the very qualities which set her apart from her fellow creatures, forced by the fears of a cowardly people to flee her country, abandon her family and friends, and go, stricken with the most frightful infirmity, to end her painful existence in exile." (Tristán, 302)

With such a character, Doña Pencha seemed destined to continue the work of Bolívar for many years to come, and she would certainly have done so had not her all too feminine exterior stood in her way. She was beautiful, she could be very gracious when she chose, and she had the power to inspire great passion. Her enemies spread the vilest slanders about her and, finding it easier to attack her morals than her political actions, attributed various vices to her to console themselves for her superiority.

[...]She was intoxicated by her power and convinced that she belonged to a superior order of creation. Ministers had to submit every act of congress to her scrutiny; she struck out any passages which did not suit her and substituted her own, so that in the end she became an absolute ruler within a constitutional republic."

Tristán saw in Pencha Gamarra, "all the virtues necessary for the exercise of power at this stage of Peru’s development, but her harshness created an opposition so strong to oppose her. To retain power she resorted to a trick. Realising he wouldn’t be re-elected, President Gamarra claimed ill-health prevented him from running for office and the Gamarras gave their support to their friend Bermúdez. In exile in Valparaiso, she lived with Escudero and other retainers in a splendid furnished house, but Valparaiso society shunned her, as did foreigners living their and most of her former comrades. She died 7 weeks after leaving Callao. (Tristán, 302-305)

Texts written by Flora Tristán Y Moscoso:
Peregrinations of a Pariah
Peregrinations of a Pariah
1838 - Peregrinations of a Pariah