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

María Josefa Zozaya

Other names: The Maid of Monterrey

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: Unknown

Events:

Connections:

Biography:
She was killed in the battle of Monterrey in 1846 while tending to the wounded soldiers of both armies. She is described as the “beau-ideal of heroism” and the “Heroine Martyr of Monterey”. The Reverend James Gilborne Lyons wrote a poem about her in 1849:

“Far greater than the wise or brave,
Far happier than the fair and gay,
Was she, who found a martyr’s grave
On that red field of Monterey”. (Johannsen, 137.)

An anonymous American soldier described the following: “Hungry and cold I crept to one corner of the fort to get in the sunshine and at the same time shelter from the bombs that were flying thick around me. I looked out, and, some two or three hundred yards from the fort, I saw a Mexican female carrying water and food to the wounded men of both armies. I saw her lift the head of one poor fellow, give him water, and then take the handkerchief from her own head and bind up his wounds; attending one or two others in the same way, she went back for more food and water. As she was returning I heard the crack of one or two guns, and she, poor good creature, fell; after a few struggles all was still – she was dead! I turned my eyes to heaven and thought, ‘Oh God, and this is war!’ I cannot believe but that the shot was an accidental one. The next day, passing into another fort, I passed her dead body. It was lying on its back, with the bread and broken gourd containing a few drops of water. We buried her amid showers of grape and round shot, occasionally dodging a shell or twelve pounder, and expecting every moment to have another grave to dig for one of ourselves.” (Winston Smith, 90.)

References:

Smith, George Winston and Judah, Charles (editor). (1968) Chronicles of the Gringos: The U.S. Army in the Mexican War, 1846-1848. Accounts of Eyewitnesses and Combatants
Johannsen, Robert W. (1985) To the Halls of the Montezumas: The Mexican War in the American Imagination