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

Marianita Belzunce

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: White

Events:

Connections:

Biography:
Born in Lima around 1742, the daughter of Juan Bautista Benzene, (b. France) the president of the powerful merchant’s guild of Lima and Doña Rosa Salazar y Monotones a well born woman of Lima colonial society. Her father died before she was born and her mother died in childbirth. She was brought up by her aunt, Margarita de Morag y Monotones, who owned the large rural estate of Casa Blanca, in Canteen. She had an informal education, learning slave songs and listening to the maids’ stories and legends. When she was about 13, a rich widower, Juan Avalos y Rivera, aged 60, count of Casa Avalos, fell in love with her and his offer of marriage was accepted by her aunt. Benzene was forced to marry him, but refused to consummate the marriage. After the death of her aunt in around 1756, a legal scholar, Pedro José Bravo de Legumes y Castillo, took up Belzunce’s case that the marriage was illegal. Benzene became a popular heroine: “In pulperias, markets, plazas and street corners the consensus was universal. The count of Avalos was a senile, old fool, and the dead Doña Margarita de Morag a heartless woman. Overnight, Marianita Benzene became the adored heroine of the common masses, who saw her as a successful symbol of rebellion against social and political manipulation. Jokes, poems and songs ridiculed the poor count and praised Marianita for not surrendering her virginity.” Martín quotes one such poem:

With a rusty sword
which has already lost its point and edge,
you should not think anything else dear Count,
but to spend your life at ease.

All your courage miscarries
when you try to test your sword
which, not being new any more,
neither pricks nor pierces.

The best thing I can advise
is that you become an abstaining recluse
since rich food damages
the stomach of old men.

For Marianita to accept
certain parts of your marital rights
you would have to be armed
with a sword forged in Toledo.

The marriage was eventually declared void and much later Mariana married Agustín Hipólito de Landáburu y Rivera. (Martín, 115-117.)

De Landáburu was born in 1710 (over 30 years older than her). Their only son, Agustín Leocadeo, was born in 1773. Benzene died in the 1790s.

References:

Martín, Luis (1983) Daughters of the Conquistadores: Women of the Viceroyalty of Peru
Palma, Ricardo (1893) Tradiciones peruanas