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

Manuela Hurtado de Pedraza

Other names: La Tucumanense, La Tucumana

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: Unknown

Events:

Connections:

Biography:
From Tucumán, Argentina, she participated against the English invasion of 1806-1807. (Knaster, 472.)

The heroine of the first English invasion, on 10 to 12 August 1806 the streets of Buenos Aires were a battle ground. Liniers´ troops were trying to take the main square and a man next to her, possibly her husband, was shot. She took his gun and killed the Englishman who had shot the man. The black poet, Pantaleón Rivarola wrote the following verse to her:

A estos héroes generosos
Una amazona se agrega
Que oculta en varonil traje
Triunfe de la gente inglesa:
Manuela tiene por nombre
Por patria, tucumanesa.

A street in Buenos Aires bears her name. (Sosa de Newton, 484)

She is described by Mitre in his Historia de Belgrano: "Hasta las mujeres recibieron la corona del triunfo en la cabeza de una heroína llamada Manuela la Tucumana, que combatiendo en ese día (16 de agosto de 1806) al lado de su marido, mató con sus propios manos un soldado a quien quitó el fusil, que presentó a Liniers, recibiendo un premio de su hazaña los despachos de alférez." (Mitre, Vol. VI, 135)

References:

Knaster, Meri (1977) Women in Spanish America: An Annotated Bibliography from Pre-Conquest to Contemporary Times
Mitre, Bartolomé (1940) Obras completas de Bartolomé Mitre
Sosa de Newton, Lily (1986) Diccionario biográfico de mujeres argentinas