Baltasara Calderón de Rocafuerte

Gender:Female

Ethnic origen: White

Events:

1806  -  Cuenca  -  Not applicable  -  She was born and lived here until 1812.
1812  -  Guayaquil  -  Unknown  -  She moved to Guayaquil in 1812.
1846  -  Lima  -  Unknown  -  She wrote to Roberto de Ascasubi expressing concern about the political situation in Ecuador.
1847  -  Lima  -  Unknown  -  She was widowed in 1847.
1849  -  Lima  -  Unknown  -  She wrote a second time to Roberto de Ascasubi from here.

Connections:

Garaicoa Family
Women, wrote letters

Texts:
1849 - Cartas de la viuda Rocafuerte

Biography:
She was born in Cuenca, Ecuador, in 1806, the daughter of pro-independence Manuela Garaicoa de Calderón and Francisco García Calderón. She moved to Guayaquil with her mother in 1812 after the death of her father.

In 1826 Simón Bolívar wrote to her mother joking that he had sent a copy of his Bolivian Constitution to Baltasara expecting her to memorise it so he could hear from her "bella boca la reprodución de mis ideas". (Davies et al, 35)

She married President Vicente Rocafuerte in 1842 (he died in 1847 in Lima). In 1846 and 1849 she wrote from Lima to Roberto de Ascásubi expressing concern about the political situation in Ecuador. After the death of her husband she dedicated herself to public works. She gave large donations to social institutions and to education centres. She died in 1890. (Estrada, 39-41)

References:

Davies, Catherine, Brewster, Claire and Owen, Hilary (2006) South American Independence. Gender, Politics, Text
Estrada, Jenny (1984) Mujeres de Guayaquil, siglo XVI al siglo XX
Knaster, Meri (1977) Women in Spanish America: An Annotated Bibliography from Pre-Conquest to Contemporary Times