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

Author: María Antonia Pérez

Type of publication: Petition

Title: Legal petition

Year of publication: 1812

Place created: Caracas

Language: English

Location of text: Reproduced and translated in Arlene Díaz, Female Citizens, Patriarchs, and the Law in Venezuela, 1786-1904, University of Nebraska Press, 2004, pp.1 and 168. in Hallworth Library, University of Nottingham

Abstract: Extract from a petition in which she demands her rights as an equal citizen.

Content:
February 7, 1812

In marriage, husbands are nothing but the ones who represent the family, and women, their compañeras, who should help them with marital obligations but are not condemned to be their husbands´ slaves; nor are women of an inferior condition in the exercise of their rights; the quality of being a woman does not exclude them wither from the societal order or from the guaranty to enjoy their liberty and security of their person. The law makes us all equals as citizens, and if my husband is by this right authorized to behave in a free manner, I am, by the same right, entitled to resolve my needs on my own.

Texts written by María Antonia Pérez:
1812 - Legal petition
1812 - Speech