Policarpa Salavarrieta
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| Policarpa Salavarrieta | |
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 Heroine of the Colombian Independence Movement
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| Born | 1795 Guaduas, Colombia |
| Died | November 14, 1817 Bogotá, Colombia |
| Occupation | Seamstres, Spy and Revolutionary hero |
| Parents | Joaquín Salavarrieta and Mariana Ríos |
Policarpa Salavarrieta (circa 1795—November 14, 1817), also known as La Pola, was a Colombian seamstress who worked for the Independence of Colombia as a spy for the Revolutionary Forces, during the period known as the Reconquista, a time when Spain tried to gain control of its rebel colonies in South America. She was in her early to mid-twenties when captured and executed by the Spanish.
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[edit] Name
Because her birth certificate was never found, we don't know her given name, and only know her by the names her family and friends called her.
Her father called her Polonia in his will, and with that name, Salvador Contreras, the priest who formalized the testament on December 13, 1802, made her appear in the documents[1].
Her brother Bibiano, the closest to her, called her Policarpa, as did also Andrea Ricaurte de Lozano, when Policarpa lived with her in Bogotá, as well as Ambrosio Almeyda, a guerilla leader to whom she supplied information.
In her 1817 forged passport, which she used to get in and out of Bogotá during the Reconquista, she appeared as Gregoria Apolinaria.
Her contemporaries referred to her as simply, La Pola, however, Policarpa Salavarrieta was the name with which she became famous, and the name which is still remembered today.
[edit] Date and place
The date and place of birth of La Pola are also a cause of confusion and debate. The most popular version is that she was born in the municipality of Guaduas, Cundinamarca, between 1790 and 1796. But nothing has been proven for lack of legal documents. Rafael Pombo afirmed that she had been born in Mariquita and José Caicedo Rojas confirmed it in Bogotá.
Her date and place of birth can be estimated through the information available about her siblings which, curiously enough, was not lost like that of their sister.
Her siblings were: María Ignacia Clara, born in the San Miguel parish of Guaduas August 12, 1789; Eduardo, born in the same city on November 3, 1792 — both died in infancy; Caterina, born in Guaduas, 1791; José María de los Ángeles, baptized in Guaduas on August 12, 1790; Manuel, on May 26, 1796 also in Guaduas — both became Augustinian friars; Ramón, confirmed in Bogotá in 1800; Francisco Antonio, baptized in the Santa Bárbara parish, the 26 of September of 1798; and Bibiano, baptized in Bogotá, in 1801[2]. Policarpa was born between her two religious brothers, so her date of birth can be placed between 1791 and 1796, and it seems that judging by these dates, the Salavarrieta family lived in Guaduas and moved to Bogotá after Manuel was born.
In an attempt to reconcile the disparities and different versions in the history books, the Academia Colombiana de Historia (Colombian Academy of History) gave its final ruling on September 10, 1991 in favor of Guaduas, Cundinamarca[3].
[edit] Life
[edit] Early years
Policarpa was raised in a family of some economic means, that had enough to live a respected life in their town, but that had no titles of hidalgo. The childhood house of Policarpa Salavarrieta in Guaduas, was not the most beautiful house, nor the best designed, but it wasn’t the smallest or poorest of houses, The house is now conserved as a museum.
The Salavarrieta Ríos family moved to live in Bogotá in 1789. They established themselves in a small house in the neighborhood of Santa Bárbara. In 1802 a smallpox epidemic broke out in the capital, killing thousands of people, among them, Policarpa’s father, mother, and two of her siblings, Eduardo and María Ignacia. After the tragedy, the family broke apart, José María and Manuel joined the Augustinian order; Ramón and Francisco Antonio traveled to Tena and found jobs working in a farm; Catarina, the oldest child, decided to move back to Guaduas around 1804, with her two younger brothers, Policarpa and Bibiano. They moved into the house of their godmother Margarita Beltrán, also their aunt though Manuela, till Catarina got married with Domingo García, and she took her two brothers to live with them.
There is little information about this time in her life. It is known she worked as a seamstress, and its speculated she also worked as a teacher in a public school.
Guaduas was then an important stop of rest in the most important road of the New Granada, a stretch of land from Bogotá to the Magdalena River, which communicated with the north of the country and out to the Caribbean Sea. Important characters passed and rested there, soldiers, nobles, artisans, farmers, insurgents, Spaniards and Grenadines of all walks of life, that brought news of the world, along with objects of trade and commerce. During the times of war, Policarpa shared the patriotic spirit of her family, her brother-in-law, Domingo García, died fighting alongside Antonio Nariño in the Southern Campaign, and her brother Bibiano was a veteran of the same campaign.[4]
There is a legend about Policarpa in Guaduas, it is said that after the Revolution broke out, and the Viceroy Antonio José Amar y Borbón and his wife María Francisca Villanová were sneaked out of Bogotá by the mayor José Miguel Pey de Andrade for the very real fear of their lives, they stopped in Guaduas and the Vicereine María Francisca Villanová, went to her house, and foretold her about her imminent destiny and death.
[edit] Her work in the revolution
It seems that before 1810 Policarpa was not involved in political activities, but by 1817, when she moved to Santa Fe de Bogotá, she already participated in them.
Because Bogotá was the stronghold of the Reconquista, it was very difficult to get in and out of the city, most of the population were royalist and approved of the take over by Pablo Morillo, so when she and her brother Bibiano entered the capital, they carried false documents and safeguards and a letter written by Ambrosio Almeyda and José Rodríguez, two patriot leaders of the independence. They recommended that she and her brother should stay in the house of Andrea Ricaurte y Lozano with the excuse of going to work for her as a servant, but in reality, Andrea Ricaurte's home was the center of the intelligence gathering and resistance in the capital. Because Policapa was not known in the capital she could move freely and meet with other patriots and spies, unlike Guaduas, where she was already known and had a reputation of a revolutionary.
Because of this lack of reputation, she could infiltrate the houses of the royalists. Using her previous job abilities as a seamstress, she entered the houses of the enemy by offering her services to the wifes and daughters of the royalists and officers, altering and mending dresses for them and their family. While in the house she could spy on the conversations, find maps and other intelligence that could be of use, she also identified who the major enemies were, and find out who were they suspecting of, their plans and activities.
Another one of her activities was the secret recruitment of young men to join the revolution, in this her brother helped and together helped increase the number of soldiers the insurgency in Cundinamarca desperately needed.
[edit] Her capture
Her operations ran smoothly and under no suspicions, but that all ended when the Almeyda brothers were apprehended; they were informants carrying information back to the insurgents outside Bogotá, with them they had information that connected La Pola right to the Revolution. The Almeyda brothers and La Pola were highly implicated, they had helped soldiers desert the Royal Army and join the Revolution, they had transported weapons, ammunitions and supplies to the insurgents, and she had helped them escape from prison when they were captured on September of the same year, and found them refuge in Machetá. They were hoping that their connection with La Pola could come in handy in the event of a revolt in the city. The Royalists now suspected her of treason, but lacked the solid evidence to accuse a seamstress of espionage and treason.
The arrest of Alejo Sabaraín when he was trying to escape to Casanare was the event that allowed them to arrest La Pola; he was apprehended with a list with carious names of Royalist and Patriots that were given to him by La Pola.
Sergeant Iglesias, the principal Spanish officer in Bogotá, was put in charge of her case, to find her and arrest her. Policarpa Salavarrieta and her brother Bibiano were both arrested at the house of Andrea Ricaurte y Lozano and taken to the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, which had been turned into a makeshift prison and where many of the Founding Fathers of the nation, went to school, taught, where help prisoners, or died.
They are taken to the Council of war, and on November 10, Policarpa, Alejo, and other six prisoners, are giving the same sentence as all those who dare to betray The Crown, Execution by firing squad set for the early hours of the morning of November 24.
[edit] Trial and death
The hour chosen for her execution was 9, on the morning of November 14, 1817. La Pola marched, hands tied, with two priests by her side and led by a guard. Instead of repeating the prayers the priests said, she only cursed the Spaniards and gave predictions of the inevitable revolution to come. She was to die with six other prisoners, and her lover Alejo Sabaraín, in the Bolívar Square. After ascending the execution stand, she was told to face back, as that was the way traitors were killed. She asked to die kneeling, a more dignified position for a woman.
The bodies of Alejo and the other six prisoners, who were shot along with her, were paraded and exhibited through the streets of Bogotá as was done to the bodies of traitors to scare off possible revolutionaries. Her body, being that of a woman, was spared this humiliation.
Her Augustinian brothers, José Maria de Los Ángeles and Manuel Salavarrieta, came to reclaim the body, which they took to give her a proper Christian burial in the church convent of San Agustín, in the neighborhood of La Candelaria[5].
[edit] Legacy
Most historians of the period consider Policarpia Salavarrieta the most significant woman of the Revolution.
[edit] Day of the Colombian Woman
On November 8, 1967, in virtue of the Law 44,passed by the Congress of the Republic of Colombia, and signed by President Carlos Lleras Restrepo, declared in its 2nd Article, November 14, “Day of the Colombian Woman” in honor of the anniversary of the death of “Our heroine, POLICARPA SALAVARRIETA” [6] [7].
[edit] Policarpa Salavarrieta's image on Colombian currency
Policarpa Salavarrieta has been depicted on the currency of Colombia many times over the years. She is the only female historical personality to appear on the currency of Colombia—there have been female images on some bills and coins, but these depicted mythological or ideal women, like Lady Liberty, Lady Justice, an unknown Native American woman who stands for all of the indigenous peoples in Colombia and, more recently, María, a fictitious character from the novel of the same name, is pictured with its author, Jorge Isaacs.
 5 Pesos (1980) |
 DIEZ MIL PESOS (November 30, 1995) |
The "DIEZ MIL PESOS" bill ($10000) is the only form of currency with Policarpa Salavarrieta that is still in circulation.
[edit] Stamp
To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the independence of Colombia in 1910, the Goverment of Colombia issued a series of stamps that featured the images of the some of the Heroes of the Independence, including Policarpa Salavarrieta, Simón Bolívar, Francisco de Paula Santander, Camilo Torres Tenorio and others.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Will of Joaquin Salavarrieta, to Doctor D. Salvador Contreras, Protocol of the 3rd Notary of Bogotá, scrivener Pedro Joaquín Maldonado, 1802, “Archivo General de la Nación”, folders 229v. to 231v and 289r to 291v.
- ^ Tome XII of the “Boletín de Historia y Antigüedades” Bulletin of History and Antiquities
- ^ http://www.museonacional.gov.co/body_policarpa_salavarrieta.html Remark by the National Museum of Colombia, and the birthplace of Policarpa
- ^ http://www.lablaa.org/blaavirtual/biografias/salapoli.htm Salavarrieta, Policarpa. Article of the National Library
- ^ http://www.lablaa.org/blaavirtual/todaslasartes/pola/cronol.htm Chronology of Policarpa Salavarrieta
- ^ http://www.villadeguaduas.gov.co/index.php?m1=noticias&m2=det&m3=211 Official page of the goverment of Villa de Guaduas
- ^ http://www.armada.mil.co/index.php?idcategoria=36508 Women in the Development of Colombia, Article of the official page of the Military of Colombia
