Encarnación Ezcurra

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Encarnación Ezcurra (March 25, 1795 - October 20, 1838) was a Argentine woman and politician, wife of Juan Manuel de Rosas.

She was the daughter of Juan Ignacio Ezcurra and Teodora de Arguibel and she married de Rosas on March 16, 1813. At this moment, she became her husband's most faithful follower, helping him in many difficult circumstances. Her role as the driving force behind the Revolución de los Restauradores and president of the Mazorca while her husband found himself overcoming the Conquest of the Desert, secured him 17 years of control after 1835, as the aforementioned revolution unseated Juan Ramón Balcarce and the aforementioned society put pressure on every government worker, assuring de Rosas public desire to return to government and forcing the Junta de Representantes, charged with the power to designate governors, to regard her husband as the only option to restore social order in the province.

Despite the triumph of her husband in the Conquest of the Desert they gave her the title of Heroína de la Santa Federación (Heroin of the Holy Federation). It is particularly notable that in at time when prejudices against women participating in politics ran so high, Ezcurra achieved great responsibilities and a considerable following.

She died unexpectedly at the age of 43. Even today historians dispute the cause of her death although many believe that she died of cardiac arrest or a similar condition. Her death, however, caused great grief among the people and the political establishment, so such so that 25,000 people (out of a total of 60,000 living in Buenos Aires at the time) attended her burial and her funeral procession from el Fuerte until the Convento de San Francisco. The funeral costs were payed for by the Junta de Representantes, whom de Rosas formally thanked on November 1, 1838.