Javiera Carrera
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Francisca Xaviera Eudoxia Rudecinda Carmen de los Dolores de la Carrera y Verdugo, (March 1, 1771 - August 20, 1862), better known as Javiera Carrera, was a member of one of the most aristocratic Chilean families, who actively participated in the Chilean War of Independence. Together with her brothers José Miguel, Juan José and Luis, they were some of most important leaders of the early Chilean struggle for independence during the period known as the Patria Vieja ("Old Republic"). She is credited has having sewn the first national flag of Chile and is considered as the "Mother of Chile".
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[edit] Life
She was born in Santiago, the oldest child of Ignacio de la Carrera y Cuevas and of Francisca de Paula Verdugo Fernández de Valdivieso y Herrera. From her youth, she was well know because of her beauty and strong character. She married young, on May 2, 1796, with Manuel de la Lastra y de la Sotta, with whom had two children: Manuel and Dolores. He died in 1798. She remarried in 1800 to the Spanish aristocrat, Pedro Díaz de Valdés. They had five children: Pedro, Domitila, Pío, Santos and Ignacio.
During the time of the Patria Vieja ("Old Republic"), she became the firmest supporter of her family in their struggle to achieve an independent Chile. She organized and supported all the social organizations that lend their support to the nascent government. At that time she sew the first Chilean flag [1] (1812). Due to all her activities she became the visible face and heroine of those early struggles.
After the Spanish Reconquista of 1814, she went into exile, together with her brothers, to Argentina. She lived first in the city of Mendoza, was jailed in Luján, later was imprisoned in a Convent in Buenos Aires, from where she escaped and took refuge in a Brasilian ship. Then she emigrated to the city of Montevideo, in Uruguay. There she received the news of the executions of her brothers Juan José and Luis in 1818, and of José Miguel in 1821. She didn't return to Chile until three years later, in 1824, one year after the resignation of Bernardo O'Higgins, whom she considered responsible for their deaths.
Once in Chile, she dedicated all her energies to having her brothers' bodies, who had been buried in the Claustro de la Caridad in Mendoza, repatriated. President Francisco Antonio Pinto did so in 1828. She lived the rest of her life very quietly in her hacienda of El Monte, where she died in August of 1862.
[edit] Additional information
- One of the most prestigious girls-only public schools in Santiago, Chile is named after her, the Liceo A-1 Javiera Carrera (Public School A-1 Javiera Carrera). One of its most famous students is the current Chilean president, Michelle Bachelet.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Letter by Diego Navarro Martin de Villodres, Bishop of Concepcion, written in Pasco, Peru (1814)
