Inés García de López de Santa Anna, also María Inés de la Paz García y Martínez de Uzcanga (Jan. 21, 1811 in Alvarado, Viceroyalty of New Spain – Aug. 23, 1844) was the

First Lady of Mexico First Lady of Mexico ( es, Primera Dama de México), also known as First Lady of the United Mexican States ( es, Primera Dama de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the unofficial title of the wife of the president of Mexico. Beatriz Gutiérrez Mü ...

as the first wife of

Mexican President The president of Mexico ( es, link=no, Presidente de México), officially the president of the United Mexican States ( es, link=no, Presidente de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos), is the head of state and head of government of Mexico. Under the C ...

Antonio López de Santa Anna Antonio de Padua María Severino López de Santa Anna y Pérez de Lebrón (; 21 February 1794 – 21 June 1876),Callcott, Wilfred H., "Santa Anna, Antonio Lopez De,''Handbook of Texas Online'' Retrieved 18 April 2017. usually known as Santa Ann ...

Biography

She married Santa Anna in a ceremony on September 25, 1825, in Alvarado, in which her husband was not present. Her parents were wealthy Spaniards. Santa Anna received more than six million

peso The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas, and the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries the peso uses the Dollar sign, same sign, "$", as many currencies na ...

s as a dowry, as well as receiving a hacienda between

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

and Jalapa (today, Xalapa). The couple would go on to have four children together: Guadalupe, María del Carmen, Manuel and Antonio. She served as the First Lady of Mexico in three separate periods: from March 1839 to July 1839 (Santa Anna's third term as president); October 1841 to October 1842 (Santa Anna's fourth term as president); and March 1843 to October 1843 (when Santa Anna served as dictator). According to several sources, she was popular as First Lady. Santa Anna and his wife adopted a Texan boy, John Christopher Columbus Hill, as their son. Hill had been captured during the siege of San Antonio, and was then sent to Mexico City, where he asked Santa Anna to free his imprisoned brother and father. Santa Anna agreed, on the condition that he and his wife could adopt Hill. Hill agreed and remained in Mexico, where he earned a

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...

from the Colegio de Minería (College of Mining). Frances Erskine Inglis, also known as Fanny Calderón, related in her 1843 book ''

Life in Mexico ''Life in Mexico'' is a 19th-century travel account about the life, culture, and landscape of Mexico, written during Scottish writer Fanny Calderon de la Barca's sojourn in Mexico from October 1839 to February 1842. It was published in 1843 by h ...

'' after a stay at the hacienda that it was beautiful, and that her hostess offered her a cigarette from her

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...

and

diamond Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...

cigarette case A cigarette case (sometimes called a cigarette tin) is a sturdy container used to store small numbers of cigarettes and prevent them from being crushed. A typical cigarette case is a flat box (commonly made of metal) that opens symmetrically into ...

, which Fanny declined, and then her hostess lit a small paper

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...

, quite a contrast to the opulence of the case. This was seen as scandalously modern. She died in August 1844 and was buried in the

Mexico City Metropolitan Cathedral The Metropolitan Cathedral of the Assumption of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven ( es, Catedral Metropolitana de la Asunción de la Bienaventurada Virgen María a los cielos) is the cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mex ...

in the chapel of

Our Lady of Guadalupe Our Lady of Guadalupe ( es, Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe), also known as the Virgin of Guadalupe ( es, Virgen de Guadalupe), is a Catholic title of Mary, mother of Jesus associated with a series of five Marian apparitions, which are believed t ...

Biography

References

Further reading