Manuela Cañizares (1769-1814) was an Ecuadorian salonist and heroine of independence.
Life
Cañizares was the host of a popular
literary salon in
Quito
Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...
from about 1797, which was a center of the city's intellectual life. On 9–10 August 1809, Manuela Cañizares hosted the famous meeting between the Ecuadorian rebels, which resulted in the formation of the first rebel government,
Junta Autonoma de Quito
Junta may refer to:
Government and military
* Junta (governing body) (from Spanish), the name of various historical and current governments and governing institutions, including civil ones
** Military junta, one form of junta, government led by ...
, and declaration of independence in her salon. She was not only the host of the meeting, but an active participant in it, and reputedly a leading and driving force behind the revolution.
Death
She was sentenced to death in absentia by the Spanish authorities and went into hiding during the war.
Little is known of the rest of her life. She made her will on 27 August 1814, and from that document it is known that her last days were spent as a victim of the consequences of an accident, that she was single and without children, that she earned her living by making lace and renting suits that were used for festivals, and that she owned the
Cotocollao farm where she raised cattle.
[De Guzmán Polanco, Manuel (2006). Manuela Cañizares, la heroína de la Independencia del Ecuador (Primera edición). Quito: Comisión Nacional Permanente de Conmemoraciones Cívicas. ISBN 9978-45-199-4.]
Historians agree that she died 5 months after making her will, on 15 December 1814.
Legacy
In 1901, President
Eloy Alfaro named the first school for women in Ecuador "Manuela Cañizares" after her.
References
* Salazar Garcés, Sonia; Sevilla Naranjo, Alexandra (2009). Mujeres de la Revolución de Quito (Primera edición). Quito: FONSAL. pp. 81–88. .
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canizares, Manuela
1769 births
1814 deaths
Viceroyalty of New Granada people
19th-century Ecuadorian people
18th-century Ecuadorian people
Ecuadorian salon-holders