Mexico City. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum received the flag of the female cadets of Mexico’s Heroico Colegio Militar, the country’s premier military educational institution, and walked to the balcony of the National Palace, facing Mexico City’s Zócalo, where hundreds of thousands had gathered to witness the President deliver the Grito, the first time a woman has led the Cry of Independence. In her Grito, which many Presidents have used to emphasize certain and social issues, President Sheinbaum referenced four insurgent women from the history of the Mexican people’s struggle for independence.
¡Viva Josefa Ortiz Téllez-Girón!¡Viva Leona Vicario!¡Viva Gertrudis Bocanegra!¡Viva Manuela Molina, La Capitana!
Josefa Ortiz Téllez-GirónPatriot, Independence Heroine, La Corregidora
Born September 8, 1768 in Mexico City, Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez was orphaned at an early age along with her older sister. She married Miguel Domínguez, who was appointed corregidor of the city of Querétaro, and her sympathies began , which led her to convince her husband to join her in the Independence struggle, holding meetings at their home to plot an uprising in its support with figures such as Miguel Hidalgo and Ignacio Allende.
The meetings, disguised as literary salons, involved organizing weapons procurement and storing caches in various houses throughout the city, plotting to begin the uprising on December 8, 1810. Eventually Josefa was betrayed to the Spaniards, who, not aware that her husband was also involved, ordered him to imprison her, but she was able to pass a message alerting her comrades, which led Miguel Hidalgo to initiate the uprising earlier than planned in the morning of September 16, 1810, when he delivered his infamous Grito de Dolores in Guanajuato.
Josefa was imprisoned multiple times, as she never wavered in her commitment to Independence, until she was finally released in 1817. Vilified by Spanish loyalists as mentally ill, she then turned to support the Republican movement, organizing meetings against Agustín de Iturbide, The First Emperor of Mexico.
Leona VicarioPride of Mexico, The Insurgent, Sweet Mother of the Fatherland
Leona Vicario Fernández was born in San Salvador in 1789. Her parents died in 1807, and Leona moved to Mexico City, where she joined the independence struggle at the age of 21, working with Los Guadalupes secret society as a messenger, protector of fugitives, and providing resources and medicine with her family wealth.
In 1813 she was arrested and had her wealth confiscated, although she managed to escape to join Andrés Quintana Roo —who would become her husband—she was captured again. After being released on condition that she abandon the Independence struggle, she travelled the country with her husband, living in poverty and working as a journalist for El Ilustrador Americano and Semanario Patriótico Americano, all the while secretly organizing, despite being under surveillance. Discovered in 1817, but given amnesty, they would remain in Toluca until 1821, when Inependence triumphed.
She died in 1842 at the age of 53, the only woman to this day in Mexico to have been given a state funeral. Her name has gone down in history as a symbol of the commitment of insurgent women and her sculpture is the first figure of the Paseo de las Heroínas, the stretch from the Glorieta del Ángel de la Independencia to Leibniz Street.
Gertrudis BocanegraSoldier, Spy, Organizer
María Gertrudis Teodora Bocanegra Lazo Mendoza was born in Pátzcuaro, Michoacán, on April 11, 1765 to a wealthy Spanish merchant family. Her unusual (for a woman of the time) education introduced her to French philosophers such as Montesquieu, and Rousseau and Montesquieu, developing in her an anti-colonial mindset which led her to support the insurgent independent movement.
During the War of Independence, she persuaded both her husband and her eldest son to join Miguel Hidalgo when he passed through Valladolid. They both died in the Battle of Puente de Calderón fighting for the insurgent Mexican forces. Bocanegra became a messenger and liaison between regions of Michoacán, transmitting strategic information in the Pátzcuaro and Tacámbaro, and financing and feeding the rebel army.
In 1817, she was discovered and captured by Spanish royalist forces. Despite multiple interrogations and torture, she refused to betray her comrades. She was tried and sentenced to death for treason. On October 11 of that same year, she was shot in Pátzcuaro’s main square in front of a crowd. She was 52 years old.
Manuela MolinaLa Capitana, La Barragana
Manuela Molina was an Indigenous woman, born in Taxco, Guerrero, where she joined the insurgent cause after learning ofMiguel Hidalgo and the Grito of Dolores. Recruited by José María Morelos y Pavón , with whom she fought in at least seven battles of the Insurgent Army.
Earning the nickname La Capitana through her participaton in seven battles, she was one of the architects of the capture of Acapulco in 1813, where she commanded a rifle company. She was finally awarded the rank that she had been referred to for so long by the Supreme National Board of the Revolution, a rarity for a woman of that time. In Temascaltepec, she commanded 60 Indigenous and mestizo men. Manuela carried on fighting, planning strategies and defending the ideals of the Insurgent Army until she died on March 2, 1822 after being wounded with a lance by the royalist army.
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