The Marquise of Villarocha
First Lady of Bolivia
In role
20 April 1828 – 28 April 1828
PresidentAntonio José de Sucre
Personal details
Born
María Ana Carcelén de Guevara y Larrea-Zurbano

(1805-07-27)27 July 1805
Real Audiencia of Quito, Spanish Empire
Died15 December 1861(1861-12-15) (aged 56)
Cotocollao, Quito, Pichincha, Ecuador
Spouses
  • (m. 1828; died 1830)
  • Isidoro Barriga y López de Castro
    (m. 1831; died 1850)
  • José Baltazar Carrión Torres
    (m. 1851)

María Ana Carcelén de Guevara y Larrea-Zurbano, 5th Marquise of Villarocha and 7th Marquise of Solanda (27 July 1805 – 15 December 1861) was an Ecuadorian aristocrat and the wife of the Venezuelan independence leader Antonio José de Sucre. She is considered the 1st First Lady of Bolivia.[1]

Biography

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Carcelén was born outside of Quito, in the Real Audiencia of Quito of the Spanish Empire. She was the daughter of Felipe Carcelén y Sánchez de Orellana, 6th Marquess of Villarocha, Captain general of San Francisco Borja, and his wife, Teresa de Larrea y Jijón.[1] Her father was a vocal participant in the first government junta of Quito in 1809.[2]

Marriage to Antonio José de Sucre

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Carcelén first encountered Sucre in the city of Quito on 24 May 1822, after the Battle of Pichincha. During the battle, she and her family took refuge in the convent of the Church of Santo Domingo. Upon hearing the celebration of the troops, the family exited the front of the church to watch the procession. When he saw Carcelén, Sucre dismounted his horse, introduced himself to her family, and reassured them that it was safe to return to their home.[1]

Before his death in 1823, the Marquess went to visit Sucre in Quito to offer Carcelén, his heiress, in marriage. Although Sucre accepted the courtship, he continued to dedicate himself to the war against Spain, and he and Carcelén exchanged letters for several years.[1] The pair married on 20 April 1828, however because Sucre was the President of Bolivia, General Vicente Aguirre was present during the ceremony as Sucre's representative. Aguirre also visited the Carcelén Mansion, where Sucre and Carcelén would live, and informed Sucre of its condition, as well as oversaw its redecoration.[3]

After the marriage, Carcelén became the 1st First Lady of Bolivia, a position she would hold for 8 days until Sucre resigned on 28 April 1828.[4]

Sucre returned to Quito on 30 September 1828, and the pair moved into the Carcelén Mansion. Ten months later the Marquise gave birth to their first daughter, María Teresa de Sucre y Carcelén de Guevara.[1]

Assassination of Sucre

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In 1829 Sucre received the order to return to Bogota to preside over the Congress of Gran Colombia in an attempt to avoid its dissolution. He was assassinated in the Berruecos mountains on 4 June 1830. Carcelén learned of his death 2 weeks later and penned a letter to General José María Obando, accusing him of having plotted her husband's murder. [5]

Second Marriage

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on 16 July 1831, Carcelén married a second time to the Colombian general Isidoro Barriga y López de Castro, who had fought alongside Sucre during a campaign in Peru. This was a controversial decision; the custom at the time was for a widow to wait 5 years before remarrying out of respect for the deceased husband.[6]

On 16 November 1831, several months after the marriage, Barriga was playing with Teresa, the daughter of Sucre and Carcelén, in his arms, when she fell to the patio, hitting her head and dying instantly. Although there was some speculation that her death was intentional, but most historians believe it was a tragic accident, citing Barriga's reputation as a kind and generous man, rather than bloodthirsty.[1] Yet other historians believe that Teresa did not die in an accident at all, and instead succumbed to a stomach virus, a common cause of death in chidren her age during that time.[7]

In 1832, Carcelén gave birth to Manuel Felipe Barriga y Carcelén de Guevara, her only child from the marriage. Barriga died 29 May 1850.[8]

Third Marriage

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Final Years and Death

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Pérez Pimentel, Rodolfo. "Mariana de Carcelén y Larrea". Diccionario Biográfico del Ecuador (in Spanish).
  2. ^ Pérez Ramírez, Gustavo. "El Acta de la Independencia de Quito 1809" (PDF) (in Spanish). Afese 52.
  3. ^ "Museo Casa de Sucre".
  4. ^ "La Marquesa de Solanda y el general Antonio José de Sucre". Banrepcultural (in Spanish). Red Cultural del Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
  5. ^ Pesquera Vallenilla, Vicente (1910). Rasgos biográficos del gran mariscal Antonio José de Sucre (in Spanish). Barcelona: Editorial Malucci. pp. 175–1777. ISBN 978-127-538-449-1.
  6. ^ Grisanti, Ángel (1955). El Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho y su esposa, la Marquesa de Solanda (in Spanish). Caracas: Imprenta Nacional.
  7. ^ Flores Caamaño, Alfredo (1926). El verdadero testamento del Gran Mariscal de Ayacucho (PDF) (in Spanish). Quito: Universidad Central del Ecuador. pp. 43–45.
  8. ^ Pita Pico, Roger (11 September 2012). "La Marquesa de Solanda y el general Antonio José de Sucre". Biblioteca Virtual Luis Ángel Arango. Credencial Historia. No. N°273. {{cite magazine}}: |number= has extra text (help)
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