JOSEFA ORTIZ DE DOMÍNGUEZ: BIOGRAPHY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2024

Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez (1768-1829), popularly called "La Corregidora", was a determined woman with her own ideas who participated in the beginning of the Independence of Mexico in a key way. Without her defiant action, the first successful insurrection of the Aztec nation could not have been carried out.

This woman left evidence of her resolution and character throughout her life from a very young age. She had the will to apply to the Colegio San Ignacio through a letter written by herself, at a time when it was not common for women to know how to read and write.

She also acted with courage, much later, by insubordinate before her husband, the Corregidor. He locked her inside his house on one occasion to prevent her from alerting the revolutionaries that an insurrectionary plan had been discovered. Despite the confinement, she managed to give them warning and initiate, with her action, the independence process.

Even Ortiz de Domínguez rebelled against the oppressive situation that the Spanish maintained on Mexican soil during the colony. He participated in political discussions in his home and engaged in seditious adventures. These transformed the course of the country's history through insurgent struggle.

The Corregidora also had an altruistic and brave spirit. She took care of those most in need. Not only did she support them specifically through visits to infirmaries and hospitals, she also defended the rights of indigenous people.

He questioned the impediment that the Creoles had to exercise positions of importance in the militia or in the viceregal administrative life.

In short, Josefa Ortiz did not represent the stereotype of a woman typical of colonial times. On the contrary, she subverted the submissive woman pattern until the end of her life. She did not regret her actions and kept her indomitable demeanor and sagacity firm.

Biography

Birth

Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez was born in Mexico City on April 19, 1773, in Mexico. They baptized her on September 16 of the same year as María de la Natividad Josefa Crescencia Ortiz Téllez-Girón.

This Creole was the daughter of María Manuela Tellez-Girón y Calderón and Don Juan José Ortiz, who formed a family that did not have much fortune.

The mother died at approximately four years of life of Josefa and the father, who was captain of the regiment, died in full exercise of war around the nine years of the girl.

When she was orphaned, it was her older sister, María Sotero Ortiz, who took charge of her care and training.

Studies and training

He studied at the San Ignacio de Loyola School in Mexico City, better known as Las Vizcainas.

There she obtained the privileged and typical education that a woman received at that time: embroidery, sewing, cooking, basic notions of mathematics, reading and writing.

The young Creole and Spanish of that time were educated to be wives devoted to family life. Also to dedicate himself to raising and caring for children and running the home.

The space assigned for them was basically private. While the public space, that of the squares, institutions, streets and wastelands, corresponded to men.

It was at that school where the young woman, only 17 years old, met Miguel Domínguez Trujillo. At that time she was a recognized lawyer, senior official of the government of the viceroyalty, official of the Royal Treasury.

In one of the visits he made to the educational campus - made because he was collaborating financially with the institution - this recently widowed bureaucrat met Josefa. He fell passionately in love with her.

They married, in secret, on January 24, 1793, and throughout their married life they had eleven children. There were also three others, the fruit of Miguel Domínguez's previous marriage; so that, in sum, they raised 14 children.

An insurgent plan discovered

Thanks to the fact that Miguel Domínguez achieved enough merits, Viceroy Félix Berenguer de Marquina appointed him, in 1802, Corregidor de Santiago de Querétaro.

Thus, Doña Josefa took advantage of her husband's advantageous position to go beyond domestic work and her constant work in the social field.

He defended the indigenous people from the multiple mistreatments and humiliations to which they were subjected at a time when they were considered less than animals. In this way they promoted a space for political discussion at home.

They held meetings that went from alleged literary gatherings to debates about the ideals of the French Enlightenment. This was prohibited by the Spanish crown because a discourse based on the values ​​of freedom and equality did not suit them.

This gave rise to the elaboration of insurgent plans that started the revolutionary movement in the region with the later called conspiracy of Santiago de Querétaro.

So, encouraged by his wife, the Corregidor became a sympathizer of the independence aspirations. Thus, he was admitting to his home, without actively participating in the meetings, characters linked to a revolutionary vision in the nascent phase of Mexican independence.

Captains Arias, Ignacio Allende, Mariano Jiménez, Juan Aldana and priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla attended these meetings. There a plot was agreed to achieve liberation from the Spanish yoke.

However, the conflagration was discovered and Miguel Domínguez learned, from the ecclesiastical judge Rafael Gil de León, of the date on which the plan was prepared to be undertaken.

At the request from his superior to intervene in the matter, the Corregidor made the first steps to arrest the insurgents. He warned his wife about the news, while keeping her locked up in her house to prevent any warning from her to the agitators.

Heel strike rebellion

Despite the fact that Doña Josefa could not go out to inform the conspirators about the unveiling of the plans, they had already agreed on a plan. In the event of an unforeseen event, she would warn by hitting a wall of the Corregidor's house.

This wall was adjacent to the compound where the director of the prison, Warden Ignacio Pérez, was located. So the lady took off one of her feet and struck the wall three times with the heel of her shoe.

Finally, the touch was heard and the Corregidora managed to communicate to the Warden, through the lock of the gate of her house, to notify Allende and Hidalgo that the conspiracy had been discovered.

The insurrection scheduled for the beginning of October 1810, was advanced for September 16 of the same year. Miguel Hidalgo called on his parishioners from the Municipality of Dolores (Guanajuato) to take up arms against the viceroyalty of New Spain.

This is how he achieved his goal, since the bulk of the congregation were indigenous. These were in deplorable conditions of oppression, misery and inequality.

Report and apprehension

It was difficult for Josefa and her husband not to be harmed after such a reckless move.

That is how, once news was received from Hidalgo, on September 14 the Corregidora sent a letter addressed to Captain Joaquín Arias advising him to prepare as best as possible for the fight.

Upon receiving the letter, the latter betrayed her by betraying her to the authorities, which resulted in her arrest on the day that today is considered the beginning of Mexico's war of independence, baptized with the name of Grito de Dolores.

Doña Josefa was transferred to the convent of Santa Clara, where the insurgents of a well-off position were held.

Miguel Domínguez, for his part, was taken to the convent of Santa Cruz. However, he was released in a short time thanks to the fact that the people, grateful for his solidarity with the dispossessed, pressed for his acquittal.

In 1814 Josefa was taken to Mexico City to be confined in the convent of Santa Teresa la Antigua. There her trial took place, in which, despite being lucidly defended by her husband, she was found guilty of treason.

Some time later she was released, although not for long, since Viceroy Félix María Calleja ordered her to be inspected by Canon José Mariano de Beristaín. This investigation led to a new incarceration because the tenacious woman continued to participate in conspiracy activities.

Her last confinement was spent in the Santa Catalina de Siena convent, where she was sentenced for four years, in a place with even more severe conditions than the previous ones.

Liberation and death

In June 1817, Viceroy Juan Ruiz de Apodaca released the Corregidora. Years later, Agustín de Iturbide, on May 18, 1822, after the proclamation of independence, was named Emperor of Mexico.

The new emperor proposed to Josefa the proposal to belong to his court exercising the role of maid of honor of his consort, Ana Duarte, who carried the title of empress.

Something like this could not but be inadmissible for a woman of solid convictions, because she considered that founding an empire was the opposite of the ideology for which she had fought throughout her life. So she did not accept a position that, in addition, would have lowered her moral stature.

In the last stage of her life, Doña Josefa did not rest on her fierce attitude. She was linked to extremist liberal groups in conspiracy work. In addition, she made a permanent contribution to human and progressive causes.

On the other hand, he was energetic in not being seduced by the flattery. She avoided recognitions or financial rewards, since she claimed that she had only fulfilled her national duty.

On March 2, 1829, in Mexico City, he died of pleurisy. Her remains are found in the Querétaro pantheon, inside a mausoleum in which those of her husband are also found.

Ortiz de Domínguez's place in history

It is curious that Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez has been the object of veneration, to the extent that one of the Mexican bills is adorned with her stamp.

In the opinion of some historians and writers, women have generally been assigned a secondary role in the course of history. This represents a deep debt to the memory of the various peoples.

Also, this shows an invisibility of a fundamental part of the citizenry that carried out essential tasks that definitively changed the course of nations.

Perhaps in the case of the Corregidora, a fair look is needed regarding the density that it had in a political, social and ideological sense in the midst of the historical circumstance in which it was immersed.

He had to live in a century full of restrictions and constraints regarding the political, social and economic performance of women.

Doña Josefa acted with courage, integrity, poise and sharpness throughout her life. She demonstrated the ability to free herself from oppressive circumstances. She demonstrated the ability to influence the ideas and attitudes of some men of her time.

With his attitude he influenced the evolution of national events in Mexico.

References

1. Elvira Hernández Garbadillo. You, them and us. Stories of female lives. Hidalgo (Mexico), 2013. Retrieved from: uaeh.edu.mx
2. Rebeca Orozco. "At your feet, doña Josefa" in the book by various authors Las revoltosas. Mexico City: Selector, 2010. Retrieved from: books.google.co.ve
3. Analía Llorente. "Who was the Corregidora de Querétaro, one of the strong women of Mexico." Recovered at: bbc.com
4. Interview with Rebeca Orozco. Recovered at: youtube.com
5. Montoya Rivero, Patricia. "Various views around La Corregidora". Humanistic Sources Magazine, 2011.
6. Review of "The corregidores Don Miguel Domínguez and Mrs. María Josefa Ortiz and the beginnings of Independence". Recovered at: redalyc.org