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María Josepha Petrona de Todos los Santos Sánchez de Velazco y Trillo (1 November 1786 – 23 October 1868), commonly known as Mariquita Sánchez, was a prominent society hostess from Buenos Aires, one of the most notable women of the Independence era in the Southern Cone. She is best known for her influential salons (or tertulias), which brought together many of the leading political and cultural personalities of the time.

Strongly committed to the cultural and literary spheres, she was also a prolific writer whose texts include letters, memoirs, diaries and poetry.

Sánchez was a well-read woman and an avid letter writer, although she never published nor did she write with that intention. Her figure has been revalued as a notable writer posthumously, even before her letters began to be compiled and published in the 1950s. Her writings fall within the Romanticism movement,

1786–1805: Early life and marriage to Thompson
María Josepha Petrona de Todos los Santos Sánchez de Velazco y Trillo was born on 1 November 1786 in Buenos Aires, the then capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, a dependency of the Spanish Empire that mainly extended over the Río de la Plata Basin. She was the only child of 41-year-old Magdalena Trillo, a porteño woman, and 45-year-old Cecilio Sánchez de Velazco, an Andalusian merchant from Granada. Thus, within the caste system that the Spanish Empire established in its colonies, her father was a peninsular (a Spaniard born in mainland Spain) and her mother was a criolla (a Spaniard born in the American colonies). Magdalena was the daughter of Domingo Trillo, a Spanish merchant from Galicia, and Micaela de Cárdenas, a lady of an old family from Buenos Aires. Before her marriage to Sánchez de Velazco in 1771, Trillo had been married to the powerful Argentine merchant Manuel del Arco y Soldevilla, who died in 1768.

The Sánchez de Velazco family belonged to a well-off elite class of merchants, a social group with unique cultural characteristics, such as allowing girls to learn to read, write and count, so as to collaborate or support the family business in the event of the death of their husband.

According to Hispanic legislation and the established uses of the Río de la Plata, Mariquita—as she was nicknamed from an early age—was sole heir to the family heritage, which made her an attractive match for the prosperous merchants of Buenos Aires.

The Sánchez family lived in a large house located three blocks away from the main plaza (today the Plaza de Mayo), which fronted three streets and occupied most of the block.

In her memoirs, Mariquita Sánchez gave a critical account of the rigid social context of the Spanish colonial tradition in which she grew up: "These countries, as you know, were Spanish colonies for 300 years. The most elaborate and most admirable system was formed and executed with great wisdom."

https://rua.ua.es/dspace/bitstream/10045/111915/1/ASN_25_10.pdf

It is necessary for me to defend my rights: or Your Excellency will call me to your presence, but without being accompanied by that of my mother, to give my last resolution, this being that of marrying my cousin, because my love, my salvation and my reputation so desire and demand it, Your Excellency will order me to be deposited by a subject of character so that I may be in more freedom and my cousin may take all the competent steps for the effect. Our cause is too just, as I understand, for your Excellency to dispense us justice, protection and favor.

1806–1809: British Invasions
Sánchez recalled: "What a night! How to describe the situation of this viceroy, who is blamed for all that confusion and who did too much to get out and save the treasury! Much has been written about this; I will only say one thing: all the people entrusted by the viceroy that night to defend the city were so surprised by the situation and the impossibility of saving the country, that this cannot be explained enough." Sanchez's version of events appears to be sympathetic to civilian and military leaders, given that the viceroy had recently approved her controversial marriage and that Thompson, her husband, was captain of the port.

However, Sánchez does not specify whether Beresford attended his salon, something argued by historians such as Octavio Bottalla.

According to family tradition, Sánchez lent their estate in the San Isidro ravine for the troops of the reconquest to disembark, or to attend to them on their way to Buenos Aires.

In these years of political instability, there are no historical sources to follow Sanchez's activities, as the public scene was totally dominated by men. However, it can be assured that the Thompson salon was among the most prestigious in the city given the high reputation of the couple.

Members of the local elite began to organize themselves into different groups that debated the path that Buenos Aires should take in view of the events in Europe. Thompson belonged to the group of intellectuals more inclined to seek Independence, those who considered that the intermediate solution could consist of bringing a representative of the House of Bourbon to reign the Río de la Plata. His name appears together with those of 124 notable members of the society of the Viceroyalty who supported a petition sent to Rio de Janeiro in October 1808, to request that Infante Pedro Carlos take charge of the government in Buenos Aires.

1810–1818: Independence era


In retaliation for his adherence to the patriotic cause, Thompson was expelled from the Spanish Royal Navy in December 1811, although this did not prevent him from continuing an intense social, political and professional activity. According to Sáenz Quesada, "Thompson's position, as captain of the port of Buenos Aires, allowed him to control all maritime traffic; but by being not a neutral official, but someone seriously committed to the patriot party, he ran the risk that threatened that party as Bonaparte's star in Europe faded and the chances of Ferdinand VII's return to the throne increased." Thompson aligned himself with the most radicalized wing of the patriots, led at first by Mariano Moreno, Castelli and Belgrano, who argued that Independence should be declared as soon as possible and that any attempt at an arrangement with Spain should be set aside.

Sánchez always acknowledged her friendship with Monteagudo, even after her husband's death, when fierce rivalries divided that sector of the patriot party.

In one of her letters of her old age, Sánchez makes a brief reference to this, writing to Matilde Capdevila de Calvo: "You favor me by asking me to put my name in your album where you have received great illustrations and abilities: well, what do you want me to say that deserves to mingle with all those gentlemen! I fear so much the ridicule and pedantry that men lavish on us poor women so easily that I have not dared to put a somewhat curious memory and I do so in this confidential and just for you. At my husband's place, one of the first revolutionaries of the year 10, I was commissioned to make the blue and white cockades, which were to replace in Buenos Aires and in the Army of General Belgrano in [Upper] Peru, and that of General Artigas in the Banda Oriental. All were made by the hand that writes these lines, I am sorry I do not have the letters of these generals."

I ask you to see if there are two large silver medals: one of the Battle of Salta and the other of Tucumán, and a gold one of San Martín's entry into Lima. These medals were sent to me by the two generals [Belgrano and San Martín], an honor that few people had, but that no lady of my country had, and you understand how much I would like to recover them.

Although Sánchez hosted tertulias for much of her life, their main period of activity came between 1810 and the early 1830s, reaching its heyday in the 1820s.

Her house became a hub for pro-revolutionary politics and culture.

The 1843 memoirs Letters on South America by British merchants John Parish and William Parish Robertson—who stayed in Buenos Aires in the 1810s—lists Sánchez among the main hostesses in Buenos Aires: There were, among my more intimate acquaintance, three remarkable ladies; and as I think they belong to the domestic history of Buenos Ayres, I must not pass them over in silence. They were Doña Ana Riglos, Doña Melchora Sarratea, and Doña Mariquita Thompson. They were the heads of three distinct parties, which I can scarcely call political, but which I may designate as public. One heard all the news at their morning levees : learned all the movements of the great men of the state, in power and out of power : the best of these men you met at their houses. Public events were discussed good humouredly, almost philosophically; and as the three ladies in question were all favourable to European alliances, their houses were the constant resort of both English and French naval commanders, consuls-general and other foreign envoys and diplomatists. There they got much better acquainted with all the on dits of the day than at the government palace; and there they indirectly promulgated their own opinions and views, in the certainty that they would reach the proper quarter. Robertson then devotes a passage to describing each of these three women, especially highlighting Sánchez as his "dear friend" and describing her as a "handsome, gay and fascinating young widow when I had first the honour of making her acquaintance in 1817." Unlike Riglos and Sarratea, he pointed out that Sánchez's forte was foreign relations, writing: ... sure I am that Lord Palmerston, with all his acknowledged tact, with all his splendid talent, and with all his savoir faire, never swayed the affairs of Downing-street with more success and brilliancy than did Doña Mariquita exercise her female diplomacy in her splendid mansion of the Calle del Empedrado. She played the parts of the easy English countess, the vivacious and witty French marquise, the elegant, graceful Portena patrician, in such wise that each country might have claimed her for its own, so happy an art had she of identifying herself for the time being, with the nation to which her friends or visitors belonged.

1819–1836: Marriage to Mendeville


On 20 April 20 1820, Sánchez married Jean Baptise Washington de Mendeville, a young Frenchman who had arrived in Buenos Aires two years earlier and was dedicated to teaching piano.

From the very circumstance of Doña Mariquita having married a French consul-general, you may infer that her rule lay in the foreign department; and sure I am that Lord Palmerston, with all his acknowledged tact, with all his splendid talent, and with all his savoir faire, never swayed the affairs of Downing-street with more success and brilliancy than did Doña Mariquita exercise her female diplomacy in her splendid mansion of the Calle del Empedrado. She played the parts of the easy English countess, the vivacious and witty French marquise, the elegant, graceful Portena patrician, in such wise that each country might have claimed her for its own, so happy an art had she of identifying herself for the time being, with the nation to which her friends or visitors belonged.

On April 12, 1823, government minister Bernardino Rivadavia inaugurated the Society of Beneficence, a new organization of which Sánchez was a founding member along with ten other women of Buenos Aires.

https://www.infobae.com/historia/2018/06/02/alta-sociedad-filantropia-y-feminismo-la-historia-de-la-sociedad-de-beneficencia/

1837–1852: Self-exile in Montevideo


From 1837 on, Sánchez was de facto separated from her husband, although she planned to meet him from time to time.

Origen y desenvolvimiento de la Sociedad de beneficencia de la capital 1823-1912

She was elected President of the Sociedad de Beneficiencia on 14 January 1830.https://books.google.com.ar/books?id=yMJCAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA235&dq=%22mar%C3%ADa+s%C3%A1nchez%22+%22sociedad+de+beneficencia%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjSyKzo2ez6AhUDpZUCHbuFAGcQ6AF6BAgGEAI#v=onepage&q=%22mar%C3%ADa%20s%C3%A1nchez%22%20%22sociedad%20de%20beneficencia%22&f=false

1852–1862: Return to Buenos Aires


Marriage to Mendeville inaugurated a new stage in Sánchez's life, allowing her to recover and expand her role in the social and political life of Buenos Aires.

1863–1868: Final years and death
Sánchez died on October 23, 1868 in Buenos Aires. Her remains were transported to La Recoleta Cemetery accompanied by a large procession, where they were welcomed by the members of the Society of Beneficence and each lady placed a bouquet of flowers on the coffin. Prayers were led by presbyter Martín Piñeiro and her coffin was placed in the Lezica family tomb. Subsequently, Héctor Varela, José Tomás Guido and the school inspector spoke, reminiscing about her public achievements and personal qualities. Her son Juan Thompson expressed gratitude on behalf of the relatives and himself, urging those present to remember her in their prayers. Since 1946, Sánchez's tomb is listed as a National Historic Monument of Argentina.

Historical figure
Sánchez is one of the most notable women of the Independence era in the Southern Cone, and perhaps the most famous of 19th-century Argentina. There are few texts about her published in English, with most of them mentioning her because of her account of the 1806 English invasion of Buenos Aires. On the other hand, she has "received consistent, though not voluminous, attention from scholars" in Spanish since the early 20th century. Although she does not appear as a leading figure of the revolution in history books, the figure of Sánchez has been consolidated as that of a patriot in the Argentine collective memory since the 20th century, especially remembered as the owner of the house where the National Anthem was sung for the first time. The 20th-century biographical and literary works around Sánchez turned her into a sort of female national hero who acts as a correlate to the male heroes already enthroned in the national pantheon, who had been mostly military men or politicians. Several attributes contributed to her coming to be regarded as a "Mother of the Homeland", including being a "conspicuous member of the traditional bourgeoisie of Buenos Aires, hostess of a salon visited by the most relevant male personalities of the moment, both national and foreign, anti-Rosas and exiled, witness of the founding events of the country for almost a century, and holder of the rare privilege of being an enlightened woman."

Writing in 2009, Soledad Vallejos argued that Sánchez's historiographic figure could be characterized as a "fine chronicler with a good memory and an awareness of the historical projection that her writings (more or less private) could have and capable, in any case, of being delightful and politically incorrect; also a full-fledged political woman who operated behind the scenes with sharp rhetorical tactics and ambitions of her own; a Frenchified intellectual who never knew Paris and well deserves to transcend, in addition, as a writer; a widow remarried, mother of five children and activist in favor of women's education, even when sustaining that need led her to confront [even] [Domingo F.] Sarmiento."

Recognition as a writer
https://ridaa.unq.edu.ar/handle/20.500.11807/2654

https://revistas.unc.edu.ar/index.php/recial/article/view/11904/html

In a letter of unknown date addressed to Juan María Gutiérrez, Sánchez congratulates him on the recent release of one of his works and expresses a seldom stated aspiration, that of being an author: "I had a thousand desires to write you days ago to congratulate you for the idea of your work; but I had no one to send the letter to. What sympathies we have! I would have thought and wished to do that work, that is to say, I would have wanted to know how to do it, and to console myself for my impotence, I said to myself: and who will read it?" Sanchez's concern about who would read her is typical of 19th-century female authors, leading to procrastination or repression of writing.

Within a biographical sketch of Juan María Gutiérrez written after his death in 1870, Juan Bautista Alberdi introduced an aspect of Sánchez that had been little known to the general public up to that time: her ability as a letter writer. This prompted Alberdi to compare her to Madame de Sévigné because of her "talent, culture and good taste, without a shadow of literary pretension. If her correspondence has not been collected and published, it is not because she does not deserve it; but the varied and numerous circle of her correspondents has made up for the publication of a work that may remain unpublished forever, to the detriment of Argentine literature and of the most distinguished and original merit, for being the most simple, natural and domestic".

In 1937, Pedro Henríquez Ureña and Jorge Luis Borges included a few of Sánchez's letters in a compilation titled Antología clásica de la literatura argentina (Spanish for: "Classic Anthology of Argentine Literature"), and wrote about her in the prologue: All the authors appearing in the anthology are known as writers, with the exception of María Sánchez, admirable woman who in her letters knew how to reveal with lively expression her always active and generous spirit. We believe that her presence completes the picture of Argentine life in the past. It has been said that her voluminous collection of letters, when published, will be a significant portion of Argentine literature; we regret not having had at hand other materials than the few already printed.

Feminist interpretations
Several modern writers have celebrated Sánchez an early feminist and a pioneering activist in the struggle for women's rights. On the one hand, her famous legal battle against her parents to marry who she wanted and not who they imposed on her is considered a social transgression to the gender roles of late colonial society.

On the other hand, several fragments of her private writings have been highlighted for her expressions about women and their right to access to education. Gabriela Mizraje noted that, although "with the exception of her daughter, Mariquita's real interlocutors are men", her "main concerns are women". According to María Clara Medina, the "main concerns reflected in the writings of Mariquita Sánchez are the free choice of a partner, the education of women and the way to insert the female sex in the national revolutionary process." In a letter from her old age, Sánchez sent a poem to her friend Candelaria Somellera de Espinosa, in which she recalls the situation of women in colonial society: "And if you're tempted / To start life over again, / Think of the work / You'd have to do. / We only knew / How to go to mass and pray / Make up our clothes / And darn and mend." Sánchez was also concerned about the fate of her contemporaries and fellow women of her social class, who were dependent on pensions from their husbands or the state. For example, in 1847 she wrote to her daughter Florencia about her wish of living in a community of women only: "If I listened only to my heart and my taste, look what I would do: we would unite in the big house, you and the Larrea women, we would live as best we could and we would all console ourselves together. The trees in your house, I would commission Mr. Picolet to make up the orchard for me with them. We would make a good chicken coop and we would arrange everything very well (...) If this could be done! (...), what a consolation for all of us! In another letter to Florencia in 1852, she said: "I am going to write the history of the women of my country. They are people."

while others have argued that these approaches use 20th and 21st century gender concepts anachronistically. In this regard, Santiago Javier Sánchez wrote in 2014: "Is it feasible to mantain that letters were for this lady of the Buenos Aires bourgeoisie a feminine space of resistance? Is it feasible to think that they supposed a principle of subversion of the dominant patriarchal values? Would it not be more reasonable to think that María Sánchez was, simply, a lady of a certain education, a little above the female average of her time and social class who, thanks to her lineage and fortune, had contact with prestigious men and wrote to them, without pretending to emulate them or question them?"

In popular culture


Sánchez was arguably represented on film for the first time in the 1909 silent film La creación del Himno (Spanish for "The Creation of the Anthem"), directed by Mario Gallo. Although her name does not appear in the credits, the film's mise-en-scène and treatment of the subject—including a visual reference to Subercaseaux's painting–attest to her depiction in the film. La creación del Himno was part of a series of one-act films (between 8 and 12 minutes) that Gallo released on the occasion of the Argentina Centennial celebrations, which were the first fiction films in the history of Argentine cinema. Some historians consider La creación del Himno the second fiction film of the country behind La Revolución de Mayo, which Gallo released earlier that year.

In 1954, the biographical film El grito sagrado (Spanish for "The Sacred Cry") was released, with Sánchez being played by Fanny Navarro. Directed by Luis César Amadori, the film had its first premiere at the first edition of the Mar del Plata International Film Festival and then a commercial release close to the National Day of Argentina (May 25), in reference to the film's patriotic content. Although the historical epic depicts several events, the main subject of the film is the popular myth that links Sánchez to the National Anthem. Released during the Peronist era, El grito sagrado portrays Sánchez's character in a manner akin to the figure of Eva Perón, represented as a fighter for the poor and disadvantaged. According to film historian César Maranghello, through its depiction of Sánchez, the film "openly paid homage to another historical figure: María Eva Duarte de Perón. From this point of view, El grito sagrado is the first and—until now—the most accurate portrait of the mythical Evita and her political deed."

In 1969, folklore singer Mercedes Sosa released the song "En casa de Mariquita" (Spanish for "In Mariquita's House") as part of her celebrated studio album Mujeres argentinas. The concept album focuses on different important women in Argentine history and includes songs written by musician Ariel Ramírez and historian Félix Luna. The release of Mujeres argentinas marked a milestone in the history of folkloric music in Argentina, and its songs have become classics in Sosa's repertoire. "En casa de Mariquita" continues the myth that associates Sánchez with the first performance of the National Anthem, telling the story of a woman who arrives at Sánchez's house and is moved by hearing the song from outside.

In the 1972 biographical film Juan Manuel de Rosas, directed by Manuel Antín, Sánchez appears very briefly portrayed by the actress Silvia Legrand. The scene shows Sánchez as the hostess of her luxurious salon, in which she converses with Juan Bautista Alberdi, Vicente López y Planes—with whom she alludes verbally to the performance of the Anthem in her salon—and Pedro de Angelis. According to researcher Ricardo J. A. Ercolalo, Sánchez is "represented as an active social subject, both in body and word, gifted with the gift of conversation, interested in political issues, current affairs and concerning the future of the Homeland."

In 1999, Sánchez was portrayed by Marcela Ferradas in the television documentary Mariquita y Ana, which also focused on Marie Anne Périchon (portrayed by Soledad Villamil) and was directed by Clara Zappettini. It was the first of a five-episode documentary series on Argentine women called Seis mujeres (Spanish for "Six Women"), which was broadcast on Canal (á), produced by Lita Stantic, Ana De Skalon and the national Secretariat of Culture, and scripted and directed by women.

More recently, Sánchez was portrayed by pop singer Zoe Gotusso in the documentary film Mariquita, mujer revolución, directed by Sabrina Farji, which premiered in INCAA theaters and its Cine.ar streaming platform on 25 May 2023.