August 9, 2025 • 12 mins
The story of a woman who played a pivotal role in Mexico's War of Independence from Spain.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Welcome to Mexico Unexplained, where we will explore the magic,
the mysteries and the miracles of Mexico. This series presents
information based partly on theory and conjecture. The podcaster's purpose
is to suggest some possible explanation, but not necessarily the
only ones to the subjects we will examine. Here is
your host, Robert Bitto.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Welcome and movie pian Beneath those two episode of forty
four of Mexico Onexplained, where we examined the magic, the
mysteries and the miracles of Mexico. I'm your host, Robert Biddo.
It was a rainy and muddy day in the town
of Potsguoro when I arrived there for the first time
as a student in nineteen eighty nine. I was studying
(01:20):
for the semester in Mexico in the central Mexican city
of Morelia, and on the weekends I would hop the
local buses and explore nearby towns, sometimes alone and sometimes
with other students. I had heard that Potsguoro had a
lot of history to it, that once a great indigenous
(01:40):
kingdom had its capital here, and the town played an
important role in the history of Mexico. The bus ride
from Morelia to Potsguoro was short, which afforded plenty of
time to roam around this place, provided the weather held up.
When wandering off the main plaza, I came to secondary
(02:00):
plaza to its north. In that smaller town square stood
a bronze statue of a very passionate looking woman with
frazzled hair and a determined countenance. My map said I
was in the center of plaser Gertrudis Bocanegra, and the
statue had the same name. On the statue's base, there
(02:22):
was something about the woman being a heroine of Mitchua Kan,
the present state in central Mexico in which Potscuoro was located,
but the plaque did not say much else. I was
unclear as to whether or not she was a heroine
for the indigenous Tarascans or Purepache people, if she was
(02:44):
in the Cristero revolt, or if she was a local
gal who rode with Pancho Villa. I was barely twenty
years old at the time and not fearful to stop
to ask strangers things. In what would be my first
adventure outside the United States States, I passed a man
selling plaster cast piggy banks, sloppily painted by airbrush and
(03:08):
made in the likeness of tweedybird. And asked him about
the statue. Who was this woman? He said, it was
quote that Check, who fought in the War of Independence.
She was killed here in this plaza, and that's why
they named it for her. End I made a mental
(03:28):
note of this, probably never thinking I would ever return
to Potsquorh, or would never think of gertru this Boccanegra. Again,
I was wrong on all counts. Here is her story.
Gertrudis Bocanegra was born in the town of Potsguro on
the shores of the lake of the same name, in
(03:49):
April of seventeen sixty five. Her Spanish born father, Pedro
Javier Bocanegra, owned a prosperous general store in town. Her mother,
Felicia Mendoza, was born in New Spain of a Spanish
father and Tarascan Indian mother. Because of their family history
(04:11):
and the nature of their business, the book on Egras
were fluent in both Spanish and the Tarascan language also
called Purepacha. As they were of the educated upper middle
class of New Spain. Gertrudis could also speak and read French.
As an intellectual child of the European Enlightenment, she enjoyed
(04:34):
many authors in the original French, notably De de Rot,
de l'ambert, Rousseau and Voltaire. She would get together with
local like minded intellectuals and a young priest of the
local church to discuss these writings, as well as the
works on a variety of different subjects written by Bacon, Newton,
(04:58):
Kepler and Copernicus. The ideas expressed in these forbidden books
would shape get through this as political and social ideas,
and would also inspire the educated masses of New Spain
to question their own status as a colony of Spain
and reflect on their own relations with the indigenous. As
(05:22):
someone exposed to these ideas, and if someone who had
indigenous ancestry herself get through this. Believed in civil rights
for all classes of people in New Spain and regularly
acted on her beliefs. She often fed the needy from
her home and intervened on behalf of the unfortunate. She
(05:44):
encouraged the use of the Purepechua language, even when it
was frowned upon by many as inferior. One of Bocanegra's
biographers related a story which took place in the Potsquaro cemetery.
When get through This was there with her sister, they
noticed a Tarascan man talking to a priest. The Tarascan
(06:06):
held in his arms, wrapped in cloth, his infant son,
who had just died. The man wanted to bury his
son in the cemetery of the local church, but the
priest refused him, citing that Indians were not allowed to
be buried there. Gevh through This asked what was the matter,
and the priest explained that there was a very high
(06:29):
fee for graves in the church cemetery. So GeV through
This paid the fee so that the man could bury
his son in a place that was formerly forbidden to
do so. In the years immediately after the American Revolution
to the north, the people of New Spain became restless
and began to question their relationship with their own mother country.
(06:54):
As mentioned before, the ideas of the European Enlightenment, including
such things as he human rights, reason and equality under
the law, had been spreading throughout the educated classes of
the Spanish Empire and the Americas. To use a familiar
cliche to describe a pivotal moment in history. The spark
(07:15):
that lit the powder keg of Mexican independence did not
happen in the New World, but in Europe. Pressure from
Napoleon Bonaparte, the new ruler of France, caused the abdication
of two Kings of Spain. First, King Charles the Fourth
stepped down in favor of his son, King Ferdinand the Seventh,
(07:38):
and later Ferdinand was forced to give up the throne
in favor of Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte. This was eighteen
o eight. The elites of New Spain did not recognize
the legitimacy of Napoleon's brother as King of Spain, going
so far as to recognize the Viceroy of New Spain,
(07:59):
jose de Ituri Gaat, as the sovereign ruler of Mexico.
A coup against the new viceroy followed, and its conspirators
were discovered and jailed, but that did not end the
desire for independence from Spain in the hearts of the Mexicans.
By the time of the first insurrection of the formal
(08:21):
War of Mexican Independence in eighteen ten, Guertrudis Boccanegra was
already forty five years old. She had long been married
to Pedro Advincula Laso de la Vega, whom she had
met at a society ball many years before, after he
had been transferred to New Spain from the island of
(08:42):
Cuba to serve in the Spanish provincial forces in Michui Kan.
Gertrudis and Lieutenant de la Vega had four daughters and
two sons. Although a commissioned officer with the Royal Forces,
Gertrudis's husband shared many of her view use coming from
the Enlightenment. When revolutionary fervor began to sweep the countryside
(09:06):
of Mitchell Khan, it was clear which side Gearthruvi's husband
and eldest son, Jose Manuel, would take. They would side
with the anti royalist forces to gain independence from Mexico
from Spain. When a massive rebel group led by Father
Dalgo marched through the neighboring city of Valla Dolide now
(09:27):
called Morelia in October of eighteen ten, Lieutenant de la
Vega and his son joined up. While insurrections were happening
throughout the countryside and the independence movement was in full
swing gear. Through this worked as she normally did to
maintain the family business, but felt she needed to contribute
(09:48):
more to what was unfolding around her to ensure that
the ideas she had believed in and read so much
about would crystallize and bear fruit. She then became involved
in the messenger network between Potsgro and Tacambaro, two rebel strongholds,
helping faret communications back and forth between military commands. In
(10:12):
January of eighteen eleven, both her husband and her son
were killed at the Battle of Calderon Bridge, when six
thousand Royalist soldiers defeated the rebel forces that numbered close
to one hundred thousand. Distraught but determined, Gertrudis continued to
help in the war effort in secret and continued with
(10:34):
her messenger network, which she had strengthened at which had
grown in scope. Seeking a more active role in what
was later in all out war, rebel commanders thought it
best to send Getthruthis Bocanegra to fight in the guerrilla
uprisings at Potscoro. While en route to the battle, Gerthruis
(10:57):
was captured by the Royalists and taken pro This was
early eighteen seventeen. She was repeatedly tortured in hopes that
she would reveal the names of her co conspirators. After
months of captivity geth Thrugh. This did not relent, and
her comrades were safe. Because she would not talk. The
(11:20):
Spanish authorities found her guilty of treason and condemned Gereth
through this to death. On October eleventh, eighteen seventeen, Bocanegra
faced a firing squad while being tied to a tree
in a small plaza that now bears her name. Before
she was about to be shot, she violently cursed all
(11:43):
involved with her capture, imprisonment, torture, and execution and issued
them warnings that they were on the wrong side of history.
In the end, gethru This, Bocanegra was proven right. Thank
you once again for listening to another episode of Mexico Unexplained.
(12:04):
Please remember to like and subscribe to us on YouTube,
follow us on Twitter, or write a kind review of
our show on iTunes. Please go to our website Mexico
on explain dot com for references, illustrations, and for free
access to transcripts of past shows. We appreciate your kind attention.
(12:25):
Once again, till next time, Thank you, and gracias.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Thank you for listening to another episode of Mexico Unexplained
with host Robert Bito. For show summary, relevant links, and commentary,
please check out our website at Mexicoexplained dot com, Like
us on Facebook and be a part of the conversation.
Addie on sant Haste la Vista
Welcome to Mexico Unexplained, where we will explore the magic,
the mysteries and the miracles of Mexico. This series presents
information based partly on theory and conjecture. The podcaster's purpose
is to suggest some possible explanation, but not necessarily the
only ones to the subjects we will examine. Here is
your host, Robert Bitto.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Welcome and movie pian Beneath those two episode of forty
four of Mexico Onexplained, where we examined the magic, the
mysteries and the miracles of Mexico. I'm your host, Robert Biddo.
It was a rainy and muddy day in the town
of Potsguoro when I arrived there for the first time
as a student in nineteen eighty nine. I was studying
(01:20):
for the semester in Mexico in the central Mexican city
of Morelia, and on the weekends I would hop the
local buses and explore nearby towns, sometimes alone and sometimes
with other students. I had heard that Potsguoro had a
lot of history to it, that once a great indigenous
(01:40):
kingdom had its capital here, and the town played an
important role in the history of Mexico. The bus ride
from Morelia to Potsguoro was short, which afforded plenty of
time to roam around this place, provided the weather held up.
When wandering off the main plaza, I came to secondary
(02:00):
plaza to its north. In that smaller town square stood
a bronze statue of a very passionate looking woman with
frazzled hair and a determined countenance. My map said I
was in the center of plaser Gertrudis Bocanegra, and the
statue had the same name. On the statue's base, there
(02:22):
was something about the woman being a heroine of Mitchua Kan,
the present state in central Mexico in which Potscuoro was located,
but the plaque did not say much else. I was
unclear as to whether or not she was a heroine
for the indigenous Tarascans or Purepache people, if she was
(02:44):
in the Cristero revolt, or if she was a local
gal who rode with Pancho Villa. I was barely twenty
years old at the time and not fearful to stop
to ask strangers things. In what would be my first
adventure outside the United States States, I passed a man
selling plaster cast piggy banks, sloppily painted by airbrush and
(03:08):
made in the likeness of tweedybird. And asked him about
the statue. Who was this woman? He said, it was
quote that Check, who fought in the War of Independence.
She was killed here in this plaza, and that's why
they named it for her. End I made a mental
(03:28):
note of this, probably never thinking I would ever return
to Potsquorh, or would never think of gertru this Boccanegra. Again,
I was wrong on all counts. Here is her story.
Gertrudis Bocanegra was born in the town of Potsguro on
the shores of the lake of the same name, in
(03:49):
April of seventeen sixty five. Her Spanish born father, Pedro
Javier Bocanegra, owned a prosperous general store in town. Her mother,
Felicia Mendoza, was born in New Spain of a Spanish
father and Tarascan Indian mother. Because of their family history
(04:11):
and the nature of their business, the book on Egras
were fluent in both Spanish and the Tarascan language also
called Purepacha. As they were of the educated upper middle
class of New Spain. Gertrudis could also speak and read French.
As an intellectual child of the European Enlightenment, she enjoyed
(04:34):
many authors in the original French, notably De de Rot,
de l'ambert, Rousseau and Voltaire. She would get together with
local like minded intellectuals and a young priest of the
local church to discuss these writings, as well as the
works on a variety of different subjects written by Bacon, Newton,
(04:58):
Kepler and Copernicus. The ideas expressed in these forbidden books
would shape get through this as political and social ideas,
and would also inspire the educated masses of New Spain
to question their own status as a colony of Spain
and reflect on their own relations with the indigenous. As
(05:22):
someone exposed to these ideas, and if someone who had
indigenous ancestry herself get through this. Believed in civil rights
for all classes of people in New Spain and regularly
acted on her beliefs. She often fed the needy from
her home and intervened on behalf of the unfortunate. She
(05:44):
encouraged the use of the Purepechua language, even when it
was frowned upon by many as inferior. One of Bocanegra's
biographers related a story which took place in the Potsquaro cemetery.
When get through This was there with her sister, they
noticed a Tarascan man talking to a priest. The Tarascan
(06:06):
held in his arms, wrapped in cloth, his infant son,
who had just died. The man wanted to bury his
son in the cemetery of the local church, but the
priest refused him, citing that Indians were not allowed to
be buried there. Gevh through This asked what was the matter,
and the priest explained that there was a very high
(06:29):
fee for graves in the church cemetery. So GeV through
This paid the fee so that the man could bury
his son in a place that was formerly forbidden to
do so. In the years immediately after the American Revolution
to the north, the people of New Spain became restless
and began to question their relationship with their own mother country.
(06:54):
As mentioned before, the ideas of the European Enlightenment, including
such things as he human rights, reason and equality under
the law, had been spreading throughout the educated classes of
the Spanish Empire and the Americas. To use a familiar
cliche to describe a pivotal moment in history. The spark
(07:15):
that lit the powder keg of Mexican independence did not
happen in the New World, but in Europe. Pressure from
Napoleon Bonaparte, the new ruler of France, caused the abdication
of two Kings of Spain. First, King Charles the Fourth
stepped down in favor of his son, King Ferdinand the Seventh,
(07:38):
and later Ferdinand was forced to give up the throne
in favor of Napoleon's brother, Joseph Bonaparte. This was eighteen
o eight. The elites of New Spain did not recognize
the legitimacy of Napoleon's brother as King of Spain, going
so far as to recognize the Viceroy of New Spain,
(07:59):
jose de Ituri Gaat, as the sovereign ruler of Mexico.
A coup against the new viceroy followed, and its conspirators
were discovered and jailed, but that did not end the
desire for independence from Spain in the hearts of the Mexicans.
By the time of the first insurrection of the formal
(08:21):
War of Mexican Independence in eighteen ten, Guertrudis Boccanegra was
already forty five years old. She had long been married
to Pedro Advincula Laso de la Vega, whom she had
met at a society ball many years before, after he
had been transferred to New Spain from the island of
(08:42):
Cuba to serve in the Spanish provincial forces in Michui Kan.
Gertrudis and Lieutenant de la Vega had four daughters and
two sons. Although a commissioned officer with the Royal Forces,
Gertrudis's husband shared many of her view use coming from
the Enlightenment. When revolutionary fervor began to sweep the countryside
(09:06):
of Mitchell Khan, it was clear which side Gearthruvi's husband
and eldest son, Jose Manuel, would take. They would side
with the anti royalist forces to gain independence from Mexico
from Spain. When a massive rebel group led by Father
Dalgo marched through the neighboring city of Valla Dolide now
(09:27):
called Morelia in October of eighteen ten, Lieutenant de la
Vega and his son joined up. While insurrections were happening
throughout the countryside and the independence movement was in full
swing gear. Through this worked as she normally did to
maintain the family business, but felt she needed to contribute
(09:48):
more to what was unfolding around her to ensure that
the ideas she had believed in and read so much
about would crystallize and bear fruit. She then became involved
in the messenger network between Potsgro and Tacambaro, two rebel strongholds,
helping faret communications back and forth between military commands. In
(10:12):
January of eighteen eleven, both her husband and her son
were killed at the Battle of Calderon Bridge, when six
thousand Royalist soldiers defeated the rebel forces that numbered close
to one hundred thousand. Distraught but determined, Gertrudis continued to
help in the war effort in secret and continued with
(10:34):
her messenger network, which she had strengthened at which had
grown in scope. Seeking a more active role in what
was later in all out war, rebel commanders thought it
best to send Getthruthis Bocanegra to fight in the guerrilla
uprisings at Potscoro. While en route to the battle, Gerthruis
(10:57):
was captured by the Royalists and taken pro This was
early eighteen seventeen. She was repeatedly tortured in hopes that
she would reveal the names of her co conspirators. After
months of captivity geth Thrugh. This did not relent, and
her comrades were safe. Because she would not talk. The
(11:20):
Spanish authorities found her guilty of treason and condemned Gereth
through this to death. On October eleventh, eighteen seventeen, Bocanegra
faced a firing squad while being tied to a tree
in a small plaza that now bears her name. Before
she was about to be shot, she violently cursed all
(11:43):
involved with her capture, imprisonment, torture, and execution and issued
them warnings that they were on the wrong side of history.
In the end, gethru This, Bocanegra was proven right. Thank
you once again for listening to another episode of Mexico Unexplained.
(12:04):
Please remember to like and subscribe to us on YouTube,
follow us on Twitter, or write a kind review of
our show on iTunes. Please go to our website Mexico
on explain dot com for references, illustrations, and for free
access to transcripts of past shows. We appreciate your kind attention.
(12:25):
Once again, till next time, Thank you, and gracias.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
Thank you for listening to another episode of Mexico Unexplained
with host Robert Bito. For show summary, relevant links, and commentary,
please check out our website at Mexicoexplained dot com, Like
us on Facebook and be a part of the conversation.
Addie on sant Haste la Vista
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