Take Home Reflection-Juana Azurdy 10/13/2015
Who exactly was Juana Azurduy? Why was she not erased from history? What is so enduring about her story? What are the racial/ ethnic/ social class connotations associated with her story? How is she depicted in images and in song? How has her depiction by historians and politicians changed over time?
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Juana Azurdy was a mestiza from Bolivia who was a guerilla leader/commander with Simon Bolivar and Manuela Saenz. Manuela, Simon and Juana had a steady form communication that led them to be able to work together and fight for freedom as one unit. Juana was baptized and married into the Roman Catholic faith as a child. She married a fellow rebel, Don Manuel Ascencio Padilla, they both were one when it came to revolutionary matters. Although Juana was later widowed she continued to work on revolutionary matters until her untimely death. Many have wondered why Juana Azurdy has not been erased from history, she is a mestiza and a woman; both were frowned upon in revolutionary times. Juana did something crucial that many can
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One can often find signs of her heroism, in music and art. With music she is idolized as hero by Mercedes Sosa, she has a song called “Juana Azurdy”. In the song she says how there can’t be a braver captain than Juana and how they amazon’s are finally free. With the more modern use of music Juana has been made in a way into a corrido, in which a song is made into a story. Corridos are most often used in Mexican culture but they are also used in other countries in Latin America. In art, Juana Azurdy is seen as a heroic women, but what many have pointed out is that she is often seen as a women of lighter skin tone and as an Española. This is major difference in what is seen between 1862 and 2015. In 1862 there was different issues and the color of one’s skin tone in a painting was not a crucial