Vicario Fernández, [María] Leona (1789–1842)

[María] Leona Vicario Fernández (b. 10 April 1789; d. 21 August 1842), Mexican insurgent heroine. A rich heiress, Vicario Fernández lived under the care of her uncle, Agustín Fernández de San Salvador. Working in her uncle's law office was Andrés Quintana Roo (1787–1851), with whom she was betrothed. After Quintana Roo joined the movement in 1812, she decided to help the insurgents. Affiliated with the secret society, Los Guadalupes, she received and distributed insurgent correspondence. She also sent the insurgents money, arms, and weapons, and helped several individuals to join them. She fled in March 1813, when she was discovered in San Antonio Huixquiluean on her way to Tlalpujahua. Her uncle convinced her to return, and she was detained in the College of Belén. Although the authorities prosecuted her, she did not inform on the conspirators. When she was rescued and taken to Oaxaca by the insurgents in April 1813, the authorities confiscated her property. The insurgent Congress granted her a pension that same year. She married Quintana Roo, whom she followed in his travels as deputy of the Congress. They were discovered in 1817 and she was captured in the sierra of Tlatlaya; both accepted amnesty from the royalists. Her remains rest in the Column of Independence.

See alsoGuadalupes, Los .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Genaro García, Leona Vicario, heroína insurgente (1910).

José María Miquel I Vergés, Diccionario de insurgentes (1969), pp. 597-598; Diccionario Porrúa de historia, biografía y geografía de Mexico, vol. 3 (1986), p. 3120.

Additional Bibliography

Adams, Jerome R. Notable Latin American Women: Twenty-nine Leaders, Rebels, Poets, Battlers, and Spies, 1500–1900. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 1995.

Aguirre, Eugenio. Leona Vicario, la insurgente. Mexico City: Editorial Alhambra Mexicana, 1990.

Castellanos, Francisco. Leona Vicario: Heroina de la independencia. Mexico City: Editorial Diana, 1997.

Staples, Anne. Leona Vicario. Mexico City: Departamento Editorial, Secretária de la Presidencia, 1990.

                                        Virginia Guedea