Maria Parado de Bellido

 

Maria Parado de Bellido

 

 

(Huamanga, 1761 - Ayacucho, 1822) Peruvian heroine of the time of independence. She is believed to have been a natural child, and the only thing that is known about her father is that he came from Upper Peru. In 1776, she married Mariano Bellido in Huamanga, by whom she had seven children. Maria Parado de Bellido In 1820 part of his family joined the group of patriots organized in Paras (Can Gallo), in order to collaborate with the guerrilla sponsored in the central highlands by General Álvarez de Arenales, who obeyed the strategy of General José de San Martín. Aimed at wearing down the royalist army. Mariano Bellido and his children acted as couriers for the patriot army in the Huamanga region, and his main mission was to report on the movements of the royalist troops. In 1822, Viceroy José de la Serna ordered the troops of General José Canterac, stationed in Jauja, to combat the popular insurrection organized in Huamanga. Canterac entrusted the company under the command of General Carratalá with the task of repressing the Ayacucho movement. It was at this juncture that one of María Parado's sons, Tomas Bellido, was taken prisoner and shot by the royalists already stationed in can Gallo. This fact motivated María Parado de Bellido to join the patriot movement and collaborate with her husband in espionage tasks. Due to her illiterate condition, she dictated the letters addressed to Mariano Bellido to a trusted friend who, in turn, was in charge of transferring the information to the headquarters of the patriotic guerrilla Cayetano Quiroz. Thanks to this, the patriots were warned in time of the planned incursion of the royalist army into the town of Quilcamachay on March 29, 1822, and the town was able to be evacuated in time. However, the person through whom Maria Parado sent her correspondence was captured that day by priests loyal to the viceroy, who handed him over to General Carratalá. This is how the general learned about the activities carried out by María Parado, since one of her letters bore her signature. The Spanish troops surrounded the house where María Parado was in the company of her daughters and captured her. Brought before General Carratalá, María Parado refused to answer the questions aimed at dismantling the information network, she rejected the reward offers and did not flinch when she was warned that her house would be burned if she did not collaborate. Her attitude caused her to be sentenced to death by firing squad. On May 1, 1822, she was paraded around the Huamanga main square, while her crime of treason was announced, and then she died before the firing squad in Pampa del Arco. Her remains were buried in the church of La Merced. When General Simon Bolívar consolidated independence, the Liberator granted the daughters of María Parado de Bellido a house that had belonged to a royalist soldier in Huamanga, through a decree of 1826. Shortly after, she was declared a martyr for independence. An important national college for women in Lima now bears her name.

 

 

 

With affection,

Ruben