Doña Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez, (1768-1829) wife of magistrate (corregidore) Miguel Domínguez, of Querétaro. A strong female figure in the independence movement of Mexico, she was born and educated in Morellia, upon graduation of college, married Miguel Domínguez and they moved to Querétaro to live. Although she was born in Mexico, her ancestry was of pure Spanish (Creole) descent.
Her anti-Spanish attitude was related to the discontent with the Spanish stranglehold on Mexico accompanied with her intellectual development. It was customary at this time for privileged Creoles to organize literary societies, at which works banned by the Church as those of Voltaire, Rousseau and Descartes were smuggled in to form the basis of lively discussion. Those literary societies soon became political societies. Of these, the most important was in Querètaro. It’s leading figure was a young army captain named Ignacio Allende. The intellectual ties that Josefa had with this literary-political circle fueled and sealed her commitment to the independence movement. Her husband, who because of Josefa, supposedly became a silent supporter of the separatist cause.
On the eve of the independence war (September 15th) her conspiratorial motives were discovered and she was locked in a room in the basement of the Palacio de Gobierno, but managed to whisper to a coconspirator Ignacio Perez, through a keyhole that their colleague’s -leaders of the independence movement (Ignacio Allende and Miguel Hildago) were in jeopardy. (Note: there are many versions of this story, this is only one. The independence movement had previously decided to plan their attack in November when the crops would all be harvested and the farmers could take up arms. But somehow, the Spanish ruling government had heard of this plan and decided that they were going to attack first -a month before the independence rebels had planned to make their move.)
The whispers of Josefa were taken by horseback to the town of San Miguel to inform Ignaciao Allende, who then took the whispers to the next town of Dolores to padre Miguel Hildago the leader of the Independence movement who turned the whispers to a shout (grito) a declaration for freedom. Unhesitating, and immediately the movement gained momentum and the band of independence rebels then rode to the Santuario in the town of Atotonilco and took up the shrines banner of the Virgen de Guadalupe as their flag and so began the Mexican Revolution! If it were not for the bravery and passion of Josefa and the urgent whispers she uttered through the keyhole, the independence of Mexico may never have occurred.
Josefa paid dearly for this patriotic deed. Betrayed by a Captain Arias, she was first confined to the Santa Clara convent in Querétaro and then transferred to Mexico City for trial. Her husband defended her but his forensic powers failed to secure an acquittal. Found guilty, she was confined to another religious institution, the convent of Santa Teresa. So outspoken was the corregidora in denouncing her captors that she was transferred to yet another nunnery, Santa Catalina de Siena, where discipline was stricter. She was not released until the Independence War ended in 1821.
Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez died in 1829, at the age of 61. She was first buried at Santa Catalina but her remains were later shipped to her home city of Querétaro. There the state congress declared her benemérita (meritorious). She was also honored in Mexico City, where a statue stands in a plaza that bears her name.
For her independent spirit, for the subtle but decisive influence she exercised on her husband, and for her hatred of all forms of oppression, Josefa Ortiz de Domínguez was as much a symbol of Mexican emancipation as any of her male colleagues in the freedom struggle.
