Born: 26 January 1795, Colombia
Died: 14 November 1817
Country most active: Colombia
Also known as: Apolonia, la Pola, Gregoria Apolinaria
Policarpa Salavarrieta was a Neogranadine seamstress who spied for the Revolutionary Forces during the Spanish Reconquista of the Viceroyalty of New Granada (modern-day Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela). Considered a heroine of Colombian independence, she was captured by Spanish Royalists and executed for high treason. The anniversary of her death is commemorated with the Day of the Colombian Woman.
Her legal given name is unknown, but when armed forces in Guaduas started looking for her, she began calling herself Policarpa. Her date and place of birth are also debated.
Though not titled or of the hidalgo class, Policarpa’s family were apparently respectable and well-off, based on her childhood home in Guaduas, which is now a museum. The family moved to a small house in the Santa Bárbara neighbourhood of Bogotá between 1796–1798. Smallpox struck the capital in 1802. The thousands who died included Policarpa’s father, mother, brother Eduardo and sister María Ignacia. The remaining family broke apart, with Catarina, the oldest surviving child, returning to Guaduas around 1804 with Policarpa and Bibiano. They lived with their godmother Margarita Beltrán and their aunt Manuela until Catarina married, again taking her siblings with her. During this time, Policarpa worked as a seamstress, and is believed to have worked as a teacher in a public school.
At that time Guaduas was a hub of commerce, news and information. During the war, Bibiano and Catarina’s husband fought on the Revolutionary side. Reputedly, after the Revolution broke out, Viceroy Antonio José Amar y Borbón and his wife María Francisca Villanová were smuggled out of Bogotá. They stopped in Guaduas, where María supposedly went to Policarpa’s house and foretold her imminent destiny and death.
By the time she moved back to Bogotá in 1817, Policarpa was actively participating in political matters. Because Bogotá was the stronghold of the Reconquista, where most of the residents were Spanish Royalists and supported Pablo Morillo’s takeover, it was very difficult to get in and out of the city. Policarpa and Bibiano entered the capital with forged documents and safeguards, and a letter of introduction written by Revolutionary leaders Ambrosio Almeyda and José Rodríguez. They recommended the siblings stay in Andrea Ricaurte y Lozano’s house, working as her servants. In reality, Andrea Ricaurte’s home was the centre of intelligence gathering and resistance for the revolutionaries in the capital.
In Guaduas, Policarpa was known as a revolutionary, but because she was unfamiliar in Bogotá, she could move freely, meet with other patriots and spies unsuspected, and infiltrate the homes of the royalists. Offering her services as a seamstress to the wives and daughters of royalists and officers, Policarpa overheard conversations, collected maps and intelligence on their plans and activities, identified major royalists and found out who the royalists suspected of being revolutionaries. With help from Bibiano, Policarpa also secretly recruited young men to the Revolutionary cause, helping to increase the number of soldiers the insurgency in Cundinamarca desperately needed.
Policarpa’s work ran smoothly and undetected until the Almeyda brothers were captured while carrying information back to the insurgents outside Bogotá. That information directly linked La Pola to the Revolution, implicating her in helping soldiers desert the Royal Army and join the Revolution; transporting weapons, ammunitions and supplies to the insurgents; helping the Almeydas escape from prison when they were captured earlier that year and finding them refuge in Machetá. The brothers had hoped their connection with La Pola could be useful if there was a revolt in the city. The loyalists now suspected her of treason, but needed solid evidence to accuse a seamstress of espionage and treason.
When Alejo Sabaraín was arrested trying to escape to Casanare, he carried a list of Royalists and Patriots given to him by Policarpa, providing the proof the royalists needed to arrest her. Policarpa and Bibiano were both arrested and taken to the Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Señora del Rosario, which had been turned into a makeshift prison.
On November 10, Policarpa, Alejo, and six other prisoners were sentenced to execution by firing squad on the morning of November 14 1817. Hands bound, La Pola marched to her death in the Bolivar Square with two priests by her side. Instead of repeating the prayers they were reciting, she cursed the Spaniards and predicted their defeat in the coming Revolution. It is said that she cursed the Spaniards relentlessly during the night before her execution as well. At one point she reputedly stopped, tired and thirsty, and one of the guards offered her a glass of wine. She tossed the glass right back at her captors, proclaiming “I would not accept even a glass of water from my enemies!”. After ascending the scaffold she was ordered to turn her back, as that was the way traitors were killed. Refusing to kneel to the Spanish firing squad, La Pola yelled, “I have more than enough courage to suffer this death and a thousand more. Do not forget my example.” When the squad began shooting, Pola turned around to face the executioners.
The bodies of the other prisoners were paraded and exhibited through the streets of Bogotá, to scare off would-be Revolutionaries. As a woman, she was spared this final humiliation; her brothers reclaimed her body and gave her a proper funeral.
On November 8 1967, Law 44 was passed, declaring that November 14 would be the “Day of the Colombian Woman” in honour of the anniversary of Policarpa’s death. She has been depicted on Colombian money many times over the years. While many idealized or mythological female figures have also appeared, for a long time her portrait was only one of an actual female historical personality ever used. The “Diez Mil Pesos” bill ($10,000) is currently the only denomination with Policarpa Salavarrieta’s image still in circulation. In honor of the 100th anniversary of the independence of Colombia in 1910, the Government of Colombia issued a series of stamps that featured the images of some of the Heroes of the Independence, including Policarpa. Between 1903 and 1904 the Department of Antioquia issued a blue 3 pesos stamp depicting La Pola.