• TOP 15: POLICARPA
SALAVARRIETA
She was born in 1795 – 14 November 1817, also known as La Pola, was a Neogranadine
seamstress who spied for the Revolutionary Forces during the Spanish
Reconquista of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. She was captured by Spanish
Royalists and ultimately executed for high treason. She is now considered a
heroine of the independence of Colombia.
Because her birth certificate was never found, her
legal given name is unknown. The name Salavarrieta is known only by the names
her family and friends used. Her father referred to her as Apolonia in his
will, which Salvador Contreras, the priest who formalized the testament on 13
December 1802, confirmed. Her brother Viviano, who was closest to her because
when her parents died she was the one who took care of him. La Pola started
being called Policarpa, when the armed forces in Guaduas started looking for.
In her 1817 forged passport, used to get in and out of
Bogotá during the Reconquista, she appeared as Gregoria Apolinaria. Andrea
Ricaurte de Lozano, whom Policarpa lived with, and officially worked for in
Bogotá, as well as Ambrosio Almeyda, a guerrilla leader to whom she supplied
information, also called her by that name. Her contemporaries referred to her
simply as La Pola, but Policarpa Salavarrieta is the name by which she is
remembered and commemorated.
