Blackwell Reference Online

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Josefa Camejo, also known as Doña Ignacia, was born in Curaidebo, Pueblo Nuevo in the province of Coro (Estado Falcón, Venezuela). Admired and honored for her brave role in combating the Spanish colonialists in the nineteenth century, she is one of the main female heroines in Venezuelan history. In 1821 she provoked the so-called Revolution of Paraguaná which, although having been defeated at the first stage, finally led to the independence declaration of Coro. It was also an encouraging sign for the following Battle of Carabobo, which represented the last core battle on the way to Venezuelan independence in 1821. Josefa Camejo, whose full name is Josefa Venancia de la Encarnación Camejo Talvera, was a niece of General Pedro Briceño Méndez, who was a comrade of Simón Bolívar. Her parents Miguel Camejo and Sebastiana Talvera were involved in the resistance movement supporting independence, so the little Josefa got involved in revolutionary ideas quite early in her life. Living in Caracas in 1810 she was able to experience the beginning of the Venezuelan revolution on April 3, which strongly shaped her. Encouraged by this occurrence, she decided to get more involved in patriotic social activities. After her marriage to the eminent General Nepomuceno Briceño Médez in Merida, she returned to Barinas where she formed a broad alliance of women to prepare an armed resistance against the ... log in or subscribe to read full text