Javiera Carrera

Francisca Xaviera Carrera Verdugo, known as Javiera Carrera, was born on March 1, 1781, in Santiago. Brilliant, charismatic, and passionate about liberty, Javiera was the driving spirit and political advisor to her three younger brothers (José Miguel, Juan José, and Luis).

During the Patria Vieja, she hosted political salons that shaped revolutionary policy, and in 1812 she personally embroidered Chile's inaugural blue, white, and yellow tricolor flag. Enduring twelve years of harsh exile in Argentina and Uruguay following Spanish reconquest and the tragic execution of all three of her brothers, she returned to Santiago in 1824, honored until her death in 1862 as a supreme founding matriarch of the republic.