Paula Jaraquemada

Paula Jaraquemada was born on June 18, 1768, in Santiago into an influential aristocratic landowning family. In early 1818, following the patriot defeat at the Surprise of Cancha Rayada, the patriot army retreated in disarray toward Santiago.

Jaraquemada opened her vast hacienda of Painé to the wounded soldiers, converting her mansion into a military field hospital, supplying San Martín with horses, cattle, and grain, and arming her farm laborers to join the ranks. When a royalist cavalry detachment demanded the keys to her cellars, she defiantly stood before the officer with an unlit candle, threatening to blow up the entire estate with gunpowder before surrendering a single grain.