page_title: Juana Azurduy de Padilla
section_title: Military life and career
hierarchical_section_title: Juana Azurduy de Padilla / Biography / Military life and career
caption_attribution_description: Español: Retrato de Juana Azurduy.
context_page_description: Juana Azurduy de Padilla was a guerrilla military leader from Chuquisaca, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. She fought for Bolivian independence alongside her husband, Manuel Ascencio Padilla, earning the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She was noted for her strong support for and military leadership of the indigenous people of Upper Peru. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, in a controversial political move, statue of Azurduy replaced the one of Christopher Columbus in front of the Casa Rosada, at the time she was a largely forgotten historical figure.
context_section_description: On May 25, 1809, Azurduy and her husband joined the Chuquisaca Revolution, which ousted the governor of the Real Audencia of Charcas, Ramón García de León y Pizarro, and in September 1810, established a governing Junta de Buenos Aires. The revolutionary government was forced out of Chuquisaca in 1811 by royalist troops, but across the Viceroyalty, rebels maintained control of a patchwork of republiquetas, or independent territories. In the fighting, Azurduy was captured and held prisoner in her home by Spanish soldiers, but Padilla killed her guards in a successful rescue.  The Padilla couple escaped Chuquisaca in 1811 to the republiqueta of La Laguna, where they continued to organize rebel forces.
  In 1811, the couple joined the Army of the North under José Castelli and Antonio Balcarce, sent from newly independent Buenos Aires to fight the Spanish occupation of Upper Peru.  They attempted to block invasion of Upper Peru by the Spanish army of the Viceroyalty of Peru, but were outnumbered and eventually defeated, in the June 20 Battle of Huaqui. The hacienda properties of the Padillas were confiscated and Juana Azurduy and her sons were captured, though Padilla managed to rescue them, taking refuge in the heights of Tarabuco.
  In 1812 Padilla and Juana Azurduy served under General Manuel Belgrano, the new head of the Army of the North, helping him to recruit 10,000 militiamen across the republiqueta system. Azurduy was a famous recruiting force, inspiring indigenous people, criados, and even other women, known as the Amazonas, to join the cause. When their mountain territories became overrun by royalist forces, their militia served as the rear guard for generals Belgrano and Eustoquio Díaz Vélez as they retreated and regrouped in independent Argentina.
  Azurduy then took charge of the "Loyal Battalions," a fighting force of indigenous men and women known for their fierce loyalty to their commander. With only slingshots and wooden spears, the "Loyals" beat back Spanish forces in the Battle of Ayohuma on November 9, 1813. General Belgrano was so impressed with her leadership and the bravery of her soldiers that he gifted her his own sword, symbolic of his military power. The Argentine Army of the North, outnumbered and outgunned, was eventually beat back to their border, and the Padilla couple began a phase of guerrilla warfare.
  During an 1815 battle at Pintatora, Azurduy left the battlefield to give birth to her fourth son. In an act that would become legend,  returning hours later to the front lines to rally her troops, and personally captured the standard of the defeated Spanish forces.  On March 3, 1816, near Villa, Bolivia, Azurduy led 30 cavalry, including her Amazonas, to attack the La Hera Spanish forces. The women captured their standard and a valuable cache of rifles and ammunitions for their undersupplied forces.  On March 8, 1816, Azurduy's cavalry forces temporarily captured the Cerro Rico of Potosí, the main source of Spanish silver, also leading a charge which captured the enemy standard. When word of these victories reached General Juan Martín de Pueyrredón of the Argentine army, he formally granted her the title of Lieutenant Colonel in an August 16, 1816 ceremony.
  During the Battle of La Laguna in September 1816, Juana, who was expecting her fifth child, was injured, and her husband was shot and captured by Spanish forces while trying to rescue her.  He was beheaded by Royalists on September 14, and his head was mounted on a pike in the village of Laguna.  Juana found herself in a desperate situation: single, pregnant and with Royalist armies effectively controlling the territory. With the death of Padilla, the northern guerilla forces dissolved, and Juana was forced to survive in the region of Salta. She led a counterattack to recover the body of her husband.
  In 1818 the Spanish temporarily took control of Chuquisaca, and she was forced to flee again with her soldiers to Northern Argentina, where she continued to fight under the command of the Argentinean General Martín Miguel de Güemes. She was appointed 
caption: Portrait of Juana Azurduy, date unknown
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