So for today’s podcast, we are going to start with something easy.. and talk about daily life..

Today, Professor Boutin presents Juan Maria Gomez Pastor, the Secretary of War.

Handsome, in a bushy porkchop Elvis kind of way, isn’t he?

Ranked: Most Tragic Fates (1810–1830)

1. Jorge Tadeo Lozano

Journalist, Scientist and Politician

President of Cundinamarca in 1811, former Mayor of Santa Fe de Bogota

Fate: Executed by firing squad in 1816 during the Spanish Reconquest.Why tragic: A cultivated nobleman, scientist, and early patriot, he was humiliated, imprisoned, and killed when royalist forces under Morillo retook Bogotá. His intellectual gifts could have served the republic for decades.

2. Camilo Torres Tenorio

Lawyer, politician

President of the Republic 1815 -1816 (United Provinces of New Granada)

Fate: Captured and executed in 1816. Body reportedly mutilated and displayed as a warning.Why tragic: One of the era’s greatest political minds, author of the Memorial de Agravios. His death became a martyrdom symbol.

3. Antonio Nariño

Politician, Military leader

Vice President of the Republic (Gran Colombia) 1821

Governor/ President of Cundinamarca

Fate: Years of imprisonment, illness, exile, and political persecution.Why tragic: Translator of the Rights of Man, brilliant but combative. He spent much of life jailed by both Spaniards and political rivals.

4. José Miguel Pey

Fate: Politically sidelined, overshadowed, died without great national recognition.Why tragic: First creole to govern after independence events, yet remembered far less than louder rivals.

5. Custodio García Rovira

Fate: Captured and executed in 1816 at a young age.Why tragic: Scholar-president whose term came amid collapse; little chance to govern before death.

6. Liborio Mejía

Fate: Executed in 1816 at only about age 24.Why tragic: Essentially handed leadership during national ruin, then killed almost immediately.

7. José Fernández Madrid

Fate: Fled advancing royalists, denounced as coward by some patriots, later lived in exile.Why tragic: Not executed, but his reputation suffered for generations.

8. Manuel Bernardo Álvarez

Fate: Executed in 1816.Why tragic: Elder statesman caught in factional war, then Spanish vengeance.

And who doesn’t love a sidebar??

I probably should have fallen in love with Simon - because then I would have only Manuelita Saenz to compete with.. But I didn’t - and then along came Tomas, and my heart was lost.

rumor and scandal in the second part of our look at the woman who captured the heart of the great General..

As his modern day mistress - I can’t help but compare myself to her, and wonder if he would find me lacking.

Amor y poder en la vida del general Mosquera / Alonso Valencia Llano.

Valencia LLano, Alonso, 1954-

2000

Biblioteca Banco de la República | Colombia - Historia y espacio : revista de estudios históricos regionales (Cali) No. 16 (Ene./Jun. 2000). -- p. 41-74

While he may look soft, and a bit weak in this portrait, General Pablo Morillo was not to be trifled with.

Except of “Amor y Poder en la vida del General Mosquera” by Alonso Valencia Llano, translated from Spanish.

Amor y poder en la vida del general Mosquera / Alonso Valencia Llano.

Valencia LLano, Alonso, 1954-

2000

Biblioteca Banco de la República | Colombia - Historia y espacio : revista de estudios históricos regionales (Cali) No. 16 (Ene./Jun. 2000). -- p. 41-74

Portrait of Camilo Torres Tenorio, one of the founding fathers of the new nation of Gran Colombia..

Our history starts when young Tomas is just nine years old.. Life is changing, in Spain, and it’s colonies..

Florero de Llorente

¿Cómo puedes entender mi amor por Tomás, si no sabes qué clase de hombre es?

Did she care about him at all - or just his power, his influence and his money? It was child’s play for her to wrap him around her little finger, or so it seemed..

Like mistresses throughout history, she didn’t care about the pain and devastation she wrought in her pursuit of wealth and security. She was more than twenty years younger than his wife - about the same age as his daughter… But she made sure he knew that she didn’t wanted to be treated in a fatherly way..

She pursued him across the continent, accompanied him to the United States and contacted him later, when he lived in exile. She didn’t declare her love, she reminded him of her youth - and feminine form. But who was she? There is so much that we still don’t know about the woman who captivated the president and scandalized a nation.

This is the first of a two part lecture on Susana Llamas.