Juana Ramírez (c. 1790–1856), better known as Juana "La Avanzadora", was a

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a Conscription, conscripted or volunteer Enlisted rank, enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or an Officer (armed forces), officer. Etymology The wo ...

and heroine of the

Venezuelan War of Independence The Venezuelan War of Independence (, 1810–1823) was one of the Spanish American wars of independence of the early nineteenth century, when independence movements in South America fought a civil war for secession and against unity of the S ...

Biography

An Afro-Venezuelan, Ramirez was born into slavery. In 1813, Ramírez commanded an all-female, 100-strong artillery unit, which was instrumental in resisting

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

soldiers' attempts to reconquer the then newly independent

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

and make it a

colony A colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule, which rules the territory and its indigenous peoples separated from the foreign rulers, the colonizer, and their ''metropole'' (or "mother country"). This separated rule was often orga ...

again. Her sobriquet, "La Avanzadora", came from her being the first one to advance.

Legacy

A monument, constructed and declared the District Patriotic Sanctuary in 1975, and then the Regional Patriotic Sanctuary in 1994, designates the final resting place of her remains. The monument, Juana La Avanzadora, was erected in her honor on Bolívar avenue in

Maturín Maturín () is a city in Venezuela, the capital of the Venezuelan state of Monagas and a centre for instrumental exploration and development of the petroleum industry in Venezuela. The metropolitan area of Maturín has a population of 401,384 inha ...

. On October 23, 2001, the symbolic remains of Juana Ramírez were inducted into the

National Pantheon of Venezuela The National Pantheon of Venezuela (''Panteón Nacional de Venezuela'') is a final resting place for national heroes. The Pantheon (Latin ''Pantheon'', from Greek ''Pantheon,'' meaning " Temple of all the Gods") was created in the 1870s on the ...

, the last resting place of heroes of the War for Independence and important figures in Venezuelan society. In 2015 she became the first black woman to be posthumously laid to rest in the

. In 2023,

arachnologists Arachnology is the science, scientific study of arachnids, which comprise spiders and related invertebrates such as scorpions, Pseudoscorpionida, pseudoscorpions, Opiliones, harvestmen, Tick, ticks, and mites. Those who study spiders and other a ...

named a new species of Venezuelan

tarantula Tarantulas comprise a group of large and often hairy spiders of the family Theraphosidae. , 1,100 species have been identified, with 166 genera. The term "tarantula" is usually used to describe members of the family Theraphosidae, although ...

, ''Xenesthis avanzadora'' Sherwood ''et al''., 2023, after her.

References

* Women in the Venezuelan War of Independence People of the Venezuelan War of Independence Venezuelan female military personnel Viceroyalty of New Granada people 1790s births Women slaves 1856 deaths 19th-century Venezuelan women 19th-century Venezuelan people 19th-century slaves {{Venezuela-bio-stub