JINHA

NEWS CENTER - In Argentina, a statue of female anti-colonial fighter Juana Azurduy has been erected in place of a statue of Columbus.

A statue of Juana Azurduy, the anti-colonial fighter who commanded 6,000 fighters against the Spanish in the 1800s, has been erected in Buenos Aires. The statue, a gift to Argentina from Bolivia, replaced a statue of Christopher Columbus that stood as a painful symbol of the genocide of native people until 2013.

Juana Azurduy Bermudez was born in 1780, in what was then the Río de la Plata territory of the Spanish crown and is today Bolivia. Juana was born to a native mother and a European father. She spoke Aymara and Quechua in addition to Spanish.

Juana was sent to become a nun at 12, but was kicked out of the convent at 17 for her rebelliousness. When an uprising broke out against Spain, Juana founded her own military force. From 1809 to 1825, she won a number of important victories, including taking a silver mine. Juana's prowess as a commander was legendary; she gave birth to a daughter while at war. She lost four of her sons and her husband in battle.

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