Manuelita Saenz

My last and final play called "Manuelita" on Venezuela was never published as I ran out of funds after my other plays ("Sibylla", "Titus and the Gates of Syon", and "My last Farewell") found few buyers. I received some advice that I should be writing novels, and that at any rate historical plays did not have much of a global market these days. That has left "Manuelita" on the stocks, perhaps never to see the light of day. Someone may in 300 years time come across a dusty copy and reflect it mirrors 21st Century attitudes. Who knows? It might also form the basis for a spectacular South American movie!

From my years in Venezuela, I became rather fond of Manuelita, and indeed of the support that the British Legion gave for the liberation of South America from Spain! British governments these days lack imagination and don't much support freedom fighters!
Manuela was the mistress of Simon Bolivar, the Liberator of South America. As a young girl, she had a rather dubious reputation, and her father could only find an English doctor to marry her. The English often seem to be quite flexible in such intimate matters when a Latin family would have put her beyond the pale. They may have been right, but poor English Dr Thorne would have taken her back years later through all the scandals. They had no children and that may have been the root cause of what happened. Manuela was barren.
After the battle on the slopes of Mt Pinchincha in Ecuador, Manuela - Mrs Thorne - attended a ball in honour of the victory and Simon Bolivar attended, even though the battle was won by his able Venezuelan lieutenant - Jose Antonio Sucre. Simon and Manuela danced all night and eventually disappeared together into the dawn.
It was scandal, but Manuelita remained faithful to Simon Bolivar for the remaining years of his and indeed her life, and looked after his papers and his legacy.
She was disgraced by the politicians of Great Colombia and Venezuela after his death in Santa Marta on the coast of Colombia eight years later. She was sent into exile and eventually died some 30 years later of diptheria, an exile in Paita on the Peruvian cost. To live she sold cigars and sweetmeats from a small shop to the American Pacific whaling fleets, but for those who had known her in the glory years of the South American fight for freedom she remained a special friend. She is special still today! Sadly all her valuable papers were burnt after her death as diptheria was a contagious.
In 2007, I am not sure that I entirely approve of Hugo Chavez socialist policies in Venezuela, but Hugo does at least inherit this idea from Simon Bolivar that freedom is worth fighting for however you wish to define it. British troops still are entitled to march through the streets of Caracas with fixed bayonets for without the British Legion the liberty of South America might not have ever been achieved. I at least have not forgotten that, nor the Venezulan fight for freedom nor indeed Manuelita herself! It is after all only 180 years ago.