Bedoya de Molina, Dolores (1783–1853)

Dolores Bedoya de Molina (Bedoya González, María Dolores; b. 20 September 1783; d. 9 July 1853), Guatemalan politician. Like most of her brothers, Bedoya was from early on an advocate of Central American independence. She married the statesman Pedro Molina in 1804 and moved to Granada, Nicaragua, where he served as doctor for the fixed battalion until 1811. On returning to Guatemala in 1814, she lent her support to her brother Mariano, imprisoned as a result of the Belén conspiracy against Captain General José de Bustamente in 1813. She supported Molina's campaign for independence in the pages of El Editor Constitucional, and during the proclamation of independence from Spain on 15 September 1821, she led a crowd of advocates for independence outside the Palace of Government. Emancipation brought with it the conflict between republicans and those who favored annexation with the Mexican Empire of Iturbide. This conflict resulted in the assassination of Mariano Bedoya by the government's annexationist forces on 29 November 1821 and the exile of the Molina-Bedoya family to Verapaz. Bedoya always supported the political career of her husband, whether it was as leader of the Liberal Party, chief of state, or political exile.

See alsoGuatemala .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Carlos Gándara Durán, Pedro Molina (1936).

Rubén Leyton Rodríguez, Doctor Pedro Molina (1958).

José Antonio Mobil, 100 personajes históricos de Guatemala (1979).

Additional Bibliography

Morales, Fabiola. Mujer y libertad: Dolores Bedoya de Molina. Guatemala: Editorial Cultura, 1996.

                            Arturo Taracena Arriola