Maria Concepcion, heroine of the revolution

The situation was grave indeed. The Father of South American Independence, Francisco Miranda, who had been forced to surrender to the Spanish Commander Monteverde, was sent, a prisoner, to Spain where he died in prison. Bolivar escaped to what is now Colombia to become the leader of the Independence Movement, The Liberator. But, in 1812, liberation for Venezuela was a long way off. It seemed that, worn out by civil strife and the horrors of war, the people of Eastern Venezuela were giving in, submitting to a return to rule by Spain. However, Marino and fellow revolutionaries/independence fighters who fled with him to Chacachacare, were determined to launch a new offensive against the royalists as soon as possible.

At that time in the UK (1812-13) Trinidad was still regarded as an experimental colony. There were, by some accounts, only 500 or so English settlers as against (again, by some accounts) 20,000 Spanish and French creoles and their slaves. When an attempt was made to force the courts to conduct trials in English, and the Cabildo to debate and record minutes of their meetings in English, the indignant colonists would have none of it. Then, to their great relief, when introduced to the House of Commons in London, the motion was defeated.

The Marinos and friends were not the only Venezuelan patriots living in Trinidad. We have noted, in passing, the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death, in St Joseph, of Venezuelan patriot, Manuel Gaul; Pedro Vargas was another who corresponded with Miranda prior to his attempt to invade Coro. Inspired with revolutionary fervour, Joseph Lambot and (surprisingly considering his rank) the Comte de Lopinot and many more French creoles settled in Trinidad sympathised with and gave support to those involved in the Independence Movement.

Marino and his sister, Maria Concepcion, felt sure they could raise a fighting force to challenge the royalists on the mainland. Accounts vary, E L Joseph wrote that, due to the changing alliances in the European wars, Spain was now Britain’s ally in the fight against Napoleon; this meant that the authorities in Trinidad could no longer turn a blind eye to the activities of the Venezuelan patriots living, mainly in the valleys of the Northern Range and on Chac-achacare. Joseph writes:

"Santiago Marino, a rather wealthy planter named Manuel Valdez, J B Bideau, the two Bermudez, Armurio, Azcue and one or two others, made a collection of as much money as they could raise, and in this island secretly accumulated and armed with muskets 200 volunteers. The local government knew nothing of this enterprise. At length, on or about the 6th January, they prepared to cross the gulph (sic), when the greater part of the volunteers, having received money by way of bounty, retracted from their promise and refused to embark. Their enterprise was desperate, so were their circumstances. They had correspondents at Guiria, who only awaited them, to rise on the royalists. The apparent insignificant party of Marino and Valdez crossed the gulph in two open boats, and with daring that was only exceeded by Napoleon’s return from Elba, they surprised and seized Guiria with 35 men. In a few days they had armed and were joined by hundreds of inhabitants of that city, which, since the time of Picton, was chiefly inhabited by disaffected French which that Governor had driven from Trinidad."

On the other hand, the Commission of Enquiry into the Expedition to Guiria differs somewhat from Joseph’s account. Reading from Fr de Verteuil’s book The Western Isles of Trinidad we learn that Governor Munro was closely monitoring the activities of the Patriots who were in touch with relatives and friends on the other side of the Gulf of Paria.

The Sanders home on Chacachacare was the ideal headquarters for those planning a return to Venezuela, being a fair distance from Port-of-Spain and spying eyes, close to the mainland, and close to Patriots living in valleys in Diego Martin and Chaguaramas.

While Maria Concepcion organised food and shelter for those taking refuge in Sanders Bay, her husband’s rum shop in Port-of-Spain was the recruitment centre for volunteers. The St Lucian shipbuilder and Venezuelan independence fighter and hero, Jean Baptiste Bideau, who had fled to Chacachacare with Santiago Marino, was one who did his best to drum up support for the expedition but, apparently, without much success.

Patriots met in the house of Manuel and Joseph Valdez. Volunteers who know how to use a gun were promised five dollars (a considerable sum in those days) and (somewhat unwisely, as it turned out) given a four-dollar advance.

Guns were stockpiled, Bideau and the Bermudez brothers got promises and gave money to about 200 men. The Commission of Enquiry concluded that, excepting the Governor, everyone who was anyone in Trinidad knew of Marino’s seemingly suicidal plan to invade the mainland and capture Guiria.

Maria Concepcion had boats and arms at the ready but when the day, January 6 1813, dawned, only 45 men, including Marino, Bideau, and the Bermudez brothers, kept their promises. Maria Concepcion had an ox and a goat killed and roasted to feed the hungry volunteers who made a solemn pledge to conquer or die in the attempt to free Venezuela from Spanish rule.

As Joseph wrote, they crossed the Gulf in two open boats and, incredibly, with only five muskets and a handful of men, captured Guiria. The town rose in support of the Patriots. The Patriots rejoiced but Governor Munro was not pleased. As soon as he received news of the triumph of what became known in Venezuela as "The Immortal 45" from the Governor of Cumana, Munro ordered John Lopinot to the Sanda home in Chacachacare. Lopinot returned, no doubt after enjoying the hospitality of the charming and beautiful, intelligent young matron Maria Concepcion, to report that all was quiet, that everyone he spoke to said they’d seen nothing untoward, no unusual activity.

Governor Munro wasn’t convinced. He should have known the Lopinots were friendly with Miranda and, no doubt, the Marinos, too. Munro went to Chacachacare where his suspicions were confirmed: the Patriots had indeed gathered, armed themselves with what guns were available and some provisions and rowed away (probably from La Tinta Bay) across the Gulf.

Whereupon Munro proclaimed martial law and set up the Commission of Enquiry that (no doubt to Munro’s fury) whitewashed the whole affair. We are told Maria Concepcion was a star witness at the Enquiry. However, it was glaringly obvious that without the support of Marino and his wealthy sister, Maria Concepcion and her husband, sheltering the refugee Patriots, providing funds to pay the volunteers, buy arms and provisions and supplying boats for the crossing, the expedition could never have taken place.

Munro confiscated the Marino properties on Chacachacare but Lopinot, charged with the sale of the Marino/Sanda land, could find no buyers. The struggle on the mainland continued for many a long year. Even though the Marino lands were forfeit, Chacachacare continued to be a base for smuggling guns and ammunition across the Gulf to supply Marino’s army fighting for Independence. In 1815, determined to put a stop to the supply of arms to the Revolutionaries, Governor Sir Ralph Woodford threatened all who supported the cause of Venezuelan Independence would be exiled from Trinidad, their property forfeit to the State. Still the Sanda family stayed on until, in 1821, the property was put up for sale (but perhaps, not sold) and Maria Concepcion set sail for Jamaica with a cargo of arms and ammunition for her brother Santiago, still fighting on the mainland.

Wealthy though she was having properties on the mainland and in Margaritas, too, Maria Concepcion bankrupted herself in the Republican cause. Fr de Verteuil notes that with Venezuelan Independence (though not peace) achieved, after her brother’s death Maria Concepcion lived for some time with her daughter Pascuala and son-in-law in Venezuela. Yet, it seems she never wanted to leave Trinidad or her beloved Chacachacare because when her son-in-law died, Maria Concepcion and Pascuala returned to Trinidad, to live in Port-of-Spain, with occasional visits to Chacachacare.

Maria Concepcion, heroine of the Venezuelan Independence movement, died, one account says on her family estate in Chacachacare in 1854, another reports that she died sometime before 1866. She lies buried in the family plot in Lapeyrouse. That grave is her only memorial in Trinidad. One wonders whether Government would allow a plaque to the memory of this brave, resourceful woman to be placed in Sanders Bay to remind us of the ties between Trinidad and so near yet, for so many of us, so far — Venezuela.