Santiago de Querétaro is known as one of the “Cradles of Mexican Independence”. The city was quite peaceful during the Spanish occupation with the local Indigenous population enjoying a non-combative relationship with the Spaniards. This led the Spanish occupiers to let their guard down allowing the conspirators to meet right under their noses. One of the key conspirators was Josefo Ortiz de Dominguez, the wife of the city’s mayor, a Major in the Spanish army. She used her social position to eavesdrop and gather information which she then passed on to the conspirators. One very important piece of information she gathered was that the Spanish were about to arrest the Priest, Miguel Hidalgo. Even as both her and her husband’s own arrests were imminent she still managed to get word to Hidalgo who fled back to his Church in Dolores and, three days later issued his Grito de Dolores, starting the Revolution one day earlier than planned. Her heroic actions saved the Revolution.
One of the main statues in the city honours this brave woman.
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