Concepción Lombardo

Despite the unruly era in which she lived, she was strictly educated in a convent school, where she was taught catechism, needlework, and bordaje. She led a normal life, attending the theater, dances, parties, and taking lessons in singing and horse riding. She was orphaned in her early youth and left with few resources. She was linked romantically to an Englishman (and had to hide in a convent as a result) and then with Miguel Miramon, whom she met on a visit to the Military College when he was a lieutenant.

As soon as Miramon reached the rank of major general he proposed marriage. Concepcion Lombardo and Miramon were married in 1858. They ultimately had six children. A year into the marriage, Miramon was elected president and Concepcion Lombardo became First Lady, which caused her much concern since she knew the fractured political and military situation facing Mexico. Nevertheless, she encouraged her husband to fight for their conservative ideals.

From this date, she saw little of Miramon, as he had to continue his military campaign, and the protocol prevented her from accompanying him to either official ceremonies or social events. Mrs. Miramon was not allowed to sit next to him in the official box and had to dance with him at parties, because they were considered protagónicas attitudes of a woman who wanted to feel the same relevance and authority that the president of Mexico. Limited in any matter, Mrs. Miramon alone could not attend public places because it was not well seen.[1]

With the arrival of Maximilian of Habsburg to Mexico, the Miramon Lombardo family went to Berlin. In 1866, when Emperor Napoleon III left the Mexican emperor, Miramon returned to the country to fight for the Second Mexican Empire, which was a lost cause and would end with the imprisonment and execution of Maximilian, Miguel Miramon and Tomas Mejia.

From left to right, execution of the generals Miguel Miramon and Tomas Mejia. On the far right is the Emperor Maximilian, who gave the center, place of honor at Miramon.

She was faithful to the memory of her husband for the rest of his days. He went to Europe, where, according to the advice of the shot Emperor requested the support of the courts of Austria and Belgium. Only Belgian aid received. He lived in Rome and died on March 18, 1921 in Toulouse, France at 85 years old.

With simple style, this intelligent woman gave to the history of Mexico a gem; entitled Memoirs, she began writing at age 80. Along with the set of memories and experiences of his life, laden with a deep knowledge of the circumstances of his time, exposed under the conservative perspective that left her father and her husband, the volume of its publication has a little over a thousand pages.

The Memoirs of Concepción Lombardo Miramon were published 63 after his death, thanks to the generosity of Francisco Cortina Portilla who, as explained in its preliminary Felipe Teixidor the acquired granddaughter Miramon based in the city of Palermo, where, elderly and sick, then he kept giving Spanish classes. While our distinguished friend soothed hardships, forever he rescued the testimony of one of the most tragic episodes in the history of Mexico.[2]

Of Irish ancestry paternally, as Lombardo were a noble family foreigner who had settled in Spain around 1640 and moved to New Spain in the late eighteenth century, and related by matrilineal with the Spanish home of the Marquis of San Felipe; Maria de la Concepcion Josefa Ramona Ignacia Severa Lombardo Gil de Partearroyo, as was to be baptized by Mr. José Maria de Jesus Belaunzarán, Bishop of Linares.[3]

Mons Belaunzarán baptized Concepción Lombardo

He was born in Mexico City on Sunday, November 8, 1835 in a family of ancestry and wealth. It was the sixth of twelve children - six men and six women - who were born of the marriage, joined the April 17, 1824 in the capital, formed by the remarkable and renowned lawyer Francisco Maria Lombardo de la Peña and (August 15, 1799 - April 11, 1855) and his wife, Maria Germana Gil de Partearroyo Miñón (c 1811 -. April 6, 1853).

Lombardo de la Peña was a prominent lawyer, signer of the Declaration of Independence of the Mexican Empire, constituent, 1823, signer of the Federal Constitution of the United Mexican States 1824, who held various positions, including that was several times Secretary of the Treasury and Chancellor in the governments of Santa Anna, Anastasio Bustamante and Valentin Gomez Farias. His wife, Maria Germana, was a beautiful woman capital, as befitted upper-class women of her time, only received religious education in a convent and was dedicated to housework.

As they were many children, the duties of society besides his mother were numerous, Concha could never have been educated at home. He studied at a convent school run by the Peñarrojas ladies. By cross, his parents believed the rigor employed at that school could correct it. There he received a strict upbringing that included flogging, donkey ears and a cat thrown by his bigoted head teacher, who in his own words "was a devil incarnate." The instruction was reduced to reading and catechism that forced her to learn by heart; and when the lesson was not known to the repeated cries word for word. His teachers were so ignorant they could not read or write, not even discern between San Jose and Jesus Christ. All they did well were the work of sewing and embroidery, and Concha had to learn to perfection with tears and punishments. During the training phase, which was to include teacher who was First Lady of Mexico, wife of General Melchor Muzquiz, Joaquina Bezares.

During his student days annually her mother sent her to spend a month outside the capital, a family owned farm in a village called Tizapán.

• Lombardo de Miramón, Concepción. (1980). Preliminary reports and notes of Felipe Teixidor. Mexico, Porrua. XV and 1008 p.
• Serchovich, Sara. (2010). The fate of the consort. The wives of the rulers of Mexico: a forgotten history and story of a failure. Mexico, Ocean. p. 107-116.
• Tovar Ramírez, Aurora. (1996). "Lombardo de Miramón, Concepción" Fifteen hundred women in our collective consciousness. Women biographical catalog of Mexico. Mexico, DEMAC. p. 361-362.