Sánchez, Mariquita, 1786-1868

Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson y de Mendeville, also known as Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson (1 November 1786 – 23 October 1868), was an Argentine socialite and activist from Buenos Aires. She was one of the city's leading salonnières, whose tertulias gathered many of the leading personalities of the time. She is widely remembered because the Argentine National Anthem was sung for the first time in her home, on 14 May 1813. One of the first politically outspoken Argentine women, Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson has been considered the most active female figure in the revolutionary process. Sánchez married her cousin, Martín Thompson, in 1805. She authored a first-hand account and description of the failed British invasions of Buenos Aires which illustrated the ambivalence felt by the locals regarding the invasions. She became a widow in 1819, and remarried to French expatriate Washington de Mendeville in 1819 or 1820. During the rule of Juan Manuel de Rosas, she lived in exile in Montevideo, taking periodic trips to Rio de Janeiro before ultimately returning to Buenos Aires after the Battle of Caseros.