Dog and chola, the history of "La Perricholi"

Hi everyone, I hope that each of you is very well and in one of my first articles I told you about one of my trips to the central jungle and the beautiful city of Huánuco very close to the city I had the opportunity to visit one of the towns known as Tomayquichua, this town has the firm conviction of being the cradle of the birthplace of one of the women who shaken the colonial Lima of the viceroys and that Cucufata Lima and “guachafa” in which there are still remains in some Limans that are believed to be superior to the rest of Lima and Peruvians, when it should not be.

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Today I want to tell you about the story of one of the most prosperous and controversial women as her name because I mean no one else and no one less than la famosa Perricholi.

We are going to realize that the Lima of the 18th century in which the incredible Miquita Villegas lived was full of many realities that somehow wanted to close the way to his prosperity, and we will be able to realize that Perricholi was a woman of great thrust who could destroy and shut her mouth to all those Lima cucufatos that were believed superior to all by the simple fact of belonging to the colonial aristocracy.

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The history of Perricholi is also linked as we are going to see little by little with different places in the center of Lima and the traditional Lima district of the Rimac, it is without a doubt a historical character that has caused many inspirations from plays to soap operas and I can't get rid of one of the "La Perricholi" novels that they gave on the Peruvian channel when I was a child.

On the other hand, I tell you that when I was studying tourism in San Marcos, my teacher made us take pictures with many monuments of the historic center of Lima and that of Rimac and it was so that little by little I became increasingly interested in the history of the Perricholi and its connection with the center of Lima.

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The Perricholi is a woman who somehow generates many myths and stories of her existence, including many controversies.

Earthquake Destroyer:

To understand this we have to travel magically to the year of 1746, this year I have it quite well recorded in my head since it reminds me of a catastrophic stage in the history of Lima does anyone know why? Well dear friends I tell you that that year happened one of the most catastrophic earthquakes in the history of Lima that destroyed almost the entire city and in addition to this also happened a terrible tsunami that ended up taking the lives of many people from the first port Chalaco from Peru.

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In those days the Viceroy who was for those who are not from this part of the world, the representative of the King of Spain began to rebuild Lima, that Viceroy was called Manso de Velasco also known as the Count of Superunda and just near the street of the Santo Domingo church in the center of Lima where today that street bears his name, there are also going to find different houses such as Casa Osambela and the Convent of Santo Domingo of the Dominican order where my university was founded, the National University of San Marcos.

It is precisely in times of reconstruction when the character is born that today we will treat a September 28, 1848, the future Perricholi his father was Arequipeño and had several children and lived in the center of Lima.

From Lima or from Huánuco:

Miquita Villegas was born very close to what is now known as the Congress of the Republic, but right from its birth it is that we realize that we are starting to weave a thread of debate and controversy because for those of Huánuco I will have What to say that little paper rules and according to the birth certificate of Miquita Villegas she was born in Lima and not in Tomayquichua, apparently this version of that was born in the town of Tomayquichua was for the unfounded livelihood Ricardo Palma got to know, do you know who he was? This character was one of the writers who was commissioned through his book "Peruvian traditions" to extend the version that Perricholi or Miquita Villegas was born in Huánuco and not in Lima.

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The Villegas Mendoza family was probably middle class and at birth Miquita Villegas went through a stage of economic trouble, additionally the father of Miquita Villegas died while she was very young so she was forced along with her whole family to lower her economic status and rethink many things to survive.

We can even say that Miquita Villegas was a clear example of overcoming since at a young age he saw in the performance a means to generate income, Miquita Villegas to be able to leave his situation was dedicated to comedy and this was somehow very badly seen for the cucufata elite of Lima of those times, since in colonial times being a comedian was somewhat denigrating, it was even considered that this trade was considered very close to the sins of the world.

Miquita Villegas from a very young age was a great one to do everything she liked from acting, playing guitar among other things.

A new viceroy: Manuel Amat and Juniet

It was already the year of 1761 a new viceroy arrived from Spain I mean Manuel Amat and Juniet, his arrival was somehow an advantage for the development of the theater in Lima since this Viceroy was an amateur of this art and not only of this! As we will see later.

This was a great advantage of Miquita Villegas when she was just starting with her new pininos with her innocent thirteen years.

According to historians and what I have been able to find out, the meeting between the Viceroy and Miquita Villegas took place years later when he was 63 years old and she was 19 years old, what a difference in age!

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Miquita Villegas was a secondary actress, she undoubtedly had a great performance to act and sing, this caused the Viceroy to fall in love with the charms of Miquita Villegas and this is how this love story emerges that is being formed in colonial Lima strict of those times.

Lovers of different ages:

They say that for love there is no age limit, well, Miquita Villegas could not refuse the “courtship” he received from the Viceroy and it was so that little by little he was climbing in that ambitious bubble of the Lima elite, thus becoming the main figure of the Lima scene, this led her even to be the first actress of the Lima scene.

His rapid prominence meant that the Lima elite could not tolerate such a woman being with the most powerful man in the Viceroyalty of Peru.

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Being an actress, she made Perricholi not act to be able to get on those cars of the Lima elite, on the other hand it is said that this Viceroy also had the reputation of being a true inveterate womanizer despite being with Perricholi.

Viceroy Amat and Juniet were famous for seeing Lima women according to tradition, you could even see the Viceroy looking at Lima's churches and bringing companion ladies to his palace , however that did not make foot for that Miquita Villegas remained the favorite, the woman who showed herself quietly in the streets showing without any anonymity her romance with La Perricholi.

A Miraflores:

One of the love nests of this couple was the current district of Miraflores, yes that district where the monument is the kiss of a couple, they came in carrosa and in this part they recreated the colonial life from plays and performances being Miquita Villegas the favorite woman of each of her functions.

During her successful years as a first level actress Miquita Villegas lived in the fifth block of Tacna Avenue in what was formerly known as the “egg” street because I tell you that in colonial times each street in Lima was related to the characters that they lived in that street or with special events that had happened on it. Tradition tells us that it was there that Manuel Amat y Villegas was born the son of La Perricholi and the Viceroy.

As we can see, his love was spent in the street of the egg, which was once a bad street since the comedians lived there, including Miquita Villegas.

Fifth Dam:

Some people say that the fifth dam was the place where Miquita Villegas and the Viceroy used that point to make their love flourish but history shows that it was not so since it was built in the 18th century and belonged to The Dam family.

The beautiful fifth dam has been forged in a popular way but when they go to visit it, make no mistake, since Miquita Villegas was never there.

How was it physically?

There is no reliable evidence of how La Perricholi was physically but we can say that for example the dose of charm was not lacking and it was what was left over to Miquita Villegas, his grace was what could captivate any man of good taste, also She says she was a mongrel and small woman. Is this true? Maybe yes maybe not.

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Strong characters the origin of "Perricholi"

Both Miquita Villegas and the Viceroy had the strong character and that is why it is said that in one of those many discussions the Viceroy told Miquita Villegas "Perra Chola" and with his special Catalan accent I remain as "Perricholi" its appealing walls transfer and arrived throughout Lima and was used by his opponents to offend it however, Miquita Villegas gave a special twist to this name and instead took it with great pride and was his hallmark to make his own brand and that lasts until today the famous "Perricholi".

Time to separate:

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In 1776 it was time to return to Spain for Viceroy Amat and Juniet, it was almost fifteen years of power that the Viceroy was in charge of the flourishing Viceroyalty of Peru. Before his departure, different anonymous statements were made anonymously against the Viceroy's relationship with Miquita Villegas, the Lima elite somehow hit Miquita Villegas hard who did not fall at any time in the face of each attack.

As we can realize this was a clear example of overcoming example of Miquita Villegas, Miquita was 28 years old and the Viceroy 75 years, +, it will never be known if there really was a love relationship or not rather a true love between the Viceroy and the Perricholi.

New lovers:

Miquita Villegas also had love again coming to his life, from her his second daughter was born and then he had another one with his partner Fermín Vicente Charri with whom he had a new relationship after the departure of the Viceroy.

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As I was telling you from a very young age, Miquita Villegas was an actress where she began to make her pininos at the today Manuel Ascencio Segura Theater and at the age of 40 she began to form a theater company to continue staying in the incursion of the Lima theater business.

It can be said then that La Perricholi had a good handling not only for acting but also for theater business, we can realize that she became the queen of entertainment.

She even send her son to Europe, and she tells the story that she opposed her son being with a woman of lesser social status and practically forcing her to marry another woman of better social status.

The story also tells that Miquita Villegas bought a mill in the Rimac district and turned it into a good flour business in addition to turning her house into one of the most luxurious in Lima, as we can tell Miquita Villegas was a woman with a lot of power and success.

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Today this house does not exist, and was collapsed and built in what is now the Pilsen beer company in the Rimac district.

The Aguas promenade and the barefoot mall:

It has been repeated many times that the Viceroy Amat ordered to remodel these places in the district of Rimac, however everything implies that it was not so, but that it was built some time after the departure of the Viceroy so the tradition that it was so unfortunately it has no basis, it would have been nice to be like that since it is very common to hear these stories when you go to Rimac or take the urban to go to San Cristobal hill but unfortunately it was not.

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Micaela Villegas died in May 1819 leaving a great legacy to her family and to Lima, her body was transferred to the convent of the barefoot, her death was undoubtedly an event that caught the attention of the entire Lima society, died Miquita Villegas but without a doubt the legend of La Perricholi was born.

Her funeral was organized with great honors even though she asked not to be so, despite all her burial was glorious and her story began to intertwine with the history of Lima.

His assets became many clothes, land, books, much heritage left to his family so they can continue living comfortably in the following years.

The Perricholi is undoubtedly the character that has captivated most in the colonial history of Lima, it was neither holy nor bad, it was a woman who somehow contributed to the development of Lima that is woven into the history of my country.

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I hope you liked this little tribute to Perricholi, a woman who was passionate and firm decisions, and as we see her life was full of a social ascent based on her effort and passion as was the Theater, do you dare to be the new Perricholi of these times?

Let's continue discovering more things about Lima, see you on another occasion. See you soon!

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