La Tapada/La Pericholi
These statues are all over Lima, Peru. They represent a style of dress called La Tapada. In the 1500s it was a style for the women to wear a veil over their head with just one eye showing. This was not a religious thing from what I understand, but a fashion thing.
The Tapada was a style of veiled dress worn by women in Lima, Peru, from the 16th to the 19th century, featuring a long cloak (mantón) that covered the entire body and face, with only one eye visible. Originating from the 1530s Spanish conquest, this fashion provided women with a degree of public freedom and anonymity, allowing them to move through the city and engage in social life without full public recognition. The practice was both a symbol of individual freedom and a subject of societal debate, inspiring both condemnation from the Church and fascination from foreign travelers who documented the phenomenon in literature and art.
During the 18th century in Lima, cohabitation between Spanish born in Spain and mestizas (Indians/Spanish) created tensions that lead to Peru Independence.
From these tensions, has born an original rivalry between the women born in Spain and the mestizas born in Peru.
The Spanish women who arrived with their wonderful dresses and their jewels from the old continent aroused Lima’s Mestizas and in return, the Mestizas created the Tapadas fashion (the covered). It consisted of hiding all the face except one eye but exhibiting part of their legs in the open air, which, at this time, was properly outrageous.
For their behavior, these “feminists” were considered scandalous and flashy for the period and attracted the anger of the Catholic Church.
The most famous of these Tapadas was, undoubtedly, the actress Maria Micaela Villegas, who was the mistress of Vice-king Amat y Juniet. This one, during a public dispute, she was called a a “bitch of mixed race”, as a result she won the nickname of “La Perrichola”. Maria Micaela Villegas Hurtado (28 September 1748 – 16 May 1819), was a Peruvian entertainer and mistress of Manuel de Amat y Junyent, Viceroy of Peru from 1761 to 1776. Their son, Manuel de Amat y Villegas, was one of the signers of Peru’s declaration of independence from Spain on 28 July 1821.
La Perricholi was the sixth child born to Don José Villegas and Doña Teresa Hurtado de Mendoza. Born in either Tomayquichua (in the province of Huanuco) or the capital city of Lima, she was baptized at the Lima Cathedral on December 1, 1748.
She debuted on the stage of Coliseo de Comedias in 1763 and became a popular star within romance and comedy. She retired in 1788, and married in 1795.
Her story provided the basis for Prosper Mérimée’s comic one-act Le Carrosse du Saint-Sacrement, which in turn provided the basis for both Jacques Offenbach’s opéra bouffe, La Périchole and Jean Renoir’s 1953 film Le Carrosse d'or (The Golden Coach).
A miniseries was made in 1994 based on her story. It had great success and launched the career of Mónica Sánchez (that had the role of La Perricholi). It was written by Eduardo Adrianzen.
She and the Viceroy are prominent characters in Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey.
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