'Half My Body Free, the Other Half Enslaved': The Politics of the Slaves of Guayaquil at the End of the Colonial Era

''I'm a slave, sir'', said Reyna Maria Luisa. ''Not anymore'', Bolivar said. ''Love has made you free''. In the morning he bought her from the owner of the hacienda for one hundred pesos taken from his impoverished treasury and granted her unconditional freedom. Before he left he could not resist the temptation of presenting her with a public dilemma. He was in the back patio of the house with a group of officers who sat any way they could on the backs of pack animals He asked Reyna Maria Luisa with good humor: ''Are you staying or coming with us?'' She answered with an enchanting smile: ''I'm staying, sir''. Unanimous laughter greeted her reply General Jose Antonio Paez, whose faunlike expression harmonized with his shirt patched in many colors, burst into expansive laughter. ''Now you see, General'', he said. ''This is what we get for acting like liberators''.