Anita Arnand

He hasn't got much time left.

And it is only a matter of months later that the end of the Liberator occurs.

And the date is December the 17th, 1830.

And you can tell us a little more about his death.

Yes, I mean, sweetly, Marquez has Manuela reading to a dying Bolivar, you know, like this, you know, the final act of somebody who loves him and is faithful to him in a world that has turned completely against him.

But shall I tell you the truth?

Manuela wasn't with him when he died.

She was forced to stay in Bogota.

They were kept apart.

Kept apart.

And they're watching her every move.

And when she received the news of his death, she completely has a breakdown.

Her political, social life, everything was intertwined with Bolivar's.

You know, his death effectively kind of ended her life, as it were.

She'd lost her love.

She'd lost her reason to carry on.

And then the years after Bolivar's death, Manuela gets expelled from both Colombia and Ecuador.

The new government of Colombia see her as an enemy.

She's too closely associated with the Bolivar stink.

Ecuador, the leader there, Juan Jose Flores, bans her from the country and makes really explicitly misogynistic references to her masculine character and her vices.