|
|||
Folklorico Fact!
| La China Poblana. The "Puebla China Girl", La China Poblana, is synonymous with this city, but few poblanos knew her true life story. Catarina de San Juan (1609-1688), originally named Mirrha, was born in Delhi, India, and kidnaped at the age of nine by pirates. The captors sold her to a Portuguese merchant in Manila, who later shipped her to Miguel de Sosa, a poblano who had commissioned the merchant to send him "a little Chinese girl." Sosa and his wife adopted eleven year-old Mirrha in 1620 and baptized her Catarina. Upon the couple's death, Catarina married Domingo Suárez, the Chinese servant of the local parish priest. Seventeenth-century poblanos admired her acts of charity and copied her picturesque costume. Twentieth-century poblanos modified the costume to incorporate the colors and insignia of the Mexican flag. Puebla's monument to La China Poblana, an enormous statue atop a tiled fountain, is located in the northern end of the city at the junction of Boulevard Heroes del 5 de Mayo and Avenida Defensores de La Republica. |
Folklorico Fact!
| La China Poblana. The "Puebla China Girl", La China Poblana, is synonymous with this city, but few poblanos knew her true life story. Catarina de San Juan (1609-1688), originally named Mirrha, was born in Delhi, India, and kidnaped at the age of nine by pirates. The captors sold her to a Portuguese merchant in Manila, who later shipped her to Miguel de Sosa, a poblano who had commissioned the merchant to send him "a little Chinese girl." Sosa and his wife adopted eleven year-old Mirrha in 1620 and baptized her Catarina. Upon the couple's death, Catarina married Domingo Suárez, the Chinese servant of the local parish priest. Seventeenth-century poblanos admired her acts of charity and copied her picturesque costume. Twentieth-century poblanos modified the costume to incorporate the colors and insignia of the Mexican flag. Puebla's monument to La China Poblana, an enormous statue atop a tiled fountain, is located in the northern end of the city at the junction of Boulevard Heroes del 5 de Mayo and Avenida Defensores de La Republica. |