Irene Morales Infante

Irene Morales Infante (1 April 1865 – 25 August 1890) was a Chilean soldier who served in the War of the Pacific. She was born in a barrio of Santiago, and lived in poverty throughout her life, working as a seamstress from an early age. When the War of the Pacific began she was only 13 years old, and had been orphaned and twice widowed. Her second husband was executed by the Bolivian military for killing a soldier.

She fought alongside the troops of her unit in the battles of the Tarapacá Campaign in late 1879, at Pisagua and San Francisco. Her valor in these battles and her care for wounded comrades drew the attention of Chilean commander-in-chief Manuel Baquedano, who provided her with official recognition and the rank of a sergeant. She continued to serve in the army for the duration of the war and was famously courageous at the Battle of Tacna in 1880. After the war, she returned to civilian life and died in obscurity, aged only 25. Now considered one of Chile's greatest heroes of the war, her service only became widely known after her death.

Early life Morales was born on 1 April 1865 in La Chimba, a barrio on the Mapocho River in Santiago de Chile, the daughter of carpenter Ventura Morales and Marta Infante. Her father died when she was young, and she moved with her mother to Valparaíso. There she started to learn her mother's trade as a seamstress until her mother married her to an older man in 1877, at age 11. Her husband died during the first year of their marriage, and her mother died about the same time. Pizarro's execution was widely protested by the mostly Chilean population of Antofagasta, which resented what was seen as an unjust Bolivian government.

Military service On 14 February 1879, Chilean forces entered Antofagasta to the welcome of most of the local population, beginning the War of the Pacific against Bolivia and Peru. Many locals enlisted in the Chilean Army, and Morales enlisted as a soldier to avenge her husband by disguising herself as a man and slipping in unnoticed amid the frenzy of patriotism.

Her deception did not last long, for Capt. Hermógenes Cámus saw through her disguise immediately—because of her curved figure and "feminine beauty," he said. Nonetheless, he allowed her to be an unauthorised army cantinière and nurse. These were the only positions available to women in the army at the time, and many women effectively served as both, which Morales did. As a cantinière, she sold food and drink to supplement soldiers' monotonous basic rations, staying with them at their camp and marching with them on operations, and since she was a nurse, she had to be present immediately after battles to care for the wounded. She fought at the amphibious landing and fierce ensuing assault on a Peruvian position of the Battle of Pisagua on 2 November 1879 and at the Battle of San Francisco on 19 November. She was looked up to by the men of her unit for her selfless nursing of the wounded after battles. She also put herself at risk several times to save captured Peruvian soldiers from being abused by her compatriots. She later moved to the 4th Division, in which she served during the Tacna and Arica Campaign. and she was featured in many works of patriotic literature. In modern times, she has been described as one of Chile's "greatest heroes" of the War of the Pacific. Her remains are kept in the Military Mausoleum at the Cementerio General de Santiago, which is maintained by the Chilean Army.

Morales is often compared to Candelaria Pérez, a Chilean cantinière of the earlier War of the Confederation who was also praised for her courage and who also came from La Chimba.