Mountains of Oca

Montes de Oca is the eighth novel in the third series of the National Episodes by Benito Pérez Galdós.
Manuel Montes de Oca was the soldier who led a military uprising that was conceived in Madrid but took place in the city of Vitoria in 1841, just a few months after the end of the first Carlist war.
Following political instability and struggles between moderates and progressives, between supporters of the regency of María Cristina de Borbón and supporters of the government of Baldomero Espartero, the conflicts ended with the extradition of the regent. Through the life of Colonel Santiago Ibero, a friend of Espartero, the author shows us the convulsions of the time until reaching the “Octubrada”, a military uprising led by Leopoldo O’Donell and the moderate Montes de Oca. But the failure of the coup forced him to try to flee to France, being nevertheless captured and sentenced to death by the Esparterista general Martín Zurbano and shot precisely by Colonel Ibero.
The character of Rafaela Milagro stands out in this narrative, a separated woman who represents a clear feminism avant la lettre, a fighter who demands the possibility of divorce and who does not resign herself to being buried alive without being able to rebuild her existence.
As for Santiago Ibero, a liberal soldier, he is in love with Demetria’s younger sister, protagonist of previous novels in the series, which does not prevent him from being temporarily Rafaela’s lover, daughter of a friend.