In Atlas Obscura’s Q&A series She Was There, we talk to female scholars who are writing long-forgotten women back into history. On the evening of September 25, 1828, Manuela Sáenz received a letter from her lover. He wasn’t feeling well and would she come to the palace? She found the Venezuelan revolutionary Simón Bolívar feverish in his room at the Palacio de San Carlos in Bogotá, Colombia. She read him soothing poetry as he slipped into a warm bath. Then the pair climbed into bed and fell asleep. But, soon…
