When I found this painting and saw the place it represented (Quito) I couldn’t help but relate it to the story of Angela Batallas since both took place in what is now known as the Republic of Ecuador. In this week’s readings, I was able to learn about the life of Angela Batallas, a slave whose goal was to be free. Her desire for freedom led her to have an illicit relationship with her master, Idelfonso Coronel, who promised to free her. Angela agreed to be Coronel’s mistress in order to gain freedom and be independent of the oppression she suffered all her life. However, after becoming pregnant and giving birth to Coronel’s son, the promise of freedom came to nothing. Angela Batallas was disappointed with Coronel’s forgotten promise and decided instead to find a way for Coronel to grant her freemdom. She managed to have an audience with Simon Bolivar El Libertador with the purpose of presenting her case. He wanted Bolivar to advocate for her and to convince Coronel to keep his promise of freedom. Meanwhile, she mobilized and found witnesses who testified in her favor and sought representation from a lawyer. All this was a example of the discontent that Angela Batallas suffered and the desire to live in free. Possibly Angela’s decision to appear before Bolivar was to expose the reality that many people like her lived at that time, oppressed and unable to speak up. In the story of Angela Batallas we can see the oppression suffered by slaves and mulattos in the colonies. The painting “Mulattoes of Quito” and story of Angela Batallas have something in common, both represent a part of the society that is marginalized. Just as in Phillips’s painting, mulattoes turn their backs on a society that has forgotten them.