when she attempted to return to ecuador in 1835, the ecuadorian president, vicente rocafuerte, revoked her passport. she then took refuge in northern peru, living in the small coastal town of paita. for the next twenty-five years, a destitute outcast, manuela sold tobacco and translated letters for north american whale hunters who wrote to their lovers in latin america. while there, she met the american author herman melville, and the revolutionary giuseppe garibaldi.