Her descendants include former presidents, such as Oscar Arias Sanchez, as well as the writer Carlos Luis Fallas Sibaja.
[1] At around twenty years old Cardoso was purchased for 300 pesos by Spanish colonisers Tomás Calvo and his wife, Eugenia de Abarca.
[1][2] Their son, Miguel Calvo, began a sexual relationship with Cardoso, and over the following twenty years she had at least five children with him.
[3] Cardoso was 'freed' in 1689 by Eugenia, however she was obliged to remain in service until the older woman's death.
[1] In the same way Quince Duncan and Carlos Meléndez Chaverri, refer to the change in circumstance of her life as one that was common, but often unrecorded, and a significant contributor to the development of Costa Rican society.