Gómez, born into a long-established Dominican family, was a woman with broader horizons than other women of her time.
Gómez brought Gardenia jasminoides[1] ('jazmín de la India'; 'jazmín del Cabo')[a] plants from Venezuela, whose white flower served as a Duartian symbol in the hair of Dominican women and in the buttonhole on the chest of the heroes in the days of the Trinitarios.
[1] Gómez married twice, first to Francisco Marcano, on April 29, 1820, who died the following year in a shipwreck off the coast of Haiti when he was returning from Cuba, where he had gone to receive his law degree.
The second marriage was with Lucas de la Cova, on March 23, 1829, by proxy, since he was in Saint Thomas.
The filoria served as a distinctive symbol for the young supporters of the independence cause, who proudly displayed it in their hair, in a buttonhole or at the shoulder or neckline of their dresses.