Historian, writer and diplomat Valentín Abecia Baldivieso referred to Padilla as, "a hero with the soul of a child and the heart of a lion."

[2] A Criollo,[3] Padilla was born in 1774 in Chipirina, Upper Peru (now part of Chayanta Province, Bolivia).

He began studying to be a lawyer at the University of Saint Francis Xavier, but left school to marry Juana Azurduy (born 1781[4]) in 1805.

[3] Padilla joined revolutionaries in the War of Independence on May 25, 1809, the day of the Chuquisaca Revolution, and briefly fled to hide in the Amerindian villages of the highlands.

Other leaders, such as Ignacio Warnes, Juan Antonio Álvarez de Arenales and Vicente Camargo, also organized guerrilla resistance.

[3][5] The song "Manuel Ascencio Padilla" is included on the 1977 La marche et le drapeau album by the instrumental and vocal folk music group Quilapayún.