María Teresa Josefa Antonia Joaquina Rodríguez del Toro Alayza[a] (15 October 1781 – 22 January 1803), was the Spanish-born wife of Simón Bolívar.

María Teresa was the only daughter of Bernardo Rodríguez del Toro y Ascanio, born in Caracas, Venezuela in the heart of a family with origins in Teror, Canary Islands,[1] and Benita de Alayza Medrano, from Valladolid, Spain.

Upon her mother's death, María Teresa, though of a young age, took care of her brothers and helped her father and her cousin, Pedro Rodríguez del Toro, in matters related to the administration of goods and haciendas.

The aforementioned resemblance with her cousin María del Pilar also leads us to think of her as blonde or of fair brown hair.María Teresa met Simón Bolívar in Madrid in 1800.

It is speculated that María Teresa's father, appeased by the formal engagement, and added to the value of Bolívar's estate at 200,000 duros, gave his permission and blessing to the couple.

[7][b] The marriage certificate reads as follows: In the town of Madrid on the twenty-sixth day of the month of May of one thousand eight hundred and two, in the Parish Church of San Jose, I, Mr. Isidro Bonifacio Romano, Senior Lieutenant of the Cure of the same, having proceeded with the dispatch of Mr. Dr. Juan Bautista of Expeleta, Pro.

Council of Trent, for the just causes that concurred for it; received the just consents; After asking the other questions and necessary requirements and not having resulted in any impediment, I married in Ecclesial Facie, by words of the present that make Don Simón Bolívar, a native of the city and Bishopric of Caracas in America, son of Don Juan Vicente Bolívar and his legitimated wife Doña María de la Concepción Palacios (now deceased) with Doña María Teresa Rodríguez del Toro, a native of this aforementioned town, daughter of Don Bernardo Rodríguez del Toro y Ascanio and Doña Benita Alaiza Medrano (now deceased) preceded the necessary requirements, Don Pedro Rodríguez del Toro, Mr. Marqués de Inicio and others were present as witnesses, together I watched them and gave the nuptial blessings according to the ritual and signed it.

Bolívar, in 1828, described with these words the emotional and affective situation in which he found himself when in 1802 he returned to Venezuela:«Then my head was full of the fumes of the most violent love and not of political ideas ».

The oath of not remarrying again that Bolívar pronounced at that time is considered by his biographers as a rebellious act against the pain derived from the unconditional surrender of his emotional defenses.

The unexpected death of María Teresa is a hard and decisive blow in Bolívar's life that plunges him into the deepest pain ... Again he runs into misfortune and knows how to appeal to his deep energy to face it and move on.

This encounter would be of vital importance to Bolívar's life since Rodríguez, observing the anguish of his former disciple, guided him into political interests as a way to overcome the void left by María Teresa's death.

Simultaneously, a series of sculptures were started for María Teresa and Bolívar's parents, which would be located in the Holy Trinity Chapel in the Metropolitan Cathedral of Caracas.

[16] In the fourth episode of the third season of the Spanish TV series, El Ministerio del Tiempo, Bolívar is aided by the time-travelling agents to find María Teresa.