| Carmen Salinas de la Vega | |
| Office: | First Lady of Ecuador |
| Term Label: | In role |
| Term Start: | October 15, 1849 |
| Term End: | June 10, 1850 |
| Term Start2: | May 16, 1869 |
| Term End2: | August 10, 1869 |
| Predecessor: | Juana Andrade Fuente Fría |
| Predecessor2: | Mariana del Alcázar |
| Successor: | Tomasa Carbo y Noboa |
| Successor2: | Mariana del Alcázar |
| President: | Manuel de Ascásubi |
| Birth Date: | June 1807 |
| Birth Name: | María del Carmen Celestina Ascencia Salinas y de la Vega |
| Birth Place: | Quito, Spanish Empire |
| Death Date: | 1 May 1881 |
| Death Place: | Quito, Republic of Ecuador |
| Nationality: | Ecuadorian |
| Spouse: | Manuel de Ascásubi |
| Children: | See Marriage and descendants |
Carmen Salinas de la Vega (María del Carmen Celestina Ascencia Salinas y de la Vega (June 1807 – 1 May 1881) was an Ecuadorian aristocrat, and the First Lady of Ecuador to Manuel de Ascásubi from 1849 to 1850 and once again in 1869.
Carmen Salinas de la Vega was born María del Carmen Celestina Ascencia Salinas y de la Vega to Juan de Salinas y Zenitagoya, a hero of the Ecuadorian War of Independence, and his wife María de la Vega y Nates, a Creole.[1]
When her father was killed in the, thanks to the religious community of Quito, her mother and oldest sister María Dolores served their sentences banished to the Monastery of La Concepción, thus avoiding being hanged for their support of the riot, but their property was confiscated by order of the President of the Province of Quito, Manuel Ruiz Urriés de Castilla.
Her mother died on 1 December 1820 and was buried at the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Merced, leaving Maria Dolores to look after Carmen, now aged 13. After the War of Ecuadorian Independence, the sisters recovered their properties when it was restored to them by Colonel Antonio José de Sucre in 1822.[2]
Salinas married Manuel de Ascásubi, future President of Ecuador, whose mother was Marquess of Maenza and Countess of Puñonrostro, a title he would not inherit because of laws issued by Simón Bolívar and then ratified by the Ecuadorian government).[1] They had four daughters:[3]