Libertad León González
Historical commemorations are valuable moments
to take inventory and examine conscience
Mario Briceño Iragorry
Let us recall October 9, 1557, it is the founding date of the city of Trujillo, an opportune moment to assimilate the speech that Don Mario Briceño-Iragorry dedicated to his small country, from exile, as a special guest in Trujillo de Extremadura, Spain, on the occasion of the celebration of the IV Centenary of the founding of Trujillo; For that moment, call your essay: Through the city towards the world (1957).
There he exposes different concerns linked to the love for his longed-for land: he expresses and feels the historical value that links both cities, he describes the geographical and human physiognomy of each one, he remembers the founding history of his native Trujillo, he refers to the different names of which It was a traveling city, on several occasions; Also remember, the men who left their mark, the surnames that identify them to infinity with the past and updates the meaning of each one in the present. Don Mario tells us:
On the vigor of that wonderful, resigned and fighting man, the powerful force of the Spanish nation rested yesterday and rests today. “On the vigor of that wonderful man, who from here was like a powerful shaft of the colonizing expeditions, rested during the colonial Middle Ages the strength of the new people who in America rose to gain autonomy and freedom.” (Briceño-Iragorry,1957, p.91).
It refers to the Spanish man, the conquistador and the new man of Spanish America. It is the founding history of the conquest that continues in the processes of colonization and independence of our America. Value the events that transcended that origin. And in that possibility of looking at the past, it raises the value of humanity from the feeling of love; The man who loves his country, his region, his city and province, feels it, if, above all, he loves the family, the one he called, the intimate family picture. In this way, he believes in the importance of commemorations. Without a doubt, respect for tradition encourages the resurfacing of past events in the memory and hearts of the residents.
Today, October 9, we must keep in mind the indissoluble ties between Trujillo in Extremadura (Spain) and New Trujillo in Venezuela, that is, the past of Old and New Trujillo. The founder of Trujillo, Diego García de Paredes, named it this way to remember his city of origin. Don Mario, as a faithful representative of his native Trujillo, tells us: “The new city has come with me is this loving walk to the old town where its proud founder was born.” (op. cit., p. 86). With a deep feeling of Hispanicity, he exalts the meaning of both cities when: “The maternal Trujillo, like the Venezuelan daughter, does not evoke with her name a war feat that would give it aggressive luster; However, with laudable humility, it lowers itself to remember the smallness of its primitive walls.” (op. cit., p.86). Trujillo de Extremadura as a fortified city since the 10th century, witness to battles between Moors and Christians, today a World Heritage Site it shares its name with our city of Trujillo. In Bricenian discourse, the temporal and spatial distances between one and the other are framed in a continuous and univocal sense. His words give predominance to the value of exalting the sense of peace of his well-called, peaceful cityfrom the very moment in which the Most Holy Mary is invoked, in the definitive denomination of the city designated with the name, Our Lady of Peace of Trujillo. The historical settlement document dated October 27, 1570 says: “the foundation and re-edification with the name of Trujillo of Our Lady of Peace so that she, with her infinite goodness, could intercede with her blessed son, giving Peace, concord, friendship and conformity among her neighbors.” (Vargas, cited by Medina Machado, 2019).
Just as history is linked to the name of both cities, the evolution of that name of Trujillo Extremeño also unfolded in repeated variants. in his book Visions in Briceño-Iragorrythe author Pedro Frailán tells us as follows:
A large part of the history of Spain and America has been written in Trujillo; there are more than two millennia of memory that can be seen from these ancient lands. It has been the melting pot of several cultures, hence the evolution of its name Turaca as part of the place name Trujillo, with Roman phonetic influences, Turgalium by the Muslims and Turyaca from the medieval culture. Just as Truxillo or Truxiello, as the name of the ancient sources, creates an important architectural development that remains in force today to tell the experiences of its inhabitants who are no longer a small town sheltered between walls, but a city that, thanks to its children, has founded other towns on American soil. (Frailán, 2015, p.13).
In each founding process the need to name arises; In Nueva Trujillo the names also vary due to their continuous changes:
The city of Trujillo is refounded, for the seventh time, in the valley of the mucas, its current seat. “Portable city”, as it was called, had previously been devoured by the discord of its neighbors, quarrels of the founders, lust and mistreatment of indigenous people, selfishness of the current government, and harassed by plagues of insects (bachacos), swamps or neighborhoods, various diseases, thunder and tremors or storms, “tigers and other vermin”, in the various places where it was fixed, such as Trujillo de Cuicas, Trujillo del Collado, Trujillo de Medellín, Mirabel, Nueva Trujillo, Trujillo de Salamanca and finally Our Lady of Peace of Trujillo. (Urdaneta, 2007, p.66).
Over time, cities increase due to the actions of men, with reflection and spirit; It is these virtues that work in the authentic development of people. Implicit there is the sense of Venezuelanness attached as a constant in the humanity of the Universal Master. By the actions of the men their surnames will be recognized: “A surname is not a mere reference for democratic identification. A surname alone announces an order of conduct transmitted as testimony of a historical gravitation.” (op. cit., p.104). We will say then, as Venezuelans we have a culture: “where our conscience as men was formed.” (op. cit., p.105). Consciousness that cannot be subordinated to the past, but must be forged in each action of the man of the present, in each of his acts, for a better future.
Promulgating the thought of Don Mario Briceño-Iragorry, attached to the values of identity, Venezuelanness, Hispanicity, religiosity and tradition is essential for all of us, because it is linked to profound ethical and moral principles towards leading the destinies of the country. Let us respond to the Socratic wisdom immersed in morality, expressed in the essential questions that Don Mario asks us as citizens, as a people: “What are we? What, by reason of that being, is our common duty? What must we do to reach the ancient root that must be projected into the future? (op., cit., p.94).
Then, he mentions as an example, the civic heritage of the surnames that bear the moral ancestry of his Trujillo heart: Cristóbal Mendoza, Ricardo Labastida, Cruz Carrillo, emblems of civic dignity; Don Manuel Carrasquero, Colonel Juan Nepomuceno Urdaneta, illustrious men; Eusebio Baptista, Don Rafael María Urrecheaga, Dr. Diego Bustillos, Don Juan Bautista Carrillo Guerra, Monsignor Estanislao Carrillo, venerable elders; Caracciolo Parra, Father José Manuel Jáuregui Moreno, the wise José Gregorio Hernández, “whose doctor’s cap disappears under the wonderful halo of the Saint;” (op., cit., p.118); Rafael Rangel, distinguished researcher (Ídem), Monsignor Miguel Antonio Mejía. “They are, in reality, a kind of decent heritage that no hand is capable of tearing from our perennial joy.” (op. cit., p. 119).
Celebrating the founding date of Trujillo capital, through the unscathed words of the Universal Master, strengthens the Trujillo demonym of those who have moral convictions in conscience and in actions, with a coherent and equanimous sense. In the words of the Italian sociologist, Francesco Alberoni: “Morals as an internal duty and as a need of the world.”
References:
Trees; Francis (1993). ValuesGuanajuato, Mexico: Gedisa.
Briceño-Iragorry, Mario (1947). Apology for the peaceful city, In: Academic Discourses and National History (1983), Caracas: Library of Trujillo topics and authors, pp.205-215.
___________________ (1993). From Trujillo to the worldMérida: Publications Council, ULA. Mario Briceño Iragorry Foundation.
Briceño Perozo, Mario (1984). Trujillo the city that does not ageIn:
https://biblat.unam.mx/hevila/BoletindelaAcademiaNacionaldelaHistoriaCaracas/1985/vol68/no270/2.pdf
Frailán, Pedro (2015). Visions in Briceño-IragorryTrujillo: Clay Book. Trujillo through time.
Medina Machado, Ali (2019). Peace Speech, In:
https://diariodelosandes.com/discurso-de-la-paz-por-ali-medina-machado-2/
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