Denise Doring VanBuren American history is in his blood. His maternal family, of Dutch origin, settled on the banks of the Hudson 400 years ago, before the English showed up there, when the region was known as the New Netherlands. In the 18th century, during the war for independence, her ancestors joined the militia to fight the British redcoats. And she was born in Troy (Troya in Spanish), in the state of New York, where she had her business in the XIX Samuel Wilson, the supplier of meat for the army that gave rise to the myth of the Uncle Sam. As if that were not enough, the surname she took from her ex-husband
He is indirectly related to the country’s eighth president, Martin Van Buren (1837-1841). Since 2019, this former television presenter and former public relations officer of a large company has been the president of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR, for its acronym in English), a non-profit organization dedicated since 1890 to promoting patriotism, knowledge of history and education, and which currently comprises 191,000 women descendants of those who fought more than two centuries ago for the birth of the nation we know today as the United States.
“We are proud of our ancestors,” says Denise VanBuren during her first visit to Spainwhere she has participated in a meeting of dozens of ‘daughters of the Revolution’ residing in different countries that has served to underline the common history of Spanish and Americans.
A few days ago they reopened a plaque installed in 2006 in the garden of the Casa de América thanking the Spanish contribution to American independence. “We have come to say that we know that Spanish support made the American Revolution possible, that King Carlos III supported the Revolution and allocated arms and men to our cause,” VanBuren tells ABC, convinced that it is necessary to make that part known. of history both in the US and in Spain.
The commemorative plaque itself recalls that the Spanish also provided the revolutionaries with “financial aid for supplies, including cannons, gunpowder, tents, uniforms, quinine, and food distributed throughout Havana and Mexico.” In addition, it underlines that the Treaty of Friendship, Limits and Navigation was signed in the Royal Monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial on October 27, 1795, formalizing a lasting diplomatic relationship of mutual support.
At the event at the Casa de América, the only Spanish representative apart from the managing director of the Casa de América, Óscar Dávila, was the delegate councilor for Internationalization of the Madrid City Council, Santiago Saura (Citizens).
During these days in Spain, the Daughters of the Revolution have paid special tribute to Bernardo de Galvezgovernor of Spanish Louisiana in the 18th century who contributed to the success of the rebels’ cause, including a visit to Málaga and to the cradle of Gálvez, Macharaviayain the same province.
From ‘me alone’ to ‘all together’
Gálvez made the motto ‘Yo solo’ famous by recovering Pensacola from British hands after entering the bay of the same name without the support of the commander of the fleet, fearful of the sandbanks and enemy cannons. However, Denise VanBuren now advocates the slogan ‘all together’ when making Spain’s history known in the US “Together, Spanish and US citizens can better explain the history of what Spain did and, specifically in our case, to contribute to the American Revolution”, he points out.
For example, remember that 400,000 reais that they were going to pay for the second bell tower and the roof of the cathedral of Malaga and that they were finally destined for the American rebels so that they could get rid of British rule. The temple, known as La Manquita, remains unfinished with a single tower more than two centuries later. “That has to be told, the Spanish sacrificed themselves so that we could be an independent nation,” he emphasizes. In his opinion, that of the Spanish “is an important part of the history” of the United States and “it should not remain in the shadows, in the dark, it should shine in the sun”, he encourages pointing to a medal in the shape of the star king that shines on his lapel.
According to the president of the Daughters of the Revolution, telling those lesser-known parts of the story makes it “more vivid, more rigorous, more complete.” In this sense, she is in favor of “telling the stories of the Spanish, the French, the African-Americans, the women, the Dutch bankers who lent money” to the rebellious settlers, or the native tribes who stood up. his side. ‘E pluribus unum’, says US coins in Latin to extol the idea “of many, one”, emphasizes VanBuren. “From many people we became Americans,” she stresses.
In fact, he encourages the descendants in Spain of those who contributed to the independence of the US to join his organization, whose members proudly remember what their ancestors did.
«When the patriots decided to fight for independence they risked their lives, those of their families, their properties, their fortune… They could be imprisoned or hanged. That these men would step forward and take the risk of rebelling is extraordinary, “he says. “We have their DNA, we feel the need to pass on that dream they had for America to our children, our grandchildren, to all our descendants,” he says. We are a living bridge between our generation and the future.”
In the face of the revisionist wave that has swept away in the United States, statues of historical figures ranging from Christopher Columbus a Thomas Jefferson, considers that “it is important to tell the complete story, including what is not always easy to face or accept from some characters from the past, such as slavery -he indicates-. But we also believe that they achieved magnificent things for humanity, such as the government of the people for themselves. “We know that they were imperfect, but that what they did was important, and because of what is happening in the current climate, we are committed to better telling the stories of what has been done.”