2023-08-01 09:10:47
Located in the ranking of best sellers since its recent publication, The book “Los Güemes”, by historian Felipe Pigna, proposes a fascinating and rigorous biography of the Salta soldier and politician, the only Argentine general who died in combat during the War of Independence and who with his gauchos victoriously resisted nine royalist invasions, but had to fight -in addition to the foreign invaders- the Salta oligarchy, which viewed the empowerment of those humble men and women with suspicion, and the Buenos Aires government, concerned regarding limiting power of the warlord
The man who at the age of 20 carried out the feat of taking a ship on horseback during the English invasions, the friend of José de San Martín and confidante of Manuel Belgrano, the Salta caudillo remembered as “the father of the poor” is taken up in all its dimensions in Pigna’s brand new book, “Los Güemes y la guerra de los infernales” (Editorial Planeta), where he also takes care of portraying the brave women from his circle: his mother Magdalena, his beloved Carmencita Puch and his sister Macacha.
Throughout these pages, the historian plunges into the history of the man who immediately adhered to the ideals of the May Revolution, who in order to defend and liberate his homeland, set up a military structure in Salta with gauchos called “Los infernales”. , who victoriously resisted nine royalist invasions: an essential figure in the defense of the homeland but lately recognized by national historiography. Even, reveals the author of “Los mitos de la historia argentina”, the writer José Hernández named “Martín Fierro” in his honor, almost as an emblem of the definitive gaucho.
But also, from his narration, the historian questions a certain historical canon, which has privileged narrating the events in Argentina from a Buenos Aires-centric perspective that has precisely clouded the achievements of figures such as Güemes, among many others: «When Güemes died, the official organ of the Rivadavian Unitarians, which is the Gaceta -at that time managed by them- says ‘The abominable Güemes died. We already have one less cacique’. In other words, there were celebrations in Buenos Aires by the Unitarians for the death of Güemes,” said Felipe Pigna.
-Why did it take so long to recognize Güemes as a hero of independence to the same extent as others like Belgrano or San Martin?
– Felipe Pigna: I think because he is a hero to put it like that from the interior, let’s say. The word interior in itself is a horrible word because the interior of what? The whole country is one and there is no interior and exterior, but there is already a bias to speak from the port. Everything that is not the port is interior. There we already have a definition as to who and what national history is, which is supposed to be only the history that happens in Buenos Aires or linked to Buenos Aires and we might continue like this. Like that idea of ”the last town in Argentina” that in reality should be the first because it is surely a border town. In other words, there is a question of language that, those of us who are Foucauldians, attach great importance to it because language also names and determines, so it seems to me that it is important to speak properly and see to what extent that language, that ideological question, has determined the reading of history where people as extraordinary as Güemes who undoubtedly have to be at the level of San Martín, of Belgrano, but went to the background. And it was even explicitly denied: when the official pantheon of heroes was made in 1907, he was removed because of his gaucho status, it is literally said that way. So imagine how much there is still to fight for because, well, we have a holiday, we have greater recognition, but I think it is very important that he join the list of great men and women in our country.
– So it is not yet located at the height of San Martín or Belgrano?
-I think not and the book has that intention, that claim, to place it among the greats as it really deserves. It seems to me that this debt is pending with a person to whom we owe a large part of the territorial integrity of Argentina.
– In that sense, you said that without Güemes, Argentina would end in Córdoba.
– FP: Hopefully it ended in Córdoba. Because the north was defended almost exclusively by him, by the entire device of the gaucho war, by those women and those men who gave their lives to be able to sustain Argentine territorial integrity. And if it had not been for them – if it had been for the will of the Buenos Aires government, the board of directors and those Buenos Aires governments – we would not have had the territorial extension to the north that we have today.
– Güemes was always associated, before the gaucho war, with the courage of having taken the ship Justine on horseback, when he was 20 years old, during the English invasions.
– FP: After we did “Algo habrán hacer por la historia argentina”, the program with Mario Pergolini, where we told that anecdote and many people caught fire and said “how rude” because it speaks of early courage, of absolute recklessness , of a person who decides together with a group of horsemen to knock down an artillery boat. The Justine was a very important ship with 100 crew and 22 guns. It was not easy to take. And that act of courage earned him his promotion, it even earned him the congratulations of the King of Spain at that time, Carlos IV, who named him the great defender of Buenos Aires. It is a foundational anecdote, in the sense of where this boy is going to go, of his courage and his strategic capacity, because on the other hand it was not a crazy action, the guy thought regarding it very well like everything he will do. One of the things that San Martín recognizes in him is his extraordinary organizational strategic capacity. And San Martín, a guy with extraordinary military experience, entrusts him with the defense of the northern border, as he says, calmly understanding that he is going to be the most efficient person in that role.
-Your role was even key in crossing the Andes, which would not have been possible without Güemes.
– FP: San Martín says that without the gauchos of Güemes the crossing would not have been possible because really the role of these gauchos is to stop the armies that are descending from Upper Peru; distract those armies whose objective was to abort the mission of San Martín and reach Buenos Aires to put an end to the revolution. Without that action of those extraordinary years of Güemes from 1812 to 1821, the feat of the crossing would not have materialized, without any doubt. Güemes and his gauchos victoriously resisted nine Spanish invasions by armies that averaged between 4,000 and 6,000 combatants, with officers who had just beaten Napoleon in Spain.
– In the book you explain that Güemes was an enlightened man and that at the same time he had the ability to know how to address the gauchos and the popular sectors. Have you been criticized for his charismatic profile?
– FP: Yes, Paz criticizes him because he was a very conservative and unitary type, who criticized Güemes’ “populism”. But his charisma was absolute and that had to do with the fact that they saw him as one of them. Because he was fighting alongside them, having been a type of family with a lot of money, a landowner who is leaving everything to get on the same level as those gauchos in the fight for independence. It is also very impressive because he might have stayed calm -like many of his classmates who directly decided to make a pact with the enemy- but instead he puts everything he had at stake, leaving aside the comforts of a comfortable life, and He decides for the revolution, just like his sister Macacha.
– How did the adjective “Los infernales” come regarding? Who baptizes them like that?
– FP: The qualifier is very nice because the truth is that it sounds very much like “Game of Thrones” (laughs). The war of “Los infernales” has to do with two things: on the one hand, the color of the red ponchos worn by the gauchos, but fundamentally also with what the Spanish said: the Spanish officials said that these gauchos made their life a veritable hell. They never knew when they were going to be attacked, during the day, at night, at dawn, with what tactic, so they really were the infernals. And it became a positive qualifier said by them, as a symbol of resistance.
-How is the fact that Güemes created a special judicial jurisdiction for the gauchos read, since when they went to the independence wars the landowners sued them for abandoning tasks?
– FP: That’s wonderful because it speaks of the intelligence of this man who was a tremendously cultured guy, something that can be seen, for example, in the writing of his letters, which have very refined twists and quotes from classic authors. This character who understands politics as a whole attaches great importance to legal matters and realizes that there is a ruse being carried out by the Salta landowners, some of them at least, which is to sue the gauchos when they go to fight with the infernal ones and prosecute them for neglect of tasks, then Güemes decides to create a charter -just as there was an ecclesiastical charter or a military charter, well, a gaucho forum-, an extraordinary thing that speaks of his character as an absolute revolutionary. And it was something completely new. It did not exist in America. It is an invention of Güemes that really protected them and that unfortunately was missed following his death, when it was annulled.
– T: To what extent is the history of Güemes written with those who were on his side and how much with those who were his enemies?
– FP: Obviously there is much more written once morest than in favor of Güemes and therein lies the historian’s task of clearing the chaff from the wheat, to use a biblical term. And yes, there is a lot written by the porteños -de Rondeau, Posadas, Alvear, Rivadavia- once morest Güemes and not so much in favor. So it’s very interesting to be able to document this issue to do justice. It happens many times when one sees that certain characters criticize other historical figures, it is because they must have done something, as we said on the television program, that we took that cursed phrase from the dictatorship but gave it a positive meaning. San Martín must have done something, Belgrano must have done something, Güemes must have done something, Juana Azurduy must have done something to deserve so much grievance throughout history.
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