Gisela Daus
06/19/2020 - 15:58
- Clarín.com
- Culture
Was Manuel Belgrano the first ecologist and environmentalist in Argentina, without even knowing it? Was he also the first feminist man? "His social thought was mutilated and he was put on a horse," summarizes the historian Mario "Pacho" O'Donnell, just 200 years after his death on June 20, 1820. More than military and more than creator of the homeland insignia, although for him the Flag Day is celebrated on that date. Two centuries later, Belgrano is a hero to discover.
At the age of 26 he raised the benefits of growing cannabis or hemp, flax; forest protection; rotation and soil preservation and other topics too new for these lands . Europe had inspired him and brought key lessons and conclusions such as "the soil must be cultivated, not exploited", an idea he registered as Secretary of the Royal Consulate of Commerce of Buenos Aires.
Not only was he a pioneer in this area, he was also noted for his concern to achieve equality between men and women. "Arguably, he was an early feminist ," notes writer Florencia Canale . And her long-range vision led her to worry about the consequences of external debt!
Another Face of Manuel Belgrano / General Archive of the Nation
The patriot also thought of development strategies, of joining the growth beyond the rural honeys and spoke of cooperativism , something still in the making. The historian Felipe Pigna highlights that Belgrano insisted that the country should industrialize . “Neither agriculture nor commerce would be almost in any case sufficient to establish the happiness of a people if the unofficial industry did not enter their aid. There is no development if this life-giving branch does not enter to give value to the rough productions of the one and matter and pabulum to the permanent rotation of the other ”, he quotes before the consultation of Clarín .
He also "saw" the benefits of a plant that would later become controversial. “He was the first patriot to promote the cultivation of cannabis . He thought of a comprehensive project of its cultivation, for industrial use , 'profitable': it would give work, activate the use of land and generate industry. He argued it and tried to apply it. It did not prosper: the Colony did not want to, ”says the journalist Fernando Soriano, author of Marihuana, the story. From Manuel Belgrano to the cannabis cups (edited by Planeta).
Still, he was not spared from desecration. In 1902, his remains were exhumed with a commission appointed by President Julio A. Roca, to transfer them to his mausoleum in the Basilica of Santo Domingo. The coffin had disintegrated but there were its bones and several teeth . Two of them took them away . One Joaquín V. González, Minister of the Interior and another, the Minister of War, Pablo Riccheri. The theft of the teeth spread in several Buenos Aires newspapers and ended when the Dominican friar Modesto Becco, told La Prensa in letters that he had received both teeth. Manuel Belgrano the chozno of the hero, ratifies: "Yes, it is documented, a sad story but it was like that." When returning them, they excused themselves saying that they had been taken to show them to their friends and to Bartolomé Miter.
The best known representation of the death of Manuel Belgrano.
"If he pointed out his vocation, position or trade, he would not say 'military', he would hesitate between economist and educator," says Mario "Pacho" O'Donnell. "He had to lead battles, some won, others lost but it was not the most relevant to his life or what made him most proud. José María Paz -an officer under his command-, describes in his memoirs how Belgrano could have won the battle of Ayohuma : he does not attack at a moment when the Spanish army descends through a gorge, almost in single file ".
Beyond the manuals that immortalized him as the creator of the flag, Belgrano was also a journalist and the first promoter of free and equal public education. He was also a French and English translator, political economist and statesman. He was also recognized as a true dandy. But he was also human: he had poor health from a young age - he contracted syphilis -, found loves, family secrets that include a son he did not know and economic problems, until he died in misery, due to his extreme generosity.
An ace of the environment and sustainability ... or not?
"Planting is planting abundance everywhere and leaving a penguine inheritance for posterity."
"Promoting agriculture, encouraging industry and protecting trade are the three objects that must occupy attention and care." Principles that appear in the Third Belgrano Consular Report.
See this post on Instagram
"Battlefield, I have you" is the anecdote that opens the exhibition "Archive of a hero". The Battle of Tucumán in 1812, an essential chapter in the war for Argentine Independence, is the setting where #ManuelBelgrano stars in this first episode. ⠀ The archives of @agnargentina are presented in correlation with anecdotes about the life and figure of Belgrano, collected by the historian Javier Trímboli, in this virtual exhibition carried out in conjunction with the General Archive of the Nation and @museosypatrimonionacion. ⠀ Enjoy the virtual exhibition at cck.gob.ar ⠀ #Belgrano #ManuelBelgrano # 250 years #elKirchner
A post shared by Kirchner Cultural Center (@elcckirchner) on Jun 3, 2020 at 6:08 PDT
“He was the first ecologist for his conservationist conceptions, derived from the new ideas of the Enlightenment that they were trying to implement in France. It introduced modern concepts of the use of natural resources, with the application of new or other traditional technologies, which the Spanish Crown had not developed here. The "enlightened" Creoles in Europe and united in lodges returned with modernizing and even revolutionary ideas ", confirms the researcher Dina Foguelman.
"The important thing is to pose what we now call 'Belgrano ecology' as the coherence of a political project, of country design, or of sustainable development as it is called now," says Antonio Brailovsky -environmentalist, economist and teacher-. Both are authors of the book Memoria Verde: historia ecológica de la Argentina (South American editorial). Brailovsky assures: “Belgrano is not understood without the context of his generation. The main leaders of American independence were physiocrats. "That is, they believed that wealth originated in human labor, applied to the cultivation of land. Hence the need to protect natural resources as the basis of the economy.
"He was the first to propose free popular education for children without the ability to pay for private training"
Pacho O'Donnell Historian
However, the historian María Sáenz Quesada disagrees and calls it "inappropriate" to qualify him as the first Argentine ecologist. “His vision of the nature of his American homeland has little in common with the current situation. Now nature is in danger because of the excesses that civilizations committed to wrenching more than it can give from its entrails. In those vast plains of the River Plate everything was to be done : crops, trees, countrymen who were knowledgeable about the work of the land were lacking, and the cattle wealth was squandered in the wild cattle herds. Belgrano spoke of all this in the circles of intellectuals, the hotbed of revolutionary patriots, "he highlights. But, the author of Argentina, History of the country and its people , admits that "in her Memoirs she insisted on the need to promote agriculture, useful industries, free trade and educate farmers to learn the instruments, improve and come out of misery: crop rotation, yarns and fabrics and other useful knowledge, to create wealth and live better ”.
Advance Feminist
Biographers and Belgranians agree that his obsession with equality between men and women was striking . "Nobody listened to women: Manuel recommended that friends do it, that they had a lot to learn from them -a ridiculous argument, men were the law-. Very avant-garde, rare and interesting; brings from Europe the pioneering idea of public education for women, here the girls were illiterate, "says Canale .
Pigna refers that "he was the pioneer of these lands in dealing with the defense and dignity of the female condition, beginning with his inalienable right to education." Pigna says that Belgrano maintained: “ Unfortunately, the beautiful sex that must be dedicated to sowing the first seeds, we have condemned to the empire of trifles and ignorance (…) despite the privileged talent that distinguishes women and that both the more he is credited with admiration, the more deprived he is of the means of enlightenment. The woman forms in her children the spirit of the future citizen, an ignorant woman is a bad generator of citizens, of retarded citizens, little productive and incompetent for a modern nation ”.
"It proclaims that countries, regions like ours, should not export their 'raw' materials without a manufacturing process that would allow them to collect better benefits"
Pacho O'Donnell Historian
It was "revolutionary, at that time, to urge their formal academic education, when the only thing they were supposed to prepare for was supposed to be for marriage and domestic chores," says O'Donnell . "Transferred to the present: I would understand much of what he sees, about the paradigm of man over woman," says historian Daniel Balmaceda , author of Belgrano. The great Argentine patriot (South American).
A sign of his consideration towards women: to reward the Amazon Juana Azurduy , after her campaign in Chuquisaca, she sends an official letter to the Supreme Government of Buenos Aires, noting that she obtained the enemy flag as a trophy. And then he informs her by letter of his appointment for “heroic actions not common to his sex”, as the first officer of the Argentine army “Lieutenant Colonel”.
Censored journalist
Belgrano took care of translating countless texts from French to Spanish: "The ideas of the physiocrats, a fashionable economic trend, which made agriculture a center not only of the economy but also of life," says O'Donnell. In Spain, he translates the entire work of François Quesnay and his book on economics, General Maxims of the Economic Government of a Farming Kingdom . He also translated Principles of Economic-Political Science (1796) by various authors and, from English, Washington's Farewell to the people of the United States. The Miter Museum - confirms its director, Gabriela Mirande Lamedica - preserves the unpublished manuscript of its latest translation, Benjamin Constant's Sketch of Constitution (1814).
"Only those who like to rule despotically can oppose freedom of the press"
Manuel Belgrano
Felipe Pigna finds that the hero is our first journalist because he arrived in Europe in 1794 "as a correspondent for a Spanish newspaper." "In addition, he actively participated in the founding of the first newspaper , the Mercantile, Rural, Political, Economic and Historiographic Telegraph of the Río de la Plata , which was censored by Viceroy Del Pino. The group, led by Francisco Cabello, did not give up and returned to the fray with the Weekly of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce , where he had colleagues such as his cousin Juan José Castelli and Hipólito Vieytes, among others, and who suffered a similar fate. In March 1810 Belgrano returned to that activity editing the Commercial Mail and from there he will insist on his proposals, ”he relates.
In addition, Belgrano advocated for press freedom . On August 10, 1810 in the Correo de Comercio, he published: "Only those who like to despotically command, or those who are fools who, not knowing the evils of the government, do not suffer the torments of those who They know them, and they cannot remedy them for lack of authority; or the very shy ones who are scared with the coconut of freedom (...) But take away the profits of the pen and the press, because they can be abused, it is a notorious contradiction and an unforgivable abuse of authority, and it is wanting to keep the nation in ignorance , the source of all the evils we suffer. "
The first romantic and the operation to call him homosexual
Canale -author of La Vengadora - defines him: “The first Argentine romantic, in all meanings of the term. There was always a baseless and slanderous rumor, the legend of his homosexuality : he comes from Europe to 'kick many kiosks' and installed organizations, who did not want to be bothered by this young man who has the historic moment of taking over an army. The military did not want him at all, the troops mutinied and since he had a somewhat piping metallic voice and as in the famous portrait he wore leggings ... It was an operation that they mounted. He was very successful with women, they surrounded him. ”
"Jump and the oath". María Luque's drawing for the anniversary of Manuel Belgrano, made for a project of the Kirchner Cultural Center.
Pepa Ezcurra, the great love of the hero -when her husband leaves for Spain after May 1810-, she looks for him in her campaign to the north. From that relationship Pedro Pablo was born, the son adopted by his sister Encarnación Ezcurra and the husband, Juan Manuel de Rosas . The intrigue is if Belgrano knew of the existence of that son, although without knowing him. The documentation on his private life is scarce, in his Autobiography and other records he addresses issues of public interest. Felipe Pigna in his book on the hero, says that it is not known if he knew of its existence, although Canale maintains that he never found out.
But the historian Balmaceda tells that, fulfilling a request from the hero - according to one of his grandsons tells the newspaper La Razón (September 18, 1927) - Pedro was informed of his affiliation by Francisco Chas, who appeared at his home to deliver several objects bequeathed by his father. All agree that at the age of majority, Pedro Pablo knew the identity of his biological father and included his last name, making up Rosas and Belgrano.
As a result of the romance with the Tucuman woman Dolores Helguero in 1819, her daughter was born, baptized Manuela Mónica del Corazón de Jesús - it should be remembered that the full name of the hero was Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano. “She is the only proof of that romance, which cannot be determined if it was a long love or the fruit of a night. In letters to the family, he alluded to 'the white dove' and asked about his 'goddaughter': being a single mother in 1819 was frowned upon, he is also not mentioned in the records ... ”, explains Balmaceda.
Juana raised her from the age of 6 in Buenos Aires, respecting that request of Belgrano. From the branch that descends from Manuela Mónica Belgrano Helguero descends his chozno Manuel, a name that his great-grandfather bequeathed to him.
The power of external debt and a power: China
In economics, he quickly glimpsed his considerations regarding external debt in terms of power: he was concerned with how the creditor could dominate another by making him its debtor. Pacho O'Donnell highlights: "He proclaims the issue of added value: that countries, regions like ours, should not export their 'raw' materials without a manufacturing process that would allow them to collect better benefits."
Pigna relates that "he was the first to notice on these coasts the strategic importance of China." He wrote in the Commercial Mail (June 10, 1810): “The Chinese Nation is giving all of the known world a constant example of what internal trade is aided: there is no country more populated than the one that inhabits, nor Most powerful nation in the world: all those who are called cult, go in search of its effects. "
In addition, the first local insurer , La Confianza -founded on November 7, 1796-, "Compañía de Seguros Marítimos y Terrestres"; that in 1937 it became the current Superintendence of Insurance of the Nation (SSN).
In his honor, every June 2 (day he assumes as perpetual secretary of the Royal Consulate) the National Graduate Day in Economic Sciences is celebrated.
Defender of indigenous peoples and Human Rights
Belgrano militated for the basic rights of humanity. "When he talks about free popular education, he says: 'You have to dedicate some banks to slave slaves, Afro-Argentines,'" explains O'Donnell. In the Paraguayan Campaign, he dictates a regulation considered the first constitutional project in the country, where he says: 'all the natives of Misiones (the Guaraní) are free, will enjoy their properties and dispose of them as best suits them, unless it is an attempt against their peers. Suspension of the tax for ten years until they can produce and live with dignity. ' From 1811: 'Establishment of free schools, of first letters, arts and crafts'. 'Absolute equality between natives and natives, qualification to occupy any job, even military and ecclesiastical. Expropriation of the properties of the enemies of the Revolution, free distribution of these lands among the natives. ' He talks about the agrarian reform in 1811 ”.
Balmaceda points out that "when he founded towns as he did with Curuzú Cuatiá, he was concerned that urban planning would reach groups that were separated: it improved the lives of those settlers and gave them an institutional framework."
"The hero also made the National Flag of Civil Liberty on May 25, 1813 and gave it to the people of Jujuy in gratitude. It is the oldest cloth that has been faithfully made and is exhibited more than a hundred years ago in the Government House of Jujuy ”, affirms Manuel Belgrano - chozno of the hero and head of the Instituto Nacional Belgraniano .
The flag colors strategy
“ Belgrano has been coagulated by the 'official' liberal history, as the creator of the flag: it mutilates it by saving its other facets. "It saves us" the intelligent strategic decision that the creation of a loyal flag meant to the slogan of some of the May revolutionaries, who did not want to make the independence intention public, argues O'Donnell. Rereading his economic treatises impresses me: it explains why he is shown only as a creator of the flag and in a rather stupid scenario, 'the colors of the sky ...'. He had the strategic intelligence to create a Bourbon flag, in the colors of King Ferdinand VII, to feign loyalty - being imprisoned by Napoleon - and to advance stealthily in the independence project. That is why it took six years to dictate independence: the time it took to uncover and advance the project. In 1816 Fernando VII was already free and 'the mask' could no longer be hidden. ”
Belgrano's descendant indicates that he "made it with a deep sense of sovereignty, also to distinguish us from the enemy, but today it symbolizes freedom, union and belonging to this land ."
The way of education
"To found schools is to sow in souls" and "an educated people can never be enslaved," said Manuel in one of his Consular Memoirs. Pacho remarks: “He is the first to propose free popular education for children without the ability to pay for private training , he founded four schools and made his regulations. The most exciting thing about the May Revolution is the dictation of the regulations it makes for the schools it donates in the northwest, very impressed by the poverty of those regions. He donates four schools convinced that the possibility of escaping poverty and misery has to do with the possibility of work . Among his 'advice to the teacher' he speaks of sweetness in treatment and 'love of truth and science'. Talking about the sciences was not banal: there was a great conflict between religion and science , because Catholicism supposed that God was the center of everything and that what was not in the Bible was false; while there was an advance in science, which made man the center of History and humanity, and which could explain the mysteries of life ”.
Painful end
Belgrano died alone and poor. "It is touching and sad. He was very sick, in pain and the only one who cares for him to the end is his beloved sister Joan and his doctor, Joseph Redhead. Many of our heroes died very alone, a very cruel fate, "summarizes the novelist Canale. In the end he did not have large belongings or money, he had debts.
Manuel Belgrano military. It was not its most important side, according to historians / General Archive of the Nation
He had a gold watch that King George III gave him on his diplomatic mission to London and gave it to that doctor. That heritage relic was in the National Historical Museum but in 2007 it was stolen and nothing was ever heard from again .
Tributes ... even a series
- In the Belgranian year and month, in the midst of the quarantine, various tributes are made, private and public. Public TV will shoot a series, based on the book Amores prohibidos: Las Relations Secretas by Manuel Belgrano (Planeta), by Florencia Canale, which deals with her love and casanova side. The actor Nicolás Cabré will play the hero.
- The CCK publishes anecdotes of the life of Manuel Belgrano in its networks, portrayed by six illustrators. It is a cycle of virtual micro exhibitions that is part of the productions carried out by the Kirchner Cultural Center, the General Archive of the Nation (AGN) and the Ministry of Heritage. The illustrations were made from anecdotes that, as photographic snapshots, capture moments from the life of the hero. The snapshots were compiled and written by the historian Javier Trímboli and accompany the illustrations.
- Pacho O'Donnell wrote six shorts from the national Ministry of Culture, "with the idea of focusing the image of his complex personality, from historical neo-revisionism."
- For his part, Pigna created with his team (in three months) a microsite on his website where he provides free audios, videos, images and texts of the "remarkable founding father of our country." In addition, he reissued his book Manuel Belgrano.