The House of South American Freedom

We Tucumán have a reputation for being extremely proud of our history and traditions; That is why we tend to get angry when tourists refer to the Historical House of Independence as the “little house” of Tucumán.

In itself, everything has a history that makes the diminutive understandable and its repeated use understandable, which is why we should prevent our anger from becoming greater. Here is the story, in a first installment.

Moving

When the city of San Miguel de Tucumán was moved from Ibatín to its current settlement in the place known as “la Toma”, the feudatory neighbors were awarded the corresponding plots of land around the main square, following the checkerboard pattern characteristic of Spanish cities. . By the way, they maintained the same land that they had in the old city that they had abandoned.

We are interested in one of those neighbors, Mr. Diego Bazan and Figueroa, who had his home built around 1693 in the area currently occupied by the Historic House; this according to the researcher’s data Roberto Zavalía Matienzo. But there is more; by the documents studied by Juan Bautista García Possethe lot had been bought by Don Diego from Don Lope de Villacanes around 1683 for the price of “two carts.” Bazán de Figueroa married Mrs. Ana de Ávila y Rivera; They had a child, Pedro Bazán Ramírez de Velázcowho, although he married Mrs. Teresa Arias Velazquez, They had no children. But he did have a natural son, Juan Antonio Bazanwho was raised by his maternal grandmother.

From her he inherited his assets, including the properties on current Congress Street. When he married Mrs. Petrona Estevezthey had a total of 11 children, among which we highlight the famous Francisca Bazan, born about 1744; who married the Spanish in 1762 Miguel Laguna. It was her paternal dowry, in the style of those times, precisely the current Historic House. It was this couple who carried out, at the end of the 18th century, the modifications that we would later know through the famous photographs of Angel Paganelliespecially the front of the house, with its unmistakable torso columns.

The Congress of 1816

Much has been written about this period of the historic House, in some cases equivocally. To begin with, it is not correct that the Tucumán matron, Mrs. Francisca Bazán de Laguna, “gave up her house” for the deliberations of the congressmen “for free,” according to the sugar-coated story of Billiken. Nor that he was the then governor Bernabé Aráoz whoever “convinced” her to such a patriotic cession.

The historian Ramon Leoni Pinto, who investigated the matter in detail, determined that the house was rented for the most part to house the troops of the Northern Army, which had caused serious damage to the property. It was then that, in 1815, Aráoz himself determined the arrangements on behalf of the State; Furthermore, by decree of October 16 of that year he designated the building for the operation of the General Treasury and Customs of the Province.

But the sagacious Don Bernabé did not stop at that; Having to look for a property large enough to house the deliberations of the Congressmen who were going to meet in Tucumán in the first months of 1816, he wrote to the Chief Minister of Finance: “Having to meet as soon as possible the National Congress as arranged in In this city, I find no house more suitable in the current circumstances for the sessions of this Sovereign Body, than the ones you inhabit in the management of Cashiers, Warehouses and Customs. For this reason, he orders him to move the Box “to another house that you request, while also looking for where to locate the war warehouses.”

The living room

It is also known that Aráoz ordered the wall that divided two rooms to be demolished, to leave a rectangular room of the size required for meetings. It would later be known as the Salón de la Jura and it is the only original part of the old Laguna Bazán mansion that remains to this day. In 1854, the traveler Domingo Navarro Viola, in his well-known chronicle about his time in Tucumán, describes the historic hall: “It is a room 16 yards long and 6 and a half wide, its whitewashed walls, its key-legged ceiling and roof; Without a ceiling, it boasts only the thickness of the country’s wooden beams. Its doors, as well as the entire construction of the house, show an era older than that of the Congress.”

According to documents and the tradition of the Tucumán people of that time, it was used on various occasions for solemn acts, such as the swearing in of the National Constitution of 1853, in addition to the reminders on July 9 of each year, where it was pompously brought from the Bernabé Aráoz’s family home, the swearing table. It is also remembered in 1864, on the occasion that the governor José María del Campo ordered the construction of the column with the drinking water fountain in the current Plaza Independencia, which would be dedicated to the tribute of Argentine Independence. After the events, those present went to the Historical House and there, according to the newspaper El Liberal, “they said their speeches on their knees in the hall.”

Another issue that caused rivers of ink to spill was the discussion about the much-mentioned swearing-in table. At this point it is clear, based on the existing documentation, that the presidential table was provided by the Aráoz family. Precisely Dr. Luis F. Araoz He argued with good reason that at that guayacán table, in addition to independence, the commitment of this family, headed by Bernabé Aráoz, to the general had been signed. Manuel Belgrano in 1812, in relation to the help that the people of Tucumán would provide to stop the advance of the royalist troops; which culminated in the Battle of Tucumán, that September 24 when the fate of the Revolution on our soil was saved. The rest of the furniture was lent by the Dominican friars and the Franciscans, the latter who have survived to this day and are exhibited in a special room of the temple that is currently in the process of restoration.

The purchase

During the presidency of Domingo Faustino Sarmientohis friend, the Tucumán Jose Posse In one of his letters, he expressed his deep concern for the state of the historic house, for what it represented for Argentines, and he proposed giving it some function that would preserve it in the future. “The house is in ruins and needs prompt repair, not only to preserve what little is standing, but to use it for the service of the national offices.”

Sarmiento, as a defender of heritage, got to work and asked the National Congress to give him the tools to preserve the historical site. It was another Tucumán, the national deputy Tiburcio Padilla, who presented the purchase project to the then owners Zavalía Laguna. The National Executive was authorized to acquire it, and to arrange for the conservation of the building on behalf of the National Treasury. On September 15, 1869, President Sarmiento and the Minister Dalmacio Vélez Sársfield They promulgated it with number 323.

The procedures continued to finally be sanctioned on October 5, 1872, the regulations by which the Executive was authorized to build or acquire houses for the Post Office in several cities in the country, among others Tucumán, for a total amount of 200,000 pesos. In this way, the historic house would have the purpose of being the headquarters of the post office, but the Hall of the Jura would be preserved.

Finally, on April 25, 1874, the governor of Tucumán, Belisario Lopezrepresenting the National Government signed the respective deed with its owners Gertrude and Amalia Zavalia, Carmen Zavalía de López, Fernando S. Zavalia; paying for it the sum of 25,000 pesos, payable in bills drawn against the National Government. Due credit must therefore be given to the great Sarmiento, also for his management in defending the tangible and intangible historical heritage of Argentines, and thus safeguarding the historic house for present and future generations.

Anger of Avellaneda

In 1875 work began to install federal offices in the house. The front, already very dilapidated, which threatened to fall, and the rooms on the right wing of the first patio were demolished, in order to leave the Historical Hall separated from the offices of the Federal Court and the Post Office, which would occupy the front and left side. .

Luis F. Araoz years later he chronicled the details of the demolition. First, the characteristic front with the twisted columns was razed, replacing it with a neoclassical façade, with pilasters and Doric half columns supporting an entablature and large frontispiece. A central, semicircular doorway and six windows completed the façade. Two lying lions flanked the beginning of the front. The majority of Tucuman public opinion exploded in anger, as the style of the house was radically changed. Aráoz managed to enter the work where he rebuked the builder, the engineer Federico Staveliuswho somewhat sarcastically replied that the work was already underway.

Months later, Aráoz met with the then president Nicolas Avellaneda whom he put in the records of the details of the “modifications.” With great distress Avellaneda expressed to him: “…the law, what it says and what it has wanted is to repair the house so that it remains intact. The news about him saddens me, friend… when the man from Tucumán says: that heresy had been consummated… “

Paganelli’s photo

Around 1860, an industrious Italian named Angel Paganelli. He quickly saw a vein of business with the nascent photography industry, which at first only portrayed personalities from the city. But the Italian decided to try his luck with the exterior “views” or the first sugar factories; also the record of the main square of Tucumán, with its different angles and the fronts of the houses that surrounded it. For this he had to specially build a kind of traveling studio since the photographic plates of that time required chemical treatment almost immediately after exposure.

And fate or his business vision made him take two photographs that would remain in the history of time and that would later be used for the reconstruction of the historic building. He first took the front of the Historic House, a photo dated 1869, where the deep deterioration of the property was already visible, with its plaster completely removed, which according to Dr. Carlos Páez de la Torre: “…to the extent that it prevents us from seeing various details. For example, if it is a family coat of arms that was above the portal, or if it is the coat of arms of Spain, or whimsical decorations without any idea or reason,” according to the comment to Antonio M. Correa. According to Villarrubia Norrythe two men seen sitting on the sidewalk were the cart driver who had transported Paganelli’s cumbersome equipment and his own son.

What the Italian could never have assumed was that over time, these photographs would become invaluable, since their unique documentary value would be used for the reconstruction of the property decades later. But that is another story, which I invite you to know in a future note.

Bibliography:

Roberto Zavalía Matienzo (1989), The House of Tucumán; History of the House of Independence. Historical Archive of Tucumán.

Carlos Páez de la Torre (2023), The Historical House through the years; Books Tucumán Editions.

Carlos Vigil (1968). The Monuments and Historical Places of Argentina, Third Edition, Editorial Atlántida.