Manuel Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano, such is the full name of the creator of our national emblem, a man who has been rightly designated as one of the purest glories of Argentina. This man by profession, a lawyer, a soldier because circumstances required it, a journalist, versed in economics, educator, diplomat and creator of the flag, spent the last days of his existence in a state of poverty and orphanhood that has no parallel in history. . Historians knowledgeable on the subject relate that in September 1819 he definitively abandoned command of the Army of the North, affected by advanced dropsy, complicated by other ailments, which left him practically prostrate. The last days of his military life happened in a tragic way; He slept little or nothing, lacking adequate clothing, poorly fed, without the necessary medicines that his dire state of health required and above all worried and sad about the random events that had begun to plague his homeland. In those circumstances he wrote some moving words: “I know that I am in danger of death, but the conservation of the army depends on my presence. Here there is a chapel where soldiers are buried: the general can also be buried there…” Having begun the long trip to Buenos Aires, a trip that largely took him fainting in a bed, he arrives in Tucumán. It is here where not only was he arrested for having broken out a riot, he was also threatened with being shackled, without any halo of humanity, despite the obvious swelling that his legs were supporting. It was his doctor who begged the ringleaders not to carry out such an act of savagery. Once freed, he arrived in Córdoba with his financial resources completely exhausted. Thanks to a providential merchant, who provided him with the necessary means, he was able to continue his tortuous journey. Against the background of the fearful anarchy that the country was experiencing, he finally arrives in Buenos Aires. In sad circumstances, such as economic constraints, the tremendous neglect to which he was subjected and internal struggles; Belgrano drafts his will, in which his deep Christian faith stands out and a clause in which he leaves his few assets, after paying his debts, to his daughter Manuela Mónica, who at that time He was only one year old then. Her death occurred at 7 a.m. on June 20, 1820 – 204 years ago; She was only 50 years old, years that were enough to leave us such a legacy and example.
For him Prof. Edmundo Jorge Delgado
Master in History
#Argentina
