The holiday of June 17 was adopted in 2016 and, this year, it impacts the calendar with a long weekend. What is this commemoration due to? A military man, doctor in history, answered this question to DEF.
This Monday June 17 is holiday in Argentina and the date impacts the calendar with a long weekend which, in addition, is added to that of the Flag Day and anniversary of death of General Manuel Belgrano. But do we know why it is?
It turns out that the 17th commemorates the passage to the immortality of General Martín Miguel de Güemesa soldier who had a leading role at our independence. In his native province, Jump, carried out a unique strategya guerrilla warfare, that ensured the withdrawal of the royalist army of the Argentine territory.
To talk about the “general of the gauchos”, DEF spoke with the lieutenant colonel, and doctor in history, Diego Gonzalo Cejas. “If anything needed that Creole courage to be led, it was his figure,” he summarizes from his office in the Army Historical Archivewhere he is Director.
Güemes, the general of the gauchos
According to Cejas, Martín Miguel de Güemes was born in Salta, in a wealthy family: his dad was crown official and he had a collection post in “these rich cities on the road that connected Lima with Buenos Aires. He also came from a good family on his mother’s side, with a very good economic position.”
“Güemes adopted a very particular relationship with those Creoles of the context where he was raised, colonial Salta,” says Cejas, who also adds that in October 1805being a cadet of fixed regiment of Buenos Aires (with a headquarters in Salta), was sent to the capital of the viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata with four band apprentices, who had to take music classes. Already in Buenos Aires territory, the young officer from Salta he had to be part of one of the episodes best known of the Reconquest of Buenos Aires.
A Salteño in the English Invasions
The same day of the Reconquest of Buenos Aireshe August 12, 1806there was a great drop in the Silver river. “In Withdrawal was stranded a English ship. And a curious thing happened: it was assaulted by cavalry troops, something unexpected. And, in that event, he was part Martin Miguel de Guemeswho is inscribed in the history of English Invasions“, says Cejas, and adds that, around 1808, the young officer returned to Salta and remained linked to the militias.
“He is part of the pre-revolutionary and revolutionary events. Because Salta is on the path of comings and goings. Then take part in Suipachain those first weapons actions of the patriotic troops in high Peruvian territory,” explains the lieutenant colonel.
What do the soldiers of Buenos Aires do in those latitudes? “They are going to ensure the Potosí hill. Because it is a time when metal was what supported the cause of Mayo. So our troops go towards the Upper Peru to take possession of the hill from which the metal that came financed the revolution. And they have their first deed of arms in Suipacha. There the name of Martín Miguel de Güemes has its share of glory,” he responds, but not before explaining that glory is that which immortalizes men at arms.
San Martín’s ally for liberation
“Over the years, Güemes became more prestige as military leaderspontaneous, of the northern gauchoswho were very brave for the fight, particularly in those regions,” explains Cejas from the Buenos Aires neighborhood of San Telmo.
In the words of the Director of the Historical Archive, the Humahuaca ravine It is a very particular place: it is 200 kilometers long, sometimes it narrows to two, and connects the puna with the plain. “It’s a knot, a bottleneck”, he comments.
Then, Güemes served under the orders of the Northern Army and shared his experiencein relation to the lines of communications with Alto Perú, to the General José Francisco de San Martín.
“The San Martin plan establishes that the Army of the Andes had to gothrough the Cordillera, towards Chili to confront royalist power. But I needed a great ally -which was Güemes- for install a ‘plug’ in the Quebrada with the aim of preventing the royalists from advancing from the Puna to the plain,” explains Cejas, and comments that the fundamental mission that the man from Salta received was lead the countrymenwith knowledge of the region and terrain and that, furthermore, they were fast riders.
“The chronicles of the time will say that they are like some Cossacks who dominate the horse. In short, they were individuals who They knew how to do coups and ambushesand that they needed that one Creole chief who understood them. “He brought out the best in them, and led them in war,” she maintains.
“I knew how to navigate the stoves and what the countryman needed”
“These leaderships are not spontaneous. Martin Miguel de Güemes is attentive to the economic and social circumstances. He tells his gauchos that as long as they serve with him, they would be subject to the military justice that he embodied. They would not pay rent or rent for the field either. His gauchos They have devotion for him”, describes the doctor in History.
Regarding the soldier from Salta, he adds: “He knew how to navigate the stoves and what the countryman needed. “He knew how to lead and guide them.”
He also comments that Güemes He was not the one who invented the guerrilla warfare that was applied in the Quebrada. In fact, he already brought it San Martín, in his manuals, because they had used it Spaniards against the troops of Napoleon.
The end of the northern leader
General Martín Miguel de Güemes died at 36during a ambush in Salta, in front of the Cathedral: “The city was occupied by royalist troops and when he entered, always outwitting the sentinel cordons, was wounded. And, due to the illnesses he had, those wounds did not heal and he died 10 days later in the hospital. Horqueta ravine. Then, the command was inherited by Jorge Enrique Vidthis second,” he explains.
“Güemes’ death was hidden from the royalists for a very long time. “They continued to believe that they were fighting against him,” he clarifies.
The reasons to remember Güemes
In the words of Lieutenant Colonel Cejas, Güemes transcended the local sphere of Salta to acquire prominence on the national scene by being active part of our emancipationperiod in which He was noted for his courage and patriotismqualities that he promoted among his gauchos.
“Maybe history suspected him A little because He was not a sympathetic figure.“, he says, but not before saying that, in Salta, those individuals from whom he took away their countrymen – to throw them into combat – were dedicated to production. Added to this is that the gauchos were no longer obliged to pay the rent for the fields nor did they respond to ordinary justice.
“He was a suspicious figure but he acquired his right dimension as military partner of Manuel Belgrano and of Saint Martin. In fact, the Andes campaign would not have been possible if, in a timely manner, Güemes did not stop the royalists in the Quebrada,” he points out.
That is to say, he led them, led them and empowered them. And, a no small detail, “he managed to get those brave individuals to respond, almost with a mystical devotion, to the dictates of this general, “the general of the gauchos and the countrymen.”
