A brief intro to Argentina’s history

Hola!

I hope everything is going well back home in Portland. Things here in Rosario are great. We just moved into spring so the days are getting longer, warmer and MUCH more humid. I’ve never lived in a humid place before so this is quite the change for me. This time of the year is also when the mosquitos start to come out. I also happened upon this health advisory the other day: “Outbreaks of dengue fever are on the increase, and visitors are advised to avoid getting mosquito bites as there is no effective treatment for it.” Dengue Fever!? So I’m starting to wish I had invested in some inoculations before leaving the states.

This last week has been really uneventful for most of the students because we’re all getting ready for midterms, already. Most students, myself included, are taking 4 classes. With this blog on top of that, I’ve been buried pretty deep in homework. I did however have a chance to take a boat tour of the Paraná river that runs along Rosario. This is the bridge that crosses it and connects Rosario to its neighbor to the east, Victory.

Maybe you’d like to hear a little bit about the classes I’m taking. All the students must take a Spanish conversation class and a grammar class. We’re divided up into four levels based on our ability to speak and write. On top of those two classes I’m also taking History of Argentina class and Translating Argentina. The translating class is really interesting. Last week we worked on translating advertisements with idiomatic expressions in them. (Idiomatic expressions are like figures of speech like “It’s raining cats and dogs,” or “To kick the bucket.”)

Okay, I want to take a moment and share some Spanish with all of you.

First off: Hola (You never pronounce the H in Spanish so it sounds like O-la) is how we say ‘Hello’ and Ciao (pronounced chow) is how we say goodbye.

Hola. Ciao.

I think it’s a lot of fun to use them back home, try it for a few days! Okay here are a couple more easy ones. I’m sure you’ve all heard Amigo (male) and Amiga (female) before? Well if you haven’t, it’s how to say friend. So when you see your friends around town you can say “Hola amigo/a!”

So as I mentioned I’m studying the history of this country right now, I’d like give you all a little information about how this country came to exist. The first thing you need to know is that most of the area that Argentina now encompasses was originally a Spanish colony. Think about just like the original 13 American colonies. In the same way that the original colonies wanted to be independent from Britain, the territories that existed in Argentina at the time wanted to be independent from Spain.

At the time, the Spanish crown appointed people to govern its South American provinces. The people here had varying degrees of acceptance of their power. Those that had come over from Spain had more loyalty, whereas those who were born here (second generation settlers) had less. In 1808 France, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, successfully invaded Spain and replaced the king. The people here were suddenly in a very confusing spot. If the Spanish throne appointed these governors, then what power did they have without the king?
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The people of the provinces at the time decided that no external power had the right to rule them. In a series of events between May 22-25, 1810 the people rebelled against their Spanish rulers, forcing their governors out of power. This event is known as the Revolución de Mayo (or May Revolution in English.) This obelisk to the right faces La Casa Rosada (Or The Pink House in English, which is the capital building here.) and commemorates this event.

This was of course only the beginning. This act was the start of years of war on the continent as many of the independent colonies (lands that would eventually be known as Argentina, Peru, Bolivia and Chile) fought for their own independence, at times evening combining forces to aid each other.

José de San Martin

The War of Independence has several heroes, but none more famous than José de San Martin. José de San Martin was the leader of the South American army during the War of Independence. He famously ‘snuck’ his army over the Andes (which divide Chile and Argentina) to surprise the Spanish forces. This maneuver was successful in not only defeating a Spanish stronghold but also in liberating Chile. He’s highly revered in Argentina. He has a plaza in many of the big cities, including Rosario. He has a street named after him in practically ever city and the highest military award (the Argentine equivalent of the Medal of Honor) is named after him. Take a look at his tomb:

It’s no Lincoln Memorial, but it gets the point across.

Winning the War of Independence left the provinces with the task of deciding what type of nation they wanted to form. This was a very difficult problem for the provinces, and took many years to fully resolve. The issues arose from the conflicting interests of those in control of the individual provinces, an incredibly wealthy elite called Caudillos (pronounced Ca-dee-show). These elites had huge ranches where they raised cattle to be slaughtered, salted and shipped to England. This demand for beef shaped Argentina’s economy for many years to come. Argentina is still famous for its beef, and from first hand experience, I can tell you that it’s delicious. So here were these wealthy people with all this cattle to export, yet only one port, in Buenos Aires. At the time Buenos Aires, which is now the capital of Argentina, had absolute control of its port and therefore collected taxes on all the imports and exports. This issues of the sharing of wealthy and power lasted for thirty years until concessions by Buenos Aires led to the formation of the Argentine Republic in 1862.

Okay, that’s enough history for now. Next week we’re going to talk about a trip I just took to Buenos Aires, the largest and most fascinating place in Argentina.