Postmortem General Manuel Eduardo Arias, prominent military leader in the independence struggles in northern Argentinawas honored this Friday at the National Congress as part of an initiative that seeks recognition as a “national hero.”
Historians, dancers, musicians, singers and authorities from the Jujuy town of Humahuaca together with the national deputies of the Jujuy Front for All Leila Chaher, Carolina Moisés and Julio Ferreyra, formed “a popular Embassy” that honored this hero, with various interventions in the Hall of the Lost Steps of the National Congress.
Arias, of which death will be 200 years old on June 16, hethere were about 40 combats in the north of the country as part of the patriotic forces fighting to contain the royalist advance from the Upper Peru area Y His actions were decisive in the “Battle of Humahuaca”, his hometown, on March 1, 1817.
In his honor, the deputies Chaher, Moisés and Ferreyra they remembered that introduced several bills as the initiative that seeks to distinguish him as a “national hero”, to establish for the only time a national holiday on June 16, the declaration of interest of the Congress of the Nation of the Bicentennial of the death of the emancipatory leader, while encouraging the creation of the National Museum of the Heroes of Independence and the General Manuel Eduardo Arias National Institute within the scope of the National Ministry of Culture.
Another of the initiatives calls for the declaration as a National Monument to the Monument to the Heroes of Independence, located in the city of Humahuaca, a project that was approved by the National Monuments Commission and ruled by the Culture and Budget and Treasury Commission in 2020 , and promote the placement of a bronze plaque on the pyramid with a bust found on Santa Bárbara Hill.
legislators also seek to declare interest of the Chamber of DeputiesThe literary work of the Humahuaqueño writer, Luis Orlando Vega, dedicated to the investigation and dissemination of the struggles for independence.
During the day, which seeks to rescue the work and struggle of the emancipatory leader, the mayor of Humahuaca, Karina Paniagua, He stressed that “in support of the projects of our legislators, we are seeking recognition as a national hero for Arias, as something that we consider fair and deserved.”
“We seek that the official history can also vindicate all the anonymous heroes that we have in Humahuaca. We hope with all this embassy to be able to add our grain of sand because we come to show all that we are,” said the former rector of the University in the shared space. Jujuy National, Mario Bonillo.
The Humahuacan writer Luis Vega highlighted the need to “enhance the figure of those who have built the country’s independence in those early years of the 19th century, and thus bring to light and strengthen the figure of Arias, the meaning of the Battle of Humahuaca and its importance” .
“General Arias was brave, loved by the people who were closely related to the culture of the place and had enough attributes to become a born leader of the wars for independence”he added.
Born in Humahuaca in 1785, Arias was the son of a Spanish officer and an indigenous woman. As a soldier of independence he gained notoriety for his outstanding military skills when he joined the gaucho forces organized by Martín Miguel de Güemes to confront the royalist invader.
The journalist and writer Eduardo Barcelona, as moderator of the debate, he recalled that “at the time that Arias won the Battle of Humahuaca, fifteen days ago San Martin had won the battle of Chacabuco after crossing the Andes and the Spanish had undertaken the fifth offensive from the north to recover the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata” .
“Colonel Arias and his hosts, who were part of the gaucho war started by Martin Miguel de Güemes, stood up and won battle so that in the town of Humahuaca the greatest defense battle of the army’s back was built. of the Andes”, he completed.
Besides, the audiovisual production directed by the filmmaker Adrián Silisque premiered about the popular recreation, on the heights of the Quebrada de Humahuaca, of the memorable battle of March 1, 1817.
“To remember that good general// it is good to keep in mind // that he was very brave to defend us// rigged all of our people// but time erases some traces // that have not been marked by fire// although in Humahuaca still endure and that cost the blood of my people”, summarized the reciter of customs Ángel Mamani, to applause from those present.
The movements of the dancers from the “Abrir Alas” workshop and the musical groups Hermógenes and Takiri closed the day to the applause of the public.
