Argentina's Heroine: Juana Azurduy

Today, a special place in Argentina's governmental house is reserved for a national heroine who demonstrated her bravery on the battlefield during the Spanish American War of Independence. While replacing Christopher Columbus' monument, the reflected debates mirrored the matter of identity and historical representation in Latin America. 

In 1780, she was born in Chuquisaca, which was part of the Viceroyalty of Rio de la Plata, a Spanish-ruled territory that included modern-day Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Chuquisaca is currently known as Sucre, the constitutional capital of Bolivia. The ethnicity of Sucre was estimated to be 68% Mestizo by 2009; on the other hand, at the time she lived, the society was divided between the wealthy and white society and the lower class of the society which included the servants, agricultural workers, all of whom were indigenous. Azurduy who had a Spaniard father and indigenous mother was classified under a Mestizo ethnicity. After witnessing her mother and father's deaths, she was sent to a convent to become a nun but was expelled at the age of 17 due to her rebellion. It was definitely not an unexpected revelation for a young girl like Azurduy who was "attracted to the active life rather than the contemplation of it." As it is told, she had always been a confrontational person, which in fact led to her ending up in a convent after clashing with her aunt's conservatism. In addition to her rebellious personality, it can be confidently argued that the environment of Chuquisaca, which is said to be one of the very first shouts for independence in Latin America in 1809, and the social upheaval preceding the independence movement, as well as her marriage to Manuel Ascensio Padilla, a soldier with sensitivities to the indigenous cause, influenced her to become a guerilla.

As previously stated, some historians locate the beginning of the Spanish American Wars of Independence on May 25, 1809, in Chuquisaca. In Bolivia, the Chuquisaca revolution is known as the "Primer Grito Libertario", which translates as the "First Cry of Freedom." Juana Azurduy fought alongside her husband in revolutionaries during the uprising to liberate the zones of present-day Bolivia and Argentina. She had therefore become a guerilla fighter throughout the wars of independence, leading the guerrilla that was known to be “Los Leales” corps. Those "The Loyal Ones" were of mixed race and wore their own uniform, which matches the colors of the current Argentina flag. It is claimed that in 1816, she killed 15 men and pursued those who attempted to flee on horseback. Later that year, she was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel as a result of her leadership of cavalry that captured Cerro Rico of Potos, the primary source of Spanish silver, and captured of an enemy stronghold. She was severely wounded in the battle of La Laguna on November 14, 1816, where her husband Padilla had died. However, after her husband's death, she continued to command her troops and joined General Martín Miguel de Güemes who is a well-known caudillo in the history of the Argentine War of Independence. After joining forces with Güemes at Salta and fighting alongside him until being surprised by the death of Güemes in 1821, only 5 years after his husband’s death. She stayed in Salta after that, yet, without taking a part in any struggle till Bolivia gained its independence from Spain in 1825.[5] After leaving the military and returning to her hometown Chuquisaca, she was left with her 6-year-old daughter as her four sons and husband died. Unfortunately, her sacrifices and efforts on the battlefield did not benefit her civilian life, and she had lived in poverty and was entirely forgotten. As she was living on the pension that Bolivar had granted her after seeing her desperate situation in 1825, the pension was taken away from her two years later by Antonio José de Sucre, the newly elected president of the new state of Upper Peru, that is to say, Bolivia. Henceforth, in 1852, she died in poverty at the age of 82, and was buried in a communal grave.

Simon Bolivar had famously said to be commented that "This country should not be named Bolivia in my honor, but Padilla or Azurduy, because it was them who made it free" Nonetheless, her memory had to wait to be revealed for more than a century after her death. The national heroine, who had been named after the airport of her hometown, had been figured to represent the sisterhood between Bolivia and Argentina. Above all, her statue had replaced Christopher Columbus', sparking a heated debate about identity, national history, and societal cultural affiliation. The turmoil between the portrayal of Argentina’s Italian immigrant heritage and the unrecognized indigenous culture appears to concretize the structures of power and the notion of some historical figures being associated with the public space. Ricardo Rojas, an Argentine historian, and intellectual, once stated that history is taught not only in classrooms but also in everyday occurrences such as traditional names of places and monuments. In our case, the figure of Juana Azurduy represents nothing more than indigenous society's concern of being erased historically and politically. The statue reflects the indigenous history and it is thus more reasonable to infer that the argument about who is and is not commemorated in public spaces is only constructive if it paves the way for the nation to appreciate its forgotten indigenous history.

[1] Central Intelligence Agency. (2008). The CIA World Factbook 2009. Skyhorse Publishing Inc., Also Avaliable Online: https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bolivia/ (22.10.21) 

[2] De Mora Valcárcel, C. (2003). Una Mujer de Armas Tomar: La Coronela Juana Azurduy. In Milicia y sociedad ilustrada en España y América:(1750-1800), p. 502

[3] Brewster, C. (2005). Women and The Spanish-American Wars of Independence: An Overview. Feminist Review, 79(1). p.30

[4] Pigna, F. (2004). Los Mitos de la Historia Argentina 1, Chapter: "La Tierra en Armas. Los Infernales de Martín Miguel de Güemes: Flor del Alto Perú" (The Flower of Upper Peru). Grupo Editorial Norma: Buenos Aires.

[5] Wexler, B. (2001). Juana Azurduy y Sus Amazonas en El Ejército Revolucionario. La Aljaba. p. 98

[6] Rojas, R. (2010). La Restauración Nacionalista: Informe sobre Educación. La Plata: UNIPE. p. 221. 

[7] Frei, C. J. (2019). Columbus, Juana and the Politics of the Plaza: Battles over Monuments, Memory and Identity in Buenos Aires. Journal of Latin American Studies, 51(03), p. 632.

[8] Ibid, p. 637.