had victoriously crossed the Andes Mountains was in agonizing situation. After more than a decade away from home and with the departure of San Martin, the Argentine soldiers were left isolated, demoralized, without pay and in terrible conditions. In the fortress of El Callao, an imminent climate of rebellion was evolving until it finally broke out in early February 1824. The detainees took several officers as prisoners, demanded all payments due and the return to their homes in Chile and Buenos Aires. The local government could not meet these claims and the mutineers hoisted the royalist flag. One of the rebel leaders was Sergeant Dámaso Moyano, from Battalion 11, a mulatto born in Mendoza who had crossed the Andean Mountain with Falucho and others. The Second Corporal Antonio Ruiz branded the insubordinates as traitors; they replied: " Revolutionaries." Falucho responded: " It is bad to be revolutionary, but it’ s worse to be a traitor." For that act of rebellion, he was shot. Just before, he shouted: " Viva Buenos Aires!" Miter judged this act as a patriotic sacrifice( De Estrada: 1979, 114-115; Miter: 1950( 2), 451). In November 1826, the last troops of the Andean Army returned to Buenos Aires. Falucho ' s executioner and two other sergeants were in turn executed for treason. One eyewitness stated: " Justice has punished the traitor and history has bequeathed to posterity the name of the grenadier "( De Estrada, 1979, 121).
Conclusion The contribution of Afro-descendants to the struggle for independence cannot be set aside. In the light of the foregoing, the alleged lack of black contributions to the Argentine history became very questionable. The African footprint and presence is not exclusive of Argentina, which boasts of being a white and European nation. It is even more intense in Brazil and Colombia, which also suffer from racial prejudice. And in the nation of Simón Bolívar, the Liberator of the North, some 4 million Afro- Venezuelans constitute 15 % of the population and, as in much of the Americas, the social group that suffers more from discrimination, marginalization, poverty and exclusion in the social hierarchies. The black presence in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as its multiple contributions, cannot go unnoticed in the regional history. It is explained( but forgotten very often) that America is the conjunction of three roots: Amerindian, European and African. A genius of the literature, the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, recognized the merit of the African descendants: " In the wars of independence, the black soldiers were much better than the white ones "( De Estrada: 1979, 86). Many of them were in the most vulnerable infantry flank and thereafter were not properly recognized, despite their greater military effort. Although many became company leaders, high-ranked officers like Barcala were extraordinary cases. In the 1850s, for instance, Colonels José María Morales and Domingo Sosa( Lanuza: 1967, 167) commanded troops. The enslaved men often gained their freedom by serving in the army, as it occurred with two-thirds of Mendoza’ s slaves during the preparation for crossing the Andes Mountains. It always happened with strong resistance from their masters( Miter: 1950, 292). Between 1810 and 1860, there was not a single battalion on Argentine soil without Afro soldiers. In Buenos Aires, at least eleven Afro-Argentines reached the ranks of Colonel or Lieutenant- Colonel, but the higher rank of General was denied to them. Argentine history put more emphasis on absence and / or disdain with regard to
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