IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 6 ENGLISH | Page 78

community, for the vindication of their
collective memory. November 20th, a
national holiday since 2012 known as
the
“Day
of
Sovereignty,”
commemorates the epic events of 1845,
the local victory in the battle of the
“Vuelta de Obligado.” Forces under the
command of then Governor Brigadier
Juan Manuel de Rosas, known as the
“Restorer of Laws,” fought a joint
Anglo-Franco navy. Rosas imposed
order during the tormented decade of
1820. He managed his subjects with
iron-fisted discipline during a conflict
that was increased on various fronts,
during two mandates (1829-1832 and
1835-1852), and managed to get the
provinces to delegate in Buenos Aires, to
handle foreign affairs and declare war.
The Rosas Confederation ruled the
country for a bit over two decades; its
leader
established
a
privileged
relationship with Afro-descendants.
Many of them fought in that battle.
Rosas relied on exclusively black
battalions: the Argentine Guard and the
Restorative Guard. The later rejection
expressed by the ruling class due to their
discomfort with an Argentina in which
black ancestors were made so visible
caused repulsion. They rejected Rosas,
himself, and his many followers whose
ancestry was black. We cannot leave out
of this review patriot and hero par
excellence General José de San Martín,
the liberator of Argentina, Chile, and
Peru, and the creator of the Regiment of
Mounted Grenadiers. August 17th is a
holiday because it is the day his death in
1850 is commemorated, but his

biography could have contained a
different ending if his life had not be
saved on February 3rd, 1813, at the
famous Battle of San Lorenzo. The
person who saved him was Afrodescendant Juan Bautista Cabral (some
say he was a zambo [mixed black and
indigenous] origin, of Guarani stock).
The academic version of that history
ignored his ethnic origin for a quite long
time. This is still the case today.

2015 calendar
2015 is an intense electoral year in
Argentina. The 25th of October will be
key because Argentines will go to the
ballot box to elect the president who will
govern till 2019. It is no surprise that for
the first time in the country’s electoral
history there is a fictional, black
candidate, a person who is parodied,
whose name is like a word game related
to that of the U.S. President: Barack
Obama. A smiling and innovative Omar
Obaca came on the scene through the
social media; his political propaganda
has been aired on the public airwaves.
Throughout Buenos Aires, posters
containing his slogans have cropped up.
In them, the fictive candidate asks to
people to vote for him so he can make
history and become the first black
president of Argentina, e.g., “Vote in
Black” and “The Black Man Really
Can,” which are a wink at the slogan
“Yes We Can” used by Obama in his
2008 campaign. These posters combine
humor and an ironic tone aimed at local
politics.

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