Argentinian founding father recast as genocidal murderer

It was NOT the War of the Desert (La Guerra del Desierto)

The so-called "War of the Desert" was not a war in the "desert". At that time (around 1880) in Northern Patagonia and Southern Pampas, there were many organized communities and a population of several hundred thousands from coast to coast (Atlantic to Pacific oceans). and even a sovereign mapuche state recognized by several governments in the world: "la Confederación de Salinas Grande" (Confederation of Large Salt Plains). The "Confederación" was invaded, the Argentinean army (and the Chilean army on the other side of the Andes range also) took the land and thousands of mapuches were killed or made prisoners. In that way, using indiscriminated violence, the Argentinean government extended its domain to the "Patagonia" region. 

Follows an interesting article from The Guardian.

D.Anton

"Julio Argentino Roca being removed from banknotes and street names for alleged role in exterminating indigenous culture 

Reproduced from The Guardian

For a century it was a name to inspire schoolchildren: Julio Argentino Roca, the military hero and statesman who tamed Patagonia's wilderness and madeArgentina a modern nation.

He was George Washington and Abraham Lincoln rolled into one, a founding father who gazed from banknotes, adorned plinths and

gave his name to avenues from Buenos Aires to Santa Cruz.

But maybe not for much longer. Avenues are being renamed and there is a campaign to topple the former president's statues, erase him from banknotes and teach children a new version: that Roca was a genocidal murderer who brought shame to Argentina.

The man portrayed for generations as a talented visionary has been recast, according to revisionist history, as a villain who exterminated indigenous communities and their culture from much of South America.

Critics say his "conquest of the desert", once hailed for uniting Argentina and rebuffing Chile in 1878-79, was a barbaric campaign which bathed the nascent state in innocent blood.

Writers, academics and indigenous groups are lobbying for Roca, an army general who served as president from 1880-86 and 1898-1904, to be branded a criminal who slaughtered Indians and shared out their land with cronies.

In recent weeks, two cities – Santa Cruz and Tucumán – have renamed Julio Argentino Roca avenues after Néstor Kirchner, a former president who died in October aged 60. His wife and successor, Cristina, has supported the prosecution of more recent human rights abusers from the 1970s dictatorship.

The renamings followed other initiatives to remove Roca from the 100 peso note and to swap a statue in Buenos Aires with a towering 10-metre bronze figure of an indigenous woman. A leading writer and historian, Osvaldo Bayer, said he felt ashamed every time he passed Roca's statue.

Leftwing blogs have taken up the cause. "A big sector of Argentinian society denies there was a genocide. Modern Argentina is built on that negation, the mother of all repressions."

The row echoes debates across Latin America over whether to celebrate or lament the arrival of Christopher Columbus and European settlers. Several countries have renamed 12 October as indigenous day rather than Columbus day and rehabilitated indigenous rebels as patriots.

Roca, born in 1843 to a prominent family in northern Argentina, rose up the army ranks and was tasked with quelling indigenous resistance in the pampas and Patagonia, a vast wilderness which the government wanted to settle with immigrant European farmers lest Chile gobble it up.

Roca's 6,000-strong cavalry force crushed Mapuche and other Indian groups, killing more than 1,000 and capturing thousands more who became servants or prisoners and were prevented from having children. Campaign dispatches depicted them as barely human.

White settlers turned the conquered lands into a breadbasket which made Argentina an agricultural superpower and a confident, thrusting nation in the early 20th century.

Some academics have defended Roca's treatment of indigenous people. Juan José Cresto, a director of the national history museum, said the Indians were violent parasites who attacked farms and kidnapped women. The historian was branded a racist and lost his post.

In a separate incident, a history teacher was removed from her post in Pampa province for telling a radio station that Roca deserved praise for putting Indians to flight and opening Argentina's frontier to European settlers.

Néstor Torres, the province's education minister, said such views should not be transmitted to children. "The thought worries us."

 The Guardian, Rory  Carroll, January 13, 2011

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/jan/13/argentinian-founding-father-genocide-row
It is recommended to read the book "Amerrique, the Orphans of Paradise", Danilo Anton, Piriguazu ediciones.