September 12, 2023

2023-09-12 04:20:00
José de San Martín at the time he was governor of Cuyo. He had already been married to Remedios for two years. Relatives said that the couple’s happiest times were those they were in Mendoza

It can be said that Don José de San Martín was a lucky man. In the current era, it would not be possible to avoid scandal if a marriage was announced between a 34-year-old man and a girl who had not yet turned 15. The controversy, uncontrollable in the immediate world of social networks, would have exploded immediately.

However, the society of 1800 was managed with other parameters, but that did not mean that it lacked all the condiments that love stories are nourished by. He was from Corrientes and had gone with his family to live in Spain when he was 6 years old. Now he had returned as a lieutenant colonel who had among his background valuable experience fighting once morest the Napoleonic forces, the best on the old continent.

He was not yet 15 years old when Remedios met San Martín

In any case, this background did not weigh too much on the closed Buenos Aires society, which wrinkled its nose as soon as he was introduced. He was dark-skinned, had a very marked Spanish accent and his only reference for the local patrician patrician was the young Carlos María de Alvear, who represented everything that San Martín lacked: extrovert, gallant, from a renowned family of proven lineage. . He had the job of introducing him to the gatherings and thanks to him the doors of the houses of those families where San Martín would seek support for his military projects were opened.

San Martín knew what bullying was, even if it wasn’t called that. As soon as he arrived from America, his classmates called him “el indiano,” precisely because of his appearance. But don’t think that our man didn’t do his thing. At meetings he used to sing and play the guitar, and he knew how to dance.

San Martín would confess to the young Mariano Necochea that “that woman has looked at me for a lifetime.” He was referring to Remedios de Escalada, a girl who was not very tall, fragile looking and not so healthy.

Antonio José Escalada was the influential father-in-law and if one wanted to interact, one had to be invited to the gatherings he organized (Wikipedia)

But that girl with the withering look was committed. When the English invaded Buenos Aires in 1806 and 1807, many young people enrolled as volunteers in the different militia corps that were assembled in a hurry. Gervasio Antonio Josef María Dorna, 16 years old, joined the fifth company of the second battalion of the Legion of Urban Volunteer Patricians of Buenos Aires, which would be known as the Patrician Regiment. At the same time he received the orders of second lieutenant and when he asked, Santiago de Liniers had no problem granting him the rank of lieutenant without pay, in reward for his services.

Gervasio’s father was an Andalusian of weight and resources in Buenos Aires, and owned large tracts of land in San Miguel del Monte. He wanted his son to take care of managing the fields. But the boy had other plans. When he was not required by the military, he worked in commerce. He had set up a store on Santo Domingo Street thanks to a loan from one of his aunts. The store, where you might buy fabrics, clothes and weapons, was inaugurated on April 12, 1812.

Carlos María de Alvear arrived in Buenos Aires with San Martín, and was the one who introduced him to Buenos Aires society (Wikipedia)

Gervasio needed to gain a position because he was in love and there were plans to get married. He had become engaged to the young Remedios. She was born in the city of Buenos Aires on November 20, 1797 in the family home of Hipólito Yrigoyen y Defensa, known as Altos de Escalada, and which over the decades would be one of the first tenements in Buenos Aires. Her father, Antonio José Escalada, with his first marriage (he was widowed by Petrona Salcedo) had three children: María Luisa, María Eugenia and Bernabé. In 1788 he married Tomasa de la Quintana and expanded the family: Manuel, José Ignacio, María de las Nieves, María de los Remedios and Mariano.

Gervasio’s life changed forever when the frigate George Canning docked in the port in March 1812, bringing on board characters who would make history. One of them was San Martín, head of a group that, identified with the Lautaro Lodge, came with the crazy undertaking of achieving independence, building an army, crossing the Andes, liberating Chile, going by sea to Peru and doing the same there. .

But in Buenos Aires no one knew him. He had nothing going for him, not even that strange curved saber, in the Moorish style, that he had bought secondhand in London. There were those who wondered if he was an English spy.

Tomasa de la Quintana, mother of the young woman, opposed the relationship with San Martín

It was Carlos María de Alvear who introduced him to Buenos Aires society and introduced him to influential figures in local politics, including Escalada.

The 34-year-old soldier was introduced to Remedios, 14, and the girl was dazzled. For her father, she was her weakness, she fulfilled all of her whims, and he did not put up much resistance when the girl asked him to break off the engagement with poor Gervasio, who was breaking his heart to build a future for both of them. .

The one who did not want anything to do with this union was the girl’s mother, Tomasa de la Quintana, a 46-year-old woman from Buenos Aires, sister of Hilarión de la Quintana, the one who received the sword from General Beresford when he surrendered in 1806. She never told him. San Martín fell well. For her he was “the soldier” or “the commoner.” And it seems that the antipathy was mutual. At a dinner at the Escalada house, San Martín came accompanied by his aide-de-camp, who was sent to eat in the kitchen. And he, to show his displeasure with the slight, decided to eat with him.

But the connection with a traditional family was perfect for the soldier. He had a titanic task ahead of him. He had to, first of all, achieve the organization of a regiment. The support of the main families was important. His future brothers-in-law, Manuel and Mariano, would be future grenadiers, the first would become a general and be Minister of War and the second, a colonel.

In May the couple got engaged.

On Saturday, September 12, 1812, María de los Remedios and José Francisco were married with the blessing of Father Luis Chorroarín in a simple ceremony in the Buenos Aires cathedral. Carlos María de Alvear and his wife Carmen Quintanilla were witnesses.

The party was at her in-laws’ house, where they had met. The newlyweds went on their honeymoon to a country house in San Isidro, which belonged to María Eugenia, the bride’s older sister, married to José Demaría.

Their only daughter, Mercedes Tomasa, was born in Mendoza on August 24, 1816, while San Martín served as governor of Cuyo. They lived in a house that the local council rented from the Delgado family. The site is located at 343 Corrientes Street, in the city of Mendoza, occupied for years by a mechanical workshop. Archaeological work found the original floors and the place later opened as a museum.

San Martín sent his wife and little daughter to Buenos Aires. Remedios already had health problems, weakened by consumption. He wrote to O’Higgins: “Remedios left for Buenos Aires, because this country did not try him. Here you have made me a widower.”

Upon his return from Peru, the Liberator learned that his wife was seriously ill. But he feared being killed. Advised by his friends, he remained in Mendoza. Remedios died on August 3, 1823 at the age of 25 in the family’s country house on Caseros and Monasterio Avenue, in Parque Patricios. Until the last moment she asked for her husband, she wrote to him to come see her, which caused deep resentment in the family, and especially from her mother-in-law. She was the one who took care of her granddaughter.

San Martín arrived in the city on December 4. Before leaving for European exile, he had a plaque engraved and placed on his wife’s grave. “Here lies Remedios de Escalada, wife and friend of General San Martín.”

When Remedios married San Martín, young Gervasio felt “disheartened and humiliated,” as Maud de Ridder de Zemborain, Antonio’s biographer, described. He took advantage of his father’s friendship with Manuel Belgrano and on April 8, 1813 he left for Potosí, in the company of the mulatto Florentino to join the Army of the North. He found Belgrano in Jujuy and appointed him aide-de-camp.

In the defeat of Vilcapugio, on October 1 of that year, Gervasio was one of the 300 patriots killed. Belgrano himself signed the death certificate of that boy who perhaps had himself killed for love, for that fragile girl who had been dazzled by the dark-skinned soldier, with a strong Spanish accent that no one knew.

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