"I will not allow it";Yrigoyen shouted at De la Torre.Of exercising "hostile and disturbing influence" the Rosario(De la Torre) had accused him of Balvanera Caudillo(Yrigoyen).
They were times of restless assemblies and committee conventions.Six years ago, radicalism was born, and in the middle of one of those partisan conclaves, sure more than one "Chicana" would have blown through the air and affordment in the internal debate.And although it would currently seem like a daily, insignificant and minor fact, the discussion between Lisandro and Hipólito resulted in a duel.
Was far from being a staging.And far from playing both for the gallery.These guys didn't walk with macanas.Yrigoyen and de la Torre;Two race politicians.They were born to public life knowing that honor and ethics are personal goods that are never delegated.
All of that in the framework of a popular party where discussions were generally resolved with drastic resolutions: rupture, fight or duel.
With the courage and civic value of always giving the face in order to defend the party or own convictions, but also with the consequent risk of "putting together a separate ranch" when the debate was blocked and it became anthocly irreconcilable producing the inevitable weakeningopponent.
The Duels of the time
It was 1897.As it was for those times, the godparents of the duelists agreed that the bid would not be "first blood".They would go to the last consequences.The honor codes determined that the dispute would not end when the first injuries appear in one of the opponents, but would continue until some apologized, died or the godparents in the extreme and exceptional case acting from trades providing that the duel could not continue byA dramatic situation.
Lisandro was a 28 -year -old boy.lawyer.Radical conventional by Santa Fe.He had led the national revolutionary uprising of 1893 in his province against the president(at that time) Luis Sáenz Peña.
Lencinas and Civit, a duel of Titans: "Chusmas of" vs. "thieves with patent leather shoes"
Hipólito was already 45 years old.He was the head of the Radical Party of Buenos Aires since the suicide of Alem and the death of Aristóbulo del Valle, both deaths in 1896.But also remember that the relationship between the nephew(Yrigoyen) and the uncle(Alem) was very deteriorated after the failure of that aforementioned revolution of 1893.
The national context didn't help much: weakness in the ruling party.Acute economic crisis and divisions between mitrismo, redism and the followers of Pellegrini, immersed the weak national government in a serious situation.
On the opposite side: the radical opposition.Who in parallel had to choose the national party leaders.Hipólito arose as the natural successor, but Lisandro would think something else, and obviously would propose another candidate.
"I tell you what I think"
There was no time for indirect, or subtleties.Internal power was discussed.With bravery, and seriously.
De la Torre had resigned from his supportive position with a philosophical letter before the National Convention: "The Radical Party has had a hostile and disturbing influence, that of Mr. Hipólito Yrigoyen, hidden and persevering influence that has operated the same before andAfter the death of Dr. Alem, which destroys in these moments the great policy of the coalition, putting the interests of the country and the interests of the party, small and unconfessable feelings "(textual).
That letter will be the trigger of the offense and the challenge to duel for more than the resumes and distrust had long come.
A brief historical synthesis of the radical internal situation will place the discussion in a confrontation that could be simplified(making a slight cut) in a kind of lawsuit between "hawks" and "pigeons", and that came from a long time ago when the first edges betweenThe "red" of Alem and the "lyric" of Yrigoyen.But above all, in the middle of the 1893 revolution when the radical armies established revolutionary governments in San Luis, Buenos Aires, Tucumán, Corrientes and Santa Fe, also coming to designate Leandro Alem in the city of Rosario as the provisional president of the Republic, but where internal divisions and lack of coordination in a clear leadership threw everything overboard, allowing the ruling party to reorganize and quell the lifting.
After the failure of insurrection, Alem would write making a diagnosis of the moment: "The conservative radicals will go with Bernardo de Irigoyen; other radicals will become socialists or anarchists; the scoundrel of Buenos Aires, directed by the perfidious traitor of my niece Hipólito Yrigoyen,He will go with Roque Sáenz Peña and the uncompromising radicals we will go to the very shit ".
"That breaks, but not bend!"
HEA.And so, after their suicide the bulk of radicalism reorganized around Bernardo de Irigoyen and controlled the National Committee from where they began to think of a new alliance with the National Civic Union of Miter.The coup d'etat to radicalism will give it a rock when the candidacy for Buenos Aires governor offers Bernardo de Irigoyen.
Yrigoyen strongly opposed any arrangement."It was far from bending".Neither with miter, nor with rock.Meanwhile Lisandro de la Torre proposed the candidacy for president of Patricio Guido Gentile and will seek an approach with Miter to defeat Roca, but found how a strong opposition was expected in Yrigoyen, the radical leader of the province of Buenos Aires.
In that context, it will rush into a duel between Yrigoyen and De la Torre.
"I want to break the jeta"
And so the duel was reached.Yrigoyen challenged De la Torre with the weapon or the way he chose.Although he speculated that he went to a clean trumpe.
"I want to break the jeta to that scented pack; said Yrigoyen then.As the radical leader did not know anything about fencing, all his acquaintances were horrified and tried to make him give up the duel.No and no.He chose Colonel Tomás Vallée and Marcelo Torcuatoof Alvear as godparents;And calmly prepared, once again, to play life.(...) De la Torre, who chose Carlos Rodríguez Larreta and Carlos Gómez as representatives, told these: I will use saber because I am going to grind that old man of shit.And he flourished before them, at the Jockey Club of Buenos Aires, with elegant feints with the chosen weapon ".(Andrés Bufali: "Secretos Presidenciales".Sudextremo.2010.Buenos Aires).
Another paradox was Yrigoyen's specific preparation for duel.And while it was a good revolver and shotgun shooter, I didn't know fencing and I was exceeded.This is where the figure of the "coach" and godfather emerged: Marcelo T.of Alvear.Diet, exercises and lunge.Against mirrors and against sparring.Several early mornings completed the accelerated training plan designed by Alvear and a saber, float and sword specialist, such as Colonel Vallée, that co -religionist of the 33 officers who will fight with future radicals in the 90s revolution ".
The coup and infamy: "The saviors of the homeland march"
The rest is history.The confrontation was September 6, 1897.In front of one of the port sheds of the "Catalinas Sur" of Buenos Aires.
From a sincere and deep once, now they hated themselves with ferocity, to the point that they would fight to death. "Se batieron media hora y cuando ya Lisandro tenía varias heridas(en la cabeza, nariz, antebrazo y en la mejilla que lo obligaría a usar barba el resto de sus días), y a pesar de su inexperiencia en la esgrima, Yrigoyen no había sufrido ningún tajo.After that time, the godparents agreed to the end of the fight and summoned them to reconciliation ".From the battered tower he extended his hand to his rival, but Yrigoyen ignored the greeting and threw the saber at Lisandro's feet without pronouncing the word.Vallée and Alvear were waiting for him with a bottle of water and an ice bucket.
Destination, tragedies and bifurcated roads
The rest is known.Yrigoyen was twice president and Lisandro de la Torre ended up committed to politics, tired of intestines in pursuit of clarifyand extremely depressed after the murder in the national Senate of his co -religionist Enzo Bordabehere.
Lisandro había sido un pionero cultor del municipalismo, fundador del Partido Demócrata Progresista(1914) y candidato a presidente enfrentando al propio Yrigoyen.
Prior to that tragic course, fifteen years after the duel of 1897, Yrigoyen and De la Torre met again at the Spain Hotel in the City of Buenos Aires.Radical leaders gathered them for an important issue: there were elections and the congressmen of Santa Fe wanted the popular Lisandro to return to the party and represent them.Yrigoyen agreed and so asked.De la Torre said he refused "for a matter of principles and procedures".From that, his paths did not cross again.
The decade of '30 will continue to generate controversies.Survey as always happened in our national history and disparate criteria.It will mark the end of two intense lives.
The tropero sosa: road is done when walking
Yrigoyen will be overthrown as president, starting our country the path of coup d'etats.That first constitutional break was on September 6, 1930.What a paradox, just 33 years after that duel with Lisandro.
On the other hand, years later Lisandro would beat again. Precisamente después de un acalorado debate sobre el tema(ya nombrado) de las ventas de carnes a frigoríficos británicos en cuyo debate parlamentario presentó pruebas del escandaloso negociado que involucraba a dos ministros del gobierno del general Justo.In the midst of the discussion, Bordabehere was also murdered.
The same night of the crime and the founded accusations of De la Torre, those involved Duhau and Pinedo, challenged Duel to De la Torre.Lisandro rejected Duhau's challenge because he argued that the duel should be among gentlemen, a condition that Duhau did not meet for him.
He accepted the duel with Federico Pinedo that took place in Campo de Mayo, on July 25, 1935.Of the tower deeply hurt and disconsolate by the murder of his friend threw the air while Pinedo pointed to his opponent's head.Pinedo failed.
After the challenge, at the question of the director of the Duel Adolfo Arana, if they wanted.
De la Torre will be held in his department of Esmeralda Street.I was alone and that accommodation was the only good that had.On Thursday, January 5, 1939, lawyer Díaz Arana received.They were in lunch that same day.The lawyer ignored that the tower had summoned it to say goodbye.With a bullet in the heart, life would be removed.I had only left a letter.
