Paisanos

Tim Fanning

Description

In the early nineteenth century, thousands of volunteers left Ireland behind to join the fight for South American independence. Lured by the promise of adventure, fortune, and the opportunity to take a stand against colonialism, they braved the treacherous Atlantic crossing to join the ranks of the Liberator, Simón Bolívar, and became instrumental in helping oust the Spanish from Colombia, Panama, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. Today, the names of streets, towns, schools, and football teams on the continent bear witness to their influence.

But it was not just during wars of independence that the Irish helped transform Spanish America. Irish soldiers, engineers, and politicians, who had fled Ireland to escape religious and political persecution in their homeland, were responsible for changing the face of the Spanish colonies in the Americas during the eighteenth century. They included a chief minister of Spain, Richard Wall; a chief inspector of the Spanish Army, Alexander O'Reilly; and the viceroy of Peru, Ambrose O'Higgins.

Whether telling the stories of armed revolutionaries like Bernardo O'Higgins and James Rooke or retracing the steps of trailblazing women like Eliza Lynch and Camila O'Gorman, Paisanos revisits a forgotten chapter of Irish history and, in so doing, reanimates the hopes, ambitions, ideals, and romanticism that helped fashion the New World and sowed the seeds of Ireland's revolutions to follow.

Political journalism in Spain was born out of the decision by the members of the Cádiz Cortes to abolish restrictions on the press. Consequently the debates between liberals and conservatives in the Cortes were reported with great interest not only in Spain but also abroad.

One of the most perceptive and interested observers of the Cortes was the Irish-Spaniard José María Blanco White. The White family had adopted the surname Blanco (blanco means white in Spanish) when they settled in Spain; José María adopted the double surname Blanco White when he was in England. From his exile in London this rather severe, impassioned, intolerant young man became not only one of the foremost propagandists for Spanish liberalism but also a fierce critic of Spanish rule in the American colonies. His fiery polemics in favour of American independence were to earn him the opprobrium of both Spanish conservatives and liberals. His biographer, Manuel Moreno Alonso, goes so far as to describe him as ‘the “inventor” of Liberalism in Spain’ and says that ‘one can say that until the Generation of ’98, nobody raised in such a continual and obsessive manner what, afterwards, has been called “the subject of Spain”.’

Blanco White possessed the zeal of the convert. He was born in Seville on 11 July 1775 into an exaggeratedly pious Irish family in deeply Catholic southern Spain whose estates in Ireland had been expropriated in the Cromwellian era. His great-grandfather was living in County Waterford when he sent four of his five children abroad ‘to escape the oppression of the penal laws.’ Blanco White’s grandfather settled in Seville, where he inherited the substantial business of his merchant uncle, Philip Nangle. The connection with Ireland remained strong when Blanco White was growing up. His grandfather’s ‘love of his native land could not be impaired by his foreign residence,’ and English was spoken at home with ‘an Irish pronunciation.’ Blanco White’s own father had been sent back to Ireland as a child so that ‘he might also cling to that country by early feelings of kindness.’

When Blanco White was a child, the family business began to fail and the money that remained was ‘just enough to save the family from such poverty as might have entirely changed their condition in the world.’ Blanco White’s aunt married an Irishman named Thomas Cahill, who took over the running of the business. Their daughter, Blanco White’s cousin, married another Irishman, by the name of Beck, one of the many Irish clerks employed by the Whites, who then took over the business in partnership with Blanco White’s brother. The White family in Seville thus preserved their links to the ancestral homeland. Blanco White wrote that his family was ‘a small Irish colony, whose members preserve the language and many of the habits and affections which its founder brought to Spain.’

Blanco White was introduced to the family business at an early age, learning reading and writing from one of the Irish clerks. As a 12-year-old he was employed in the office copying correspondence, invoices, bills of exchange and bills of lading. When he declared to his parents that he wished to become a priest, they greeted the news with enthusiasm. Blanco White’s father was a devout man who would spend hours in church. His son attributed his religiosity to his having spent his childhood in Ireland and wrote of his father that he ‘combined in his person the two most powerful and genuine elements of a religionist – the unhesitating faith of persecuting Spain: the impassioned belief of persecuted Ireland.’ On his father’s death ‘multitudes of people thronged the house to indulge a last view of the body,’ such was his ‘purity’, ‘benevolence’, and ‘angelic piety’. Blanco White’s mother, a member of the impoverished Spanish gentry, was equally religious.

His parents sent Blanco White to the Dominican College in Seville at the age of 14, but he was soon in trouble. Demonstrating the type of intellectual independence that would later lead him to fall out with his superiors in the Catholic Church, he got into an argument about Aristotelian logic with one of the Dominican friars. His exasperated mother removed him from the college and sent him instead to the University of Seville. Though he had already begun to show doubts about his chosen path, he did not stop studying for the priesthood. After his ordination in 1800 he continued to question Catholic doctrine and struggled to reconcile his beliefs. He later wrote:

At length the moment arrived when, by the deliberate admission of the fact that the Church had erred, I came at once to the conclusion at which every sincere Roman Catholic, in similar circumstances, must arrive. I concluded that Christianity could not be true. This inference was not properly my own. The Church of Rome had most assiduously prepared me to draw it.

His conversion to liberalism – and English Protestantism – far from being Damascene, as he might have wished to paint it in later life, was gradual, founded upon a logical dismantling of the tenets that formed the basis of his education as a priest. Even before he was ordained, he had begun to think about how he might best escape the predicament of choosing to be a priest when he no longer believed in the Church.

(excerpted from chapter 6)

Acknowledgements

Note

Maps

Foreword by President Michael D. Higgins

Introduction

Part 1. Exile

1. Wild Geese

2. Remaking the New World

3. A New Model Army

4. The King of Peru

5. Spain Under Siege

6. The Propagandist Priest

7. Merchants, Sailors, Soldiers, Spies

Part 2. Revolution

8. The Battle for the River Plate

9. General O’Higgins

10. Bolívar’s Irish Volunteers

11. The Hibernian Regiment and the Irish Legion

12. Death in the Andes

13. The San Patricios

14. The Kingdom of God

Part 3. Home

15. After the Revolution

16. The ‘New Erin’

17. Making History

18. The ‘Spiritual Empire’

Bibliographical note

Abbreviations

Sources

Notes

Index

Sujets

• HISTORY
• Histoire
• History of Ireland
• General officer
• Ireland
• Latin America
• New World
• Stephen Ireland
• General
• Simón Bolívar
• Europe

Informations

• Publié par: University of Notre Dame Press
• Date de parution: 30 septembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780268104924
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

PAISANOS
PAISANOS
The Irish and the Liberation of Latin America
TIM FANNING
University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana
Published in the United States in 2018
by the University of Notre Dame Press
Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
All rights reserved.
First published in Ireland 2016 by Gill Books, an imprint of M.H. Gill & Co.
© Tim Fanning 2016. Published by arrangement with Gill Books
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fanning, Tim, author.
Title: Paisanos : the Irish and the liberation of Latin America / Tim Fanning.
Other titles: Forgotten Irish who changed the face of Latin America
Description: Notre Dame, Indiana : University of Notre Dame Press, 2018. | “First published in 2016 by Gill Books in Ireland.” | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2018022275 (print) | LCCN 2018033399 (ebook) | ISBN 9780268104917 (pdf) | ISBN 9780268104924 (epub) | ISBN 9780268104894 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 0268104891 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Irish—Latin America—History—18th century. | Irish—Latin America—History—19th century. | Irish—South America—History—18th century. | Irish—South America—History—19th century. | Revolutionaries—Latin America—History. | Latin America—Civilization—Irish influences. | South America—History—18th century. | South America—History—19th century. | Latin America—History—18th century. | Latin America—History—19th century.
Classification: LCC F1419.I77 (ebook) | LCC F1419.I77 F36 2018 (print) | DDC 980/.0049162009033—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018022275
∞ This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
This e-Book was converted from the original source file by a third-party vendor. Readers who notice any formatting, textual, or readability issues are encouraged to contact the publisher at [e-mail]
For Mark and Caroline
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NOTE
MAPS
FOREWORD by President Michael D. Higgins
INTRODUCTION
PART ONE: EXILE
1 Wild Geese
2 Remaking the New World
3 A New Model Army
4 The King of Peru
5 Spain Under Siege
6 The Propagandist Priest
7 Merchants, Sailors, Soldiers, Spies
PART TWO: REVOLUTION
8 The Battle for the River Plate
9 General O’Higgins
10 Bolívar’s Irish Volunteers
11 The Hibernian Regiment and the Irish Legion
12 Death in the Andes
13 The San Patricios
14 The Kingdom of God

PART THREE: HOME
15 After the Revolution
16 The ‘New Erin’
17 Making History
18 The ‘Spiritual Empire’
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
ABBREVIATIONS
SOURCES
NOTES
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
T his book would not have been written without the support of Conor McEnroy and the Abbeyfield Group in Paraguay. Not only did Conor, an Irishman living in South America, suggest the idea – born out of his continuing interest in the shared history of Ireland and Latin America – but his generosity allowed me to undertake archival research on both sides of the Atlantic.
Michael Lillis is another Irishman with a deep interest in the historical links between Ireland and Latin America. His continuous support and advice were invaluable during the writing and researching of this book.
I wish to thank the Irish ambassador to Argentina, Justin Harman, who also supported this project from its inception, and the staff of the Irish Embassy in Buenos Aires.
I was treated with unfailing courtesy, kindness and professionalism during my research trips to archives in South America. In Bogotá, I am grateful to the staff at the Archivo General de la Nación Colombia, especially Mauricio Tovar González, and the Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango. In Santiago, I gratefully acknowledge the help of the staff of the Archivo Nacional de Chile, especially Pedro González Cancino, and the kind help and advice of Julio César Retamal Ávila. In Buenos Aires, I would like to thank all the staff of the Archivo General de la Nación, who did their utmost to help further my inquiries.
While studying for a master’s degree in Spanish and Latin American studies at Maynooth University, I had the good fortune to be able to call on the expertise of Dr David Barnwell, who shared with me his interest in the history of the Irish in Spain and Latin America. He gave me several leads and suggestions that have ended up appearing in the present volume. I also wish to thank Susan Leyden of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, for her help in finding material in the Salamanca Archive in the college’s Russell Library.
Roddy Hegarty of the Cardinal Tomás Ó Fiaich Memorial Library and Archive in Armagh made many useful suggestions regarding the library’s Overseas Archive, which was assembled by Dr Micheline Kerney Walsh and contains copies of thousands of documents from archives in Spain. While many of these documents are now available to view on the Spanish state’s archival web site, pares, the Overseas Archive remains a useful finding guide. I am also grateful to Kate Manning and the staff of University College Dublin (ucd) Archives.
My considerable debt to the many researchers and writers on both sides of the Atlantic who have written about the Irish in Spain and Latin America is more fully acknowledged in the Bibliographical Note and Bibliography at the end of the book, but I must make special mention of Dr Matthew Brown of the University of Bristol. Dr Brown has carried out invaluable research in archives throughout South America into the foreign volunteers who fought for Bolívar and has compiled a database giving details of their origins. He was always quick to respond to my requests for help.
Thanks to Conor Nagle, Ruth Mahony and all at Gill Books, and to Jonathan Williams.
I must also mention Ruth Fanning for giving me a place in which to write at short notice and my father, Ronan, for his help, advice and support, as always. Lastly, thank you, Annalisa, for your endless love, patience and good humour, without which, again, this book would not have been written, and, of course, Chiara.
NOTE
I rish and English forenames and surnames tended to be hispanicised in the Spanish Empire in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries: Richard became Ricardo, John became Juan, Fitzgerald became Geraldino and O’Donoghue became O’Donojú. Throughout the text I have used the English spelling of the name for those born in Ireland, but for those who were born in Spain or Latin America I prefer the Spanish version, so that the Chilean patriot Juan Mackenna, who was born in County Monaghan, is referred to throughout the text as John Mackenna, while his friend and ally, who was born in Chile, remains Bernardo O’Higgins. Where the birthplace is not clear, I have chosen the Spanish version.
I have used the authentic version of place-names in Spain and Latin America except where there is a well-known alternative English spelling: for example, Seville is preferred to Sevilla.
I have taken the decision to concentrate on the independence struggle in Spain’s former colonies on the South American continent during the first decades of the nineteenth century, as well as examining the historical context in Spain and its American colonies. This is because the Irish played a significant role in the independence movement in the southern part of the continent – through the actions of individuals such as James Florence Bourke, William Brown, Peter Campbell, Bernardo O’Higgins and John Thomond O’Brien – and in the northern part through the Irish volunteers in Bolívar’s armies. This approach precludes looking at Cuba, which remained a Spanish possession until 1898.
The independence struggle in the Viceroyalty of New Spain – the Spanish administrative territory that covered Mexico, much of the modern United States of America and most of Central America – followed a different course from that of South America. It was at first a popular rising, as opposed to the middle-class-led revolutions. I have included a chapter on Mexico, in addition to those about South America, for two reasons. The first is that the Spanish general who signed the treaty that brought about Mexican independence in an extraordinary act of pragmatism was an Irish-Spaniard by the name of Juan O’Donojú. The second reason is that Mexico honours to this day a battalion of Irishmen known as the San Patricios who fought to preserve Mexican independence from the aggressive designs of the United States.
Brazil is a vast country, which covers almost half the South American continent. It requires its own separate study. However, that is not to say that the course of events in Brazil, especially the machinations of the Portuguese royal family during their exile in Rio de Janeiro and their decision to invade what is now Uruguay, remains completely outside the scope of this book.
The story of the Irish in Latin America is a huge subject. I have tried to give an idea of their broader involvement in the independence struggle while interspersing the narrative with the histories of the most important leaders.
Finally, this is a history not only of the Irish soldiers who helped achieve independence for the republics that came into existence at the beginning of the nineteenth century by force of arms but also of their compatriots in the service of Spain who created the conditions in which independence became possible.
MAPS

1. SPANISH AMERICA, 1800

2. SOUTHERN CHILE, 1820

3. GRAN COLOMBIA, 1822

4. PERU, BOLIVIA AND CHILE, 1825

5. THE RIVER PLATE