In our heroic institutional deed of May 25, a figure not always recognized in his outstanding performance as part of the militia called “Los Chisperos” stood out: General Domingo French.
It would seem that referring to French and Beruti is like mentioning those Siamese twins who are born together and now, not even science can separate them. But that is the repeated version of our history and something else may be the reality.
Because both Antonio Luis Beruti and Domingo French had their own personality, and in what way!
But today I will deal only with French.
The same thing happened to Domingo French as to some great writers, many mention them, but not all have read them, nor do they know their career. Such would be the case of our beloved Jorge Luis Borges, for example.
And French, who was not a writer, has generally had the same thing. He names it for him, associating it with the fact that he is with Beruti, the creator of the cockade. A symbol. But it was much more than that.
He was born two years before the emancipation of the USA, which was in 1776, because he saw the light in 1774.
He was 20 years old, when Buenos Aires, which was, at that time, the Capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, had only forty thousand inhabitants. French, was initially a postman.
The population was not very large and only a small percentage of it knew how to read and write.
Consequently the work was minimal. All it took was seriousness and correction. And French was appointed to the post, making him the first postman in the new Nation and the only one at that time.
1806 arrived and with it the English invasions.
French, at the age of 32, participated first in the reconquest of the city and then in the defense.
He was appointed First Lieutenant of the Hussar Squadron and was later promoted to Captain and later to Lieutenant Colonel.
With the events of 1810, he participated in the secret meetings prior to the Emancipating Council.
In May, together with Beruti, he led young people who were called “Chisperos”. He instructed them to put pressure on the lobbyists and encourage them to secede from the government of Spain, dominated at the time by Napoleon Bonaparte, through his brother.
It was like this when the historic distribution of colored ribbons (light blue and white) occurred, similar to those used by those of the Patricios Regiment, to identify those who adhered to the Revolution that was coming.
Once the First Board was installed, French was promoted to Colonel and had to leave for Córdoba, with a painful mission.
He had to lead the firing squad that would execute, in Cabeza de Tigre, 5 conspirators, among them who had been his boss in the Reconquest of Buenos Aires: Santiago de Liniers, for whom he had great respect and personal appreciation.
Half an hour before the execution, French approached Liniers’ cell and only managed to say:
-Sorry!, and the tears prevented him from pronouncing any more words.
Some time later, our man wrote about the execution of Liniers – “Between my feelings, on the one hand, and my support for the nascent homeland, I could not doubt, Liniers was against the May Revolution.”
In another order, the cockade was a symbol of union that lasts until today.
On February 18, 1812, the Triumvirate declared the blue and white cockade an official national symbol, at the request of Belgrano; that from Rosario he demanded a badge for his troops.
Later, political circumstances made Pueyrredón banish him to French for two years, to the US.
Pueyrredón himself later pardoned him and was promoted to General.
At the age of 45, he left active service and entered politics.
He would die 6 years later, at the age of 51, in June 1825.
Today, his name is remembered in the streets of numerous Argentine cities, including in the Federal Capital, specifically in the Barrio Norte.
It is also called Domingo French, a railway station and a town of the Partido de Julio 9 in the Province of Buenos Aires.
Already in the middle of the 20th century, a resolution of the National Council of Education of 1935 -a bit delayed I would say- instituted May 18 of each year, as National Cockade Day.
Just reparation and homage, to a man who surpassed his own shadow. That he maybe he believed that he was preaching in the desert. But still, he kept preaching…
And a final aphorism for Domingo French. “The chosen ones not only showed reality. They also helped to modify it.”
Source: Ambito
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