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¿Cómo se CONSTRUYE una HEROÍNA NACIONAL? JUANA AZURDUY y su HISTORIA — Transcript

by Pupina Plomer · 4,177 words · 625 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00We all know Juana Surdui. Was she
0:02Bolivian or Argentine? She was an
0:04exceptional woman. She represented the
0:06indigenous people. We have images of
0:08Juan Surdui in statues, coins, songs,
0:11and monuments. But how did a guerrilla
0:14fighter from Upper Peru become one of
0:16the main heroic figures of Argentina
0:19and Bolivia? Hello, my lanteris. A lot
0:22of people have been asking me for this
0:24video, and in commemoration of July 9,
0:26Argentina's Independence Day, I thought
0:28I'd make a video talking about the
0:30great Juana Azurduy. But not telling
0:33her story in a biographical way, as
0:35many of us should know, but asking
0:37myself what this woman represents, if
0:39she was exceptional, how can we recover
0:41her, and why are Argentina and Bolivia
0:44fighting over her possession? Juana
0:46Surdui was a woman who was born in 1780
0:49in Chuquisaca, the heart of the ponds
0:51at that time, which is now the city of
0:54Sucre. She was born at a time when the
0:56Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata had
0:58only recently been created; In other
1:00words, it was not until 1776 that the
1:02Spanish Crown created what is
1:04jurisdictionally known as the
1:06Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata,
1:08which corresponds to the current
1:09territories of Argentina, Uruguay,
1:11Paraguay, and part of Bolivia. In other
1:13words, it was neither Argentine nor
1:15Bolivian. Neither Argentina nor Bolivia
1:17existed back then; it was the
1:18Viceroyalty. The current national
1:20boundaries are precisely current and do
1:22not apply to the time when Juan Surdy
1:25was born. So, right off the bat, the
1:26first question is, was he Bolivian or
1:28Argentine? Neither. He was from the
1:30Viceroyalty. What currently corresponds
1:32to the territory of Bolivia is fine,
1:34but his actions had a significant
1:36impact on the formation of the
1:38Argentine and Bolivian nations. So we
1:40can share it because we have to keep in
1:42mind that the wars of independence were
1:45not Argentine, Uruguayan, or Chilean;
1:47they were regional. Well, Juana was
1:50born, as I said, in 1780 into a fairly
1:53well-off family from Chuquisaca, as I
1:56said. She was the daughter of Matías
1:58Azurduy, who taught Juana how to ride a
2:00horse and work with other people, and
2:02it was with him that she learned to
2:04speak to Imara when she accompanied her
2:05father to visit his farms. The fact
2:07that she lived in this city, which was
2:10part of a Spanish colony, let's say,
2:12part of the Kingdom of the Río de la
2:14Plata, occurred in 1810; that moment
2:18when Buenos Aires decided to proclaim
2:20its first national government, defying
2:22Spanish authority, of course, not
2:23declaring independence, but as a first
2:25demonstration of sovereignty where a
2:27national government was declared, a
2:29local government against the government
2:31imposed by Spain. And a decade began,
2:33which was the decade of revolution and
2:35war, during which the American colonies
2:37were going to come into conflict with
2:39the Spanish crown because they were
2:40going to gradually begin a process of
2:42emancipation. Well, on May 25, 1810,
2:44Buenos Aires decreed its first national
2:47government. The news was sent to the
2:49different provinces of the Viceroyalty
2:50of the Río de la Plata, communicating
2:52the news of, "Hey, look, we got rid of
2:54Viceroy Cisneros, we set up a local
2:55government, we're going to start
2:57governing ourselves, let's see what
2:59we're going to do on a day-to-day basis
3:00." The thing is that some provinces
3:03received that news well, while others
3:04did not so much. In this context, the
3:06region that we call Upper Peru, where
3:09the city of Chuquizaca was located,
3:11declared itself loyal to the Spanish
3:13crown and did not decide to support the
3:15decision of Buenos Aires. Also, so that
3:17we don't interrupt with this idea that
3:19these were like unanimous decisions,
3:21there were no regions that were against
3:23it. Well, although the region of Upper
3:25Peru declared itself in favor of the
3:27Spanish crown, there were small
3:29insurgent groups that were loyal to the
3:31decision, precisely, of the patriots to
3:34declare a patriotic government and they
3:36came into conflict with those who
3:38supported the crown, and the Auxiliary
3:40Army of Peru began to clash with the
3:42royalist auxiliary army, let's say, the
3:44Spanish. In this context, there were
3:47insurgent groups in the region that
3:48supported the patriotic cause, who were
3:51fundamentally the ones who a few years
3:53later would support the cause of San
3:55Martín and this regional liberation
3:57plan. But let's not get ahead of
3:58ourselves. In 1810, when the region
4:00began to experience friction between
4:02sectors that supported the Spanish
4:04crown and sectors that supported the
4:06patriots, Juana Surduy came into action
4:09in these conflicts. Well, as I said,
4:14starting in 1810, these confrontations
4:16began, which were called republiquetas,
4:18between insurgents and people who
4:20supported the Spanish crown. They waged
4:23a kind of war of resources where they
4:25basically harassed the royalists and
4:28those who supported Spain. Basically,
4:30these were groups that, since they
4:32could not stand up to them numerically,
4:35especially when they still did not have
4:37the support of the auxiliary army of
4:39Peru, began to harass the royalist
4:41forces little by little. Juan Surduy
4:43played a fundamental role in this
4:45harassment. But how did Juana Surdui
4:47come to occupy that role as a woman?
4:49Well, I told them that Juana was born
4:51into a family that had farms and that
4:54had a very, very strong connection to
4:56indigenous groups. She was actually
4:58mestizo because her mother was a
5:00descendant of the Incas. She spoke
5:02Aymara and had married Manuel Padilla
5:05in 1800, with whom she became closer to
5:07the liberating ideas of the University
5:10of Chuquisaca and was steeped in
5:12ideological issues. In other words, she
5:15was a woman who did not have the
5:17classic passive role of wives in homes;
5:19instead, she was very knowledgeable
5:21about intellectual issues, about the
5:23idea of freedom, let's say, all this
5:25stuff that we can see, for example, in
5:27San Martín. She was very knowledgeable
5:29because she circulated, let's say, in
5:31these spaces of information and
5:33communication. So, beyond having a
5:35husband who knew a lot and who was
5:37quite an important person in the region
5:40, she also handled certain information.
5:42When the Chuquisaka Revolution took
5:44place in 1809, which was like the first
5:46cry for freedom, let's say, prior to
5:48the May Revolution, she was there. And
5:50in 1810, when the Casteli and Valcarce
5:52expedition arrived, who were the ones
5:54who came to communicate the news of the
5:57May Revolution and so on, who came with
5:59super progressive and super advanced
6:01ideas about the liberation of
6:03indigenous people, about equality, she
6:05received them, gave them a donation of
6:07mules, gave them crops and even gave
6:09Juan José Casteli himself a shout-out
6:11because she was very involved in
6:13politics. Of course, having, let's say,
6:16public recognition and being a public
6:18figure, the royalists drove her crazy,
6:20they persecuted her all the time. One
6:22time they persecuted her and her
6:23children and she had to take refuge in
6:25the mountains. They say that she even
6:27lived in a condor's nest, this is
6:28already part of the epic, right? But
6:30she had to hide in a condor's nest to
6:32live because they were looking for her
6:33and they wouldn't find her in the
6:35mountains, and since she had knowledge
6:36of indigenous ancestry, she managed the
6:38region. But well, it was at that moment
6:40that she decided to start participating
6:43in the revolution in a more active way,
6:45that is, with weapons, because she
6:47realized that it was a cause that
6:49permeated her entire life, her ideals,
6:51and even her own survival. That's when
6:53she decided to simply support the
6:56military, to donate, and she said, "No,
6:59I'll get on a horse and ride with a
7:02sword." She knew how to ride a horse
7:04because, as I said before, her father
7:05taught her to ride a horse. So, she
7:07also had a series of experiences and
7:09skills that other women didn't have,
7:11not because they were useless, but
7:13because it wasn't common for a woman to
7:15be taught how to ride in a masculine
7:17way, let's say. Between 1812 and 1813,
7:19she participated in the armed struggle,
7:22let's say, in the armed resistance of
7:24the region. And after a massacre in
7:26Cochabamba, where many women were
7:28murdered, that's when she tells him, "
7:30Look, that's it, let's give our lives
7:32for the cause, I've already gotten
7:34involved, let's give our lives now.
7:36This is much bigger than us." It was at
7:38that time that she got in touch with
7:40Manuel Belgrano, recruited 10,000
7:42indigenous people, that is, a lot of
7:45indigenous people, and sent them to
7:47help Manuel Vegano when he was in the
7:49battles in the north, let's say, in
7:51Tucumán. And from 1813, Juana fully
7:54joined the military world. There she
7:58organized two main groups. First the
8:00loyal squadron, which were these
8:02indigenous squadrons, and then the
8:04squadron for which we perhaps remember
8:06her the most, which is the cavalry
8:08corps of Amazon women. Perhaps she is
8:11best known for this, because she
8:13precisely created an exclusively female
8:15cavalry corps of women on horseback and
8:17incorporated them into the war in a
8:19context where cases of women are
8:21exceptional. participating in the war.
8:23In other words, not only was she
8:25exceptional, but she introduced more
8:27women to this world and gave them the
8:29recognition that, of course, men were
8:32not going to give them. She was able to
8:34demonstrate her courage in the Battle
8:36of Ayouma in 1813, which although it
8:38was a battle that was lost, it was a
8:41battle that demonstrated the heroism
8:43and commitment of women to the
8:45patriotic cause. In the video I have of
8:47María Remidos del Valle, we can see a
8:50little of it: that in this battle,
8:52women are seen not only participating
8:54in the war, but also playing a
8:56fundamental role in the post-loss,
8:58helping, caring for, healing,
9:00supporting, and feeding the wounded
9:03soldiers. And that is why the heroines
9:05of Showuma are recognized. On one
9:06occasion, Juana actually captured a
9:08banner, a royalist flag, and for that
9:11she was recognized, because it was a
9:13very heroic and courageous act. And all
9:15these feats were what earned her the
9:17recognition of Manuel Belgrano, who in
9:20fact named her lieutenant colonel.
9:22Being named a lieutenant colonel is no
9:25small thing, no small feat. We are
9:27talking about a military rank that
9:29historically was not assigned to women.
9:31In other words, Manuel Belgrano was
9:33able to recognize in Juana Surduy these
9:36traits that are so typical of a brave,
9:38heroic person, within the male
9:40stereotypes and he recognizes her as a
9:42lieutenant colonel. Why do I say within
9:44the male stereotypes? Because what he
9:47sees as positive in her are traits that
9:50stereotypically belong to brave men. In
9:53other words, the woman who feeds, cares
9:55for others, and so on, is not brave,
9:57she is ultimately heroic, she does
9:59something well, but if you want to be
10:01recognized, you have to do manly things
10:03like ride a horse and kill royalists.
10:05In fact, a journey very similar to the
10:07one we can see with María Ramírez del
10:09Valle, who of course has her own video.
10:11What interests me here is to make it
10:13clear that Juana was not an isolated
10:15heroine, but rather that she was part
10:17of a social world that allowed her to
10:19reach that place, but that what also
10:21allowed her to reach that place was
10:23adapting to the male stereotype of hero
10:25. And we'll talk about that a little
10:27later. But first I want to talk about
10:29something specific that Juana Surduy is
10:32perhaps best known for, which is the
10:34indigenous factor in her struggle. We
10:39said a moment ago that Juana was the
10:41daughter of an indigenous woman,
10:43therefore, she not only had indigenous
10:45features, but she also had certain
10:47interests in the indigenous world. So,
10:49that leads us to ask ourselves, why did
10:51they follow her, where did her troops
10:53come from? How did she build her
10:55authority? Well, we said that she also
10:57had a good command of Quechua, which
10:59brought her very close to her troops, I
11:01mean, not only for the question of
11:03identity, but because she spoke their
11:05language. But she went a step further
11:07and, in fact, integrated her indigenous
11:09identity even into the way she dressed.
11:11For example, on several occasions she
11:13was seen wearing a poncho, she wore
11:15braids, in other words, the way she
11:17looked already recognized the
11:19indigenous world. Furthermore, on the
11:21battlefield she fought alongside her
11:24husband Manuel Padilla in indigenous
11:26troops, where she recognized them as
11:28soldiers, let's say, as peers. And she
11:30wasn't one of those military men who
11:33are more strategic or fearful, let's
11:35say, and aren't on the battlefield, but
11:37she fought side by side with her troops
11:39, which earned her the recognition of
11:42her troops and her peers, of course,
11:44like Manuel Belgrano himself. In fact,
11:46many called her Pachamama because they
11:49recognized in her that gaze, that
11:51identification with the other and that
11:54revaluation of the indigenous world
11:56that, of course, did not exist from the
11:59Spanish world, from the royalist world.
12:02In other words, we can see in her a
12:04great social commitment where a large
12:06part of her drive to fight came from
12:08the impotence she felt in the face of
12:10Spanish abuses, against indigenous
12:12women and also against the Creole
12:14actors to which she belonged. And
12:16that's how over the years a
12:18mythological image of the indigenous
12:21heroine was built around her. How are
12:24these myths built? In other words, we
12:28say that Juana Surdui was heroic
12:30because of Belgrano's recognition,
12:32because she was called lieutenant
12:34colonel, because how her troops saw her
12:36, for being an exceptional woman, for
12:38stealing the standard and for something
12:40I didn't tell you, let's say, because
12:41it's also incredible, which was giving
12:43birth in the middle of combat. In fact,
12:46she gave birth to her daughter Luisa
12:48Padilla in the middle of combat, that
12:50is, she fought on her horse while she
12:52was 9 months pregnant and gave birth,
12:54which are all facts that I'm telling
12:56you that somewhat help to build the
12:58image of a heroine, right? This ideal
13:00experience, this exceptional woman that
13:02also happens to us a bit with male
13:05figures and that in fact within the
13:07construction of the hero the
13:08characteristics that we add for a hero
13:11are characteristics culturally and
13:13stereotypically associated with the
13:15male world. I have another video, I
13:17don't even remember which video talking
13:18about this. I think it's the one by
13:20María Ramízo, ah, the one by Macacha
13:22Hüemz talking about this, about how
13:24the heroic figure in the end always
13:26coincides with the male figure. But
13:28notice that in Juana what we highlight
13:30as heroic are characteristics that we
13:32also highlight in the masculine. But
13:34the real Other women who were in battle
13:38. She had defeats, she also lost her
13:41entire family, that is, her husband was
13:43killed in battle and her children died
13:45of diseases as a result of fighting on
13:48the battlefield. Manuel Padilla, her
13:50husband, died in 1816; in fact, he was
13:53escorting her in a retreat, that is, we
13:55can say that he died defending her,
13:58which also shows a bit of the human
14:00side and also the human cost that war
14:02has, because Juana was a heroine, but
14:05she lost everything to do that. At the
14:08same time, reconstructing Juana's story
14:10is very difficult, because, of course,
14:13she was a woman and women do not appear
14:15much in colonial sources and even less
14:18in war sources, let's say, in any war
14:20document. Sometimes women are not even
14:22mentioned by their proper names, but
14:24rather as the women who were there,
14:25like, I have no idea what their names
14:27are. In Juana's case, since it was an
14:29exceptional case, as I say, we have a
14:31bit more documentation; but, in the end
14:33, much of what we have about her is
14:34like information from a myth, like
14:36these things that for some reason There
14:38they grow, let's say, in the oral
14:39tradition, which is also the same thing
14:41that happens to us with Macacha Wemes.
14:43If you want to go see the video of
14:45Macacha, it also has many things in
14:47common with this one. So, it is also
14:49very difficult for us to recover
14:51stories of other women that are not
14:52these exceptional cases, because
14:54imagine if we have so little
14:56information about these exceptional
14:58women, how little we have about women
15:00who are not recognized as exceptional.
15:02But well, I just told you then that
15:04Juana had this participation in the
15:06wars, let's say, and that after the
15:07death of her husband, she, well, was
15:09left very badly, of course, because not
15:11only did she lose her husband, but she
15:13also lost her children. But I find it
15:15interesting to recover what happened to
15:17Juana Surduy after, let's say, the
15:20revolution, because it also speaks
15:22volumes about the treatment that heroic
15:24women have received throughout time,
15:26but fundamentally at the time in which
15:29they lived, which is basically oblivion
15:31. At the outset, when Padilla was
15:36killed, you saw that I told them that
15:38he was captured in A rearguard of hers,
15:40let's say, was defending Padilla, they
15:42cut off his head, left it on a pike and
15:45they didn't return her husband's head
15:47to her. It took almost a year for
15:49Cristiana to recover her husband's head
15:51and give it a burial because they had
15:53it exposed on a pike and it took her a
15:55year to recover it. Imagine the trauma
15:58of that poor woman who had a year until
16:00she was able to recover her husband's
16:02head. The truth is that there are times
16:04when one says: "What a great time to
16:06live in 2026", which reminds me that I
16:08uploaded a video that is doing very
16:10well, which is called "All past times
16:12were better", which is a series of
16:14videos that...I'm going to start a
16:15series where I ask myself if all past
16:17times were better or if sometimes we
16:19idealize certain periods of history.
16:21But anyway, after Padilla was killed,
16:23there was a strong royalist presence in
16:25the region, let's say they were the
16:27ones who had the majority presence and
16:30Juana had to hide in Tarija. In 1818
16:32She goes, let's say, down south and
16:34ends up in Salta, where she is assisted
16:37by the Wemes brothers, who give her
16:39asylum, who recognize her as an equal.
16:42That's how all the stories connect,
16:44where Juan was in the battle of Yuma
16:46with María Ramízos del Valle, and he
16:48goes to Salta with Macacha, who in fact
16:50gives him asylum in her own home. But
16:52well, that protection from the Wemes
16:54lasted until 1821, when Martín Miguel
16:57de Hüemes was assassinated and they no
16:59longer had the resources to protect
17:01themselves, they were going to be able
17:03to protect poor Juana. And in 1825 she
17:05returned to the city of Sucre with an
17:08independent Bolivia, but in a state of
17:11total poverty, without being able to
17:13understand the friction that was
17:15occurring within the independence
17:18groups themselves. I mean, it's the
17:20patriots themselves, as happens
17:21throughout the region, who begin to
17:23have friction among themselves. She
17:24falls and can't understand how she gave
17:27her life for a cause that they are now
17:29fighting among themselves. Well, when
17:31she left, let's say, Salta, the Salta
17:33government gave her 50 pesos and four
17:35mules. Nothing, people, I mean, nothing
17:37. Two, two popcorn directly. She
17:40returns to Bolivia with those few
17:42resources and when she arrives in
17:44Chuquisaca or Sucre they call her crazy
17:47, exaggerating, they directly ignore
17:49her and she ends up dying in total
17:52poverty. At one point they give her a
17:54war pension, but then they take it away
17:56. I mean, the woman who was named
17:58lieutenant colonel by the manelgrano
18:00himself is denied any type of aid. At
18:03one point they give it to her, but then
18:04they take it away. A woman who was also
18:06rich, let's say, before all this began,
18:08Juan was rich and dedicated all her
18:10resources to the patriotic cause. I
18:12mean, she became impoverished by
18:14donating everything she had to the
18:16patriotic cause and lived humbly until
18:18May 25, 1862. In other words, she lived
18:2281 years and died in poverty. Just look
18:25at all the time she had to live ignored
18:27for the next four decades. Mistreated,
18:29ignored, after having been one of the
18:32key figures in the defense of the
18:34region against the royalist forces. Her
18:36burial was without any pomp. It
18:38actually cost one peso. She was buried
18:41in a common grave from which, over the
18:43years, they extracted what is believed
18:45to be her body and today it is
18:46exhibited in the Casa de la Libertad in
18:48Sucre. But notice that until her burial
18:50, it was like nothing, that is, a
18:52common thing, which is a bit like the
18:54treatment that many important figures
18:55have had. I mean, let's think about
18:57Manuel Belgrano himself, who died
18:59similarly, he died poor, forgotten,
19:00ignored. But well, with Juana, the
19:02disregard is doubly so because she was
19:04also a woman. It is not easy to build
19:07the image of a heroic woman. As I say,
19:09you have to meet the requirements of a
19:11heroic man, which she did. But anyway,
19:14it still strikes me that, in the end,
19:16we consider women who resemble men to
19:18be the true heroines. Why don't we put
19:20heroines as heroines? to women who
19:21resemble women and perform heroic deeds
19:24that women are also capable of doing?
19:26But well, she was forgotten,
19:27symbolically she was revived in the
19:2920th century. There she was taken up
19:32again with a relevant historical figure
19:34in a context of nationalism where it
19:36was necessary to reconstruct patriotic
19:38heroes and tell a heroic story of the
19:40construction of the Argentine and also
19:42Bolivian nation. And governments began
19:44to look for figures to display in their
19:47national pantheons. That's where the
19:49image of Juana, who had been quite
19:50forgotten, resurfaces. In Argentina,
19:52already in the 21st century, let's say,
19:53a couple of years ago, she is even more
19:55recognized; because also in the 20th
19:56century, it seemed to me that it was
19:58like: "Isn't she Bolivian?" Since she
19:59was born in Sucre, she is Bolivian, "
20:01because we continue to base ourselves
20:02on the current national boundaries and
20:04not recognize them from the time in
20:05which she lived. And in the 21st
20:07century, in Argentina, she had a kind
20:09of, a flare, uh, of historical
20:11revisionism of the time, where she was
20:13taken up again. In fact, let's say, she
20:15was taken up as a, as a very important
20:17image of the female figures of the
20:19revolutionary period, where a giant
20:20statue was inaugurated, where she was
20:22incorporated into the records of
20:24history, showing this tension between
20:26Bolivia and Argentina and recognizing
20:28that, in the end, she belonged to both;
20:30let's say, nations did not exist, we
20:32can say that she belongs to both.
20:34Finally, I would like to leave you with
20:36a brief reflection, which is something
20:38that happens to me a lot when I make
20:40these videos and I start looking for
20:43images, which is that I also see that
20:45when we represent these women in
20:47graphics, we tend to represent them
20:49with a very masculine visual identity.
20:51For Juana, for example, the only thing
20:53we know is that she used a long braid,
20:56typical of indigenous women of the time
20:58, and she wore a red jacket or poncho,
21:00also let's say as a nod to her
21:02recognition of the indigenous sectors,
21:04and she wore a skirt. That's all we
21:06know about Juan Surdwii, but then all
21:08the representations we have either make
21:10her super militarized, let's say with a
21:12military suit, as if it were a name, or
21:14they directly make her desexualized too
21:16, why not? Like, if she's a woman she
21:18has to be like a baby from the time and
21:21it's like no idea, I mean, she was
21:23going to a battle, I doubt she was
21:25worrying about whether her clothes were
21:27clean or pretty. The same thing happens
21:29with María Reidos del Valle, we also
21:31see her super militarized in her
21:32graphic representation, which, well,
21:34has to do with what I'm telling you
21:36about making women fit into male molds.
21:38Nothing, just something to think about.
21:39Having said all that, you can leave me
21:41a comment if you know the story of Juan
21:44Surdwii and what you think about this
21:46I'm telling you about how we represent
21:48female heroines. You can leave me a
21:50comment. If you think she's Bolivian or
21:52Argentinian or both. Recommendations
21:54for future videos. Remember that I have
21:56a historical standup show called It
21:57Depends, the Past Is Not the Problem,
21:59as I always tell you. And I'll see you
22:01next Monday.

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