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2007 CLAH Luncheon Address: History and the Goddess Fortune: The Case of Santiago de Liniers*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Susan Migden Socolow
Susan Migden Socolow*
Affiliation:
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
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Extract

      “As ill-luck would have it”
      “As good luck would have it”

First let me welcome y'all to Atlanta.

Let me begin by telling you what I'm not going to do. There is no subaltern theory, gender theory, queer theory nor any discussion of race, class and gender (RCG) in my talk. Nothing will be constructed, deconstructed, structured, conceptualized or historicized. I will not speak of hegemony or hegemonic processes, “weapons of the weak” or contested terrains, discursive mechanisms or hidden discourses and I will not unpack concepts, tease out or discover embedded meanings or interrogate silences. Lastly, in this talk there are no subalterns and no one is contesting, negotiating, empowering or empowered.

Type
Other
Information
The Americas , Volume 64 , Issue 1 , July 2007 , pp. 1 - 9
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 2007

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Footnotes

*

A talk presented at the annual business meeting and luncheon of the Conference on Latin American History at the 121st annual meeting of the American Historical Association, Westin Hotel, Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, January 5, 2007.

References

1 Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quijote, Part 1, Book I, Chapter II and Book III, Chapter VI.

2 William Shakespeare, Merry Wives of Windsor, Act III, Scene V.

3 In one of the most famous passages from The Prince, Machiavelli described the proper orientation towards the volatility of the world, or Fortune, by comparing Fortune to a lady: “la fortuna è donna,” Instead of advising that the Lady be courted, entreated and begged for good fortune, Machiavelli believed the Prince should ravish the Lady and take what he wanted.

4 For a discussion of the role of the weather and the interpretation of England and Holland’s good fortune and Spain’s bad fortune see Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe, The Spanish Armada: The Experience of War in 1588 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), chapter 9.Google Scholar

5 “…para ser desgraciado sin que le valgan sus buenos procedimientos ni la eficacia de su celo y claras luces.”

6 There are several biographies of Liniers, including the classical Groussac, Paul, Santiago de Liniers, Conde de Buenos Aires, 1753–1810 (Buenos Aires: A. Moen y hermano, 1907)Google Scholar; Almazán, Bernardo Lozier, Liniers y su tiempo (Buenos Aires: Emecé Editores, 1989)Google Scholar; Ibáñez, Mario Corcuera, Santiago Liniers: Primera víctima de la violencia política argentina (Buenos Aires: Editorial Histórica, 2006).Google Scholar

7 For more information on Martín de Alzàga see Lalanne, Pedro Fernández, Los Álzaga y sus épocas (Buenos Aires: Lara Editoriales, 2005); pp. 13–148.Google Scholar

8 Parroquía de la Merced (Buenos Aires), Libro de matrimonios 5, folio 508. At the time, Sarratea was the local representative of the Philippines Trading Company.

9 Almazán, Lozier, Liniers, p. 38.Google Scholar

10 “Ese Lignieres que amas más y te parece tan fiel, pienso sea el más infiel con su mucha hipocrasía, pues no sale noche y dia de su Dios y su dosel…” Ortega, Ezequiel César, El Complot Colonial (Buenos Aires, 1947), p. 165.Google Scholar

11 For a discussion of the conspiracy uncovered by Alzaga, see Lyman Johnson, Why Did the Italian Clockmaker Try to Overthrow the Spanish Empire?” Unpublished paper, 2005. See also “The Subversive Nature of Private Acts: Juan Barbarín and The 1795 French Conspiracy in Buenos Aires,” in Andrien, Kenneth, The Human Tradition in Colonial Latin America (Wilmington: Scholarly Resources, 2002), pp. 259–277.Google Scholar

12 The other two were the quinta’s cook and a woman servant living on the same property.

13 According to Johnson, Alzaga planned to interrogate Liniers but was prevented from doing so because the Audiencia judged he has insufficient evidence. Johnson, , “Italian Clockmaker,” p. 11.Google Scholar

14 In the days following the first English invasion, Liniers attended a party hosted by his father-in-law in honor of the conquering hero, Admiral Beresford. Liniers later claimed that he had returned to Buenos Aires to reconnoiter the enemy’s forces and positions and organize the eventual reconquest of the city.

15 “…uniformándose, disciplinándose, y por conclusión con el mayor ardor se está disponiendo todo por el Señor Dn Santiago Liniers, nuestro reconquistador y buen caudillo.” This description of Buenos Aires was provided by Gaspar de Santa Coloma, an ardent defender of Alzaga. Ibáñez, Corcuera, Santiago Liniers, p. 129.Google Scholar

16 For more information on Ana Perichon de O’Gorman, also known as “La Perichona,” and one of the most controversial women in late colonial Buenos Aires, see Horacio Salduna, Madame Perichon (Buenos Aires, n.d.); Pessagno Espora, Mario A., “Ana Perichon” Boletín del Centro Naval 688 (julio-sept 1971), pp. 314–325 Google Scholar; Socolow, Susan M., “Two Women,” Unpublished paper. 1997.Google Scholar