Tuesday 12 September 2006
I took this picture in the National Museum of History a little while ago, but as I did nothing but study today, and had no picture from today, I decided to put this one up, as it is just too good to let slip.
Not good in a photographic sense, clearly, but for the sake of Argentine history.
So, soon after Argentina declared independence from Spain, they were wracked with internal problems. The country was basically split into two factions: the Federalists, who wanted provincial autonomy, and the Unitarians, who wanted a centralized government. The Federalists would wear these red ribbons on their clothes to show their loyalty, and were required to start all letters with the phrase "Love live the Federation and death to the savage Unitarians!"
What I found very amusing, however, was one little white ribbon this board which proclaimed in capital letters: "VIVA LA CONFEDERACION! MUERAN LOS SALVAGES ASQUEROSOS INMUNDOS UNITARIOS, MUERA EL LOCO TRAIDOR SALVAGE UNITARIO URQUIZA." Which roughly translates to "Long live the confederation. Death to the filthy, replusive, savage Unitarians, Death to the crazy savage unitarian traitor Urquiza." It seemed a little overboard to me, but maybe I'm alone on this one.
I took this picture in the National Museum of History a little while ago, but as I did nothing but study today, and had no picture from today, I decided to put this one up, as it is just too good to let slip.
Not good in a photographic sense, clearly, but for the sake of Argentine history.
So, soon after Argentina declared independence from Spain, they were wracked with internal problems. The country was basically split into two factions: the Federalists, who wanted provincial autonomy, and the Unitarians, who wanted a centralized government. The Federalists would wear these red ribbons on their clothes to show their loyalty, and were required to start all letters with the phrase "Love live the Federation and death to the savage Unitarians!"
What I found very amusing, however, was one little white ribbon this board which proclaimed in capital letters: "VIVA LA CONFEDERACION! MUERAN LOS SALVAGES ASQUEROSOS INMUNDOS UNITARIOS, MUERA EL LOCO TRAIDOR SALVAGE UNITARIO URQUIZA." Which roughly translates to "Long live the confederation. Death to the filthy, replusive, savage Unitarians, Death to the crazy savage unitarian traitor Urquiza." It seemed a little overboard to me, but maybe I'm alone on this one.
2 comments:
I got nervous and confused by the title. Nervous, cuz I AM a Unitarian, and perhaps you wanted to kill me; Confused, because 1)that seems very unlikely and 2)Unitarians are so outrageously embracing of every faith, no matter how kooky, and so endlessly discursive about every teensy thing, that I couldn't imagine any kind of consensus being reached at all, let alone one with enough balls to make folk angry. But then I read, and now I understand. Whew! Smooch!
I was quite surprised to learn that was the English tranlsation myself. I would have thought we'd translate it to "Unionists" or something like that, but all the history books say Unitarians. I guess you just have to share your name. Something tells me that you guys won't mind. :)
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