Garibaldi, the Garibaldinos, and the Guerra Grande

| Uruguay, 1842–48 |

Giuseppe Garibaldi, "the Hero of Two Worlds," has become the preeminent symbol of the nineteenth-century Atlantic world's struggle for liberty against the old regime. Across the Americas, there are Garibaldi Plazas, Garibaldi Streets, and Garibaldi statues, commemorating a man who nineteenth-century progressives thought best represented their struggles for modernity against an ultramontane Church, kings, aristocrats, and imperial oppression. We will return to Garibaldi the symbol later, but in this chapter we will explore Garibaldi's adventures in the New World, especially in the Banda Oriental, where he fought in Uruguay's international and civil war (the Guerra Grande) of 1839–51. However, of much more interest than Garibaldi himself are the local soldiers who fought under him, the Garibaldinos (who included Italian immigrants to the Banda Oriental and local Orientales, or Uruguayans, including many of African descent). Recovering these soldiers' motivations and mind-sets will begin our journey to understanding the emancipatory potential that subalterns saw in American republicanism for improving their social, political, and economic lives. For the Garibaldinos and other popular soldiers, the war provided an opportunity to rethink the nature of the new nation slowly forming along the Banda Oriental, which would eventually become known as Uruguay. The conflict would also provide an important first moment for challenging traditional notions of the relationship among Europe, the Americas, and modernity.

Uruguay typified the unsettled nature of nation-states in postindependence Latin America. José Gervasio Artigas initiated a revolt against Spanish rule in the province in 1811, and after enjoying an initial military success, he also proposed land redistribution to his rural supporters. However, the region's independence was short-lived, as Brazil invaded in 1816. A decade-long struggle ensued between Argentina and Brazil (both of which claimed the region) and those in Uruguay who wanted independence, which was finally achieved in 1828. Almost immediately, civil war broke out. It raged intermittently throughout the 1830s and 1840s, beginning as a familiar contest for power between two political parties in Uruguay, one side called Colorados (more identified with liberalism and urban Montevideo, and at times being allied with the French and English), the other known as the Blancos (based more in the countryside, and backed by the powerful Argentine caudillo, Juan Manuel de Rosas, who ruled Buenos Aires from 1835–52). The Guerra Grande of 1839–51 involved various American states and European imperial powers, due to Montevideo's geostrategic importance on the Rio de la Plata—which was seen as a gateway to the commerce of the Southern Cone—as well as its role as a contested buffer zone between an emerging Argentina and the Brazilian monarchy. The involvement of Europe caused both the Colorados and Blancos to rethink the relation of Europe and the Americas not just in imperial politics, but also in determining the locus and meaning of modernity. For a time, the Colorados especially developed a discourse presaging, if hesitantly and often contradictorily, many of the tenets of American republican modernity: universalism, abolitionism, republicanism, and the meaning and locus of civilization. In spite of its youth and instability, provincial Uruguay, seen as a pawn in the imperial maneuvers of the European Great Powers, would challenge the Old World's claim to monopolize modernity.

The Hero of Two Worlds

Garibaldi came to Montevideo in 1842 after being exiled from Europe and having fought for the self-proclaimed Republic of Rio Grande in its rebellion against the Brazilian monarchy. While there, he had met his future wife, the Brazilian Aninha Ribeiro da Silva. Also while in Brazil, Garibaldi became acquainted with two central aspects of American republican modernity that he would also encounter in Montevideo: New World republicanism and the Afro-Americans who were often its keenest supporters. During the Battle of Rio Grande he exhorted his men: "Fire, fire! Against the barbarous tyrants, and also against the patricians who are not republicans." He associated the "Brazilian empire" with "imperialists," no doubt thinking of his native land's relations with Austria. Most of the men he fought with were "men of colour," almost all "negro slaves liberated by the Republic" who were "true champions of freedom." Garibaldi's political thought succeeded not in spite of, but rather because of, its relative lack of sophistication; his simple commitment to liberty against tyranny would inspire numerous followers.

Montevideo was the bastion of the Colorado Party, led by Fructuoso Rivera, which had been at war since 1839 with the Blanco Party, led by Manuel Oribe. Garibaldi's arrival coincided with a massive military defeat of the Colorados at the Battle of Arroyo Grande, and Oribe's forces soon besieged the city, expecting an easy victory. Due to his exploits in Brazil, Montevideo welcomed "José" Garibaldi (he had learned Spanish while imprisoned in Argentina) as a "warrior for the future" who fought for "the dogma of liberty." He was made a colonel and achieved notoriety among his enemies and a reputation for bravery among his friends—first at sea, fighting against Rosas's blockading navy, for which the Colorados awarded him special recognition and prizes. Montevideo feted Garibaldi and his soldiers (the first of several such public celebrations they would enjoy) for their bravery in the battle of el Cerro. Garibaldi served Montevideo by commanding its small navy on the Rio de la Plata and its tributaries and by organizing the Italian immigrants of the city into the Italian Legion. His fame spread among the Blancos and Argentines, who cursed him as the "savage Garibaldi," a bloodthirsty pirate with no ideals (an opinion shared by many of the British diplomatic and naval officials in Montevideo).

His most successful military accomplishment began with his command of a naval expedition up the Uruguay River into the country's interior in 1845 and 1846. After seizing several of the enemy's littoral fortifications, Garibaldi tried to establish a permanent presence in the country's north. Argentine forces laid siege to his base in Salto, and when Garibaldi tried to break the siege, the enemy engaged him in the hamlet of San Antonio. The Battle of San Antonio (or Salto) became legend, with stories that Garibaldi and the Italian Legion of about two...