¿What is 25 de Mayo?

The Revolution of May of 1810 (with wikipedia to keep me honest.)

It happened in Buenos Aires.

It wasn't a revolution in the way you might think of the French Revolution or the American Revolution or the Mexican Revolution with all the violence those embraced ...but it was a revolution all the same. Like Cinco de Mayo, it marked the end of an American nation taking orders from a colonial power.

In the case of 25 de Mayo, it was mostly the ruling class and the commercial class of Buenos Aires that chose to no longer take orders from the Spanish Crown.

That wasn't too tough to do. The Spanish Crown had been deposed by Napoleon who installed his brother, Joe, as the new King of Spain. The king's guy in The Río de la Plata, The Viceroy, no longer had the force of his boss to justify his rule here.

The Viceroy tried to keep the news of King's fall a secret but with the arrival of a British (here they come again...) warship on the 13th of May in Montevideo harbor the word was out that something big had happened to His Majesty. So the Viceroy made up a bunch of shit and called for loyalty oaths to the King.

The Viceroy and his bunch were already not held in high regard by the owning class nor the working class of Buenos Aires. There had already been two British invasions of Buenos Aires within the space of one year (like it or not, as today, if you controlled Buenos Aires ...you control Argentina. In the case of 1810, you controlled Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay.) They say that even housewives came out to beat British troops with whatever they could lay their hands on. How's THAT for a cacerolazo!

Not only did Buenos Aires beat back the two British invasions ...but they did it with none of the promised support of the Spanish King. So already, there was some talk about His Majesty being good for nothin' on this side of the pond.

On the 18th, Rodríguez Peña and a couple of buddies asked for permission to have what Yankees (not yanquis!) would call a town meeting (you had to ask, in those days.) The whole situation was shit for birds to the folks that had to make a living here. They decided that they were gonna call a few shots, themselves.

The Viceroy was not hip in the least to allow this open meeting. He called a bunch of the top military to his digs in The Fort (you can still see a piece of the old fort in back of the Casa Rosada.)

Cornelio Saavedra, (lots of street names in this story, eh!) chief of the Patricios Regiment (those are the guys we still see in the parks every now and then with the cool old 18th century uniforms!) was in attendance. When the Viceroy asked for his support, Saavedra replied that he should resign, as the Junta which had appointed him no longer existed.

Ya see, everybody down this way derived his authority and position from the King... 'ceptin' that there weren't exactly no King no more ...and the King never was much good for the Río de la Plata even back in the good ol' days of Empire.

Saavedra offered some kind advice, "Hey 'Roy, maybe youse oughta just pack it in and go back to Spain." Viceroy Cisneros did just that. He made it back to the Old Country and held a few big jobs like admiral ...and actually came back 10 years later to try to take back Argentina by force. That's about all that history has to say about ol' 'Roy.

On the 25th, about 500 of the top citizens in town (pretty big town, even back then!) met in the Cabildo (you know, the one they chopped off in order to make Avenida de Mayo head straight to Plaza de Mayo) and kicked 'Roy out and formed the "First Congress", better known as the "Primera Junta" (Hey! That's a subte stop!) 'Roy tried to hang in there for a few hours as the President of the Primera Junta but that went over like a lead balloon.

Napoleon didn't exactly cause the whole thing but he threw the last grenade that made it all possible. For years and years, the Spanish Crown was happy to suck the sweet, juicy center out of Latin America ...but never had any interest in infrastructure. There is an old saying that when the day came that even the slaves in the silver mines of Potosí wore loincloths of British-made cloth... the whole thing was over. (Peak Silver?)

So that's your 25 de Mayo. It was really a week or a month but the 25th was when the whole thing shook-out and a "new order of the ages" (a novus ordo seclorum, if you like) was formed here in the Americas of the South.

It's really something that every son and daughter of liberty can celebrate heartily ...not unlike Bastille Day. Hard to believe that all the bars here are closed!

It's also a cautionary tale for ALL empires.

¡Feliz 25 de Mayo!
¡Libertad, libertad, libertad!