Origin
The origin of the colours of the cockade and the reasons for their election cannot be accurately established. Among the several versions, one states that the colours white and light blue where first adopted during the British invasions of the Río de la Plata in 1806 and 1807 by the Regiment of Patricians, the first urban militia regiment of the Río de la Plata. Supposedly a group of ladies from Buenos Aires first wore the cockade on May 19, 1810, in a visit to then-Colonel Cornelio Saavedra, head of the regiment.
Between May 22 and 25 of the same year, it is known that the chisperos, or patriots, identified adherents to the May Revolution by giving them ribbons with those colours. An anonymous manuscript quoted by historian Marfany expresses that on May 21, a Monday, revolutionaries presented themselves as such with white ribbons on their clothes and hats. In Juan Manuel Beruti's memoirs, Memorias Curiosas, it is commented on the use of white ribbons on clothes and cockades with olive branches on hats.
It was also documented by Spanish functionary Faustino Ansay that when news of the revolution arrived to Mendoza, its supporters started to wear white stripes. A report attributed to Ramón Manuel de Pazos says that on May 21, 1810, Domingo French and Antonio Beruti distributed said stripes as a sign of peace and unity between patriots and supporters of the Spanish government, but given the hostility of the latter, on May 25 they began spreading red stripes as a reference to the Jacobins. Both colours were later adopted by the members of the cabildo of Tarija as they joined the revolution.
A version by Bartolomé Mitre affirmed that French "entered in one of the shops of the recova and took several tracks of white and light blue stripes. also placed pickets with orders of letting only patriots in and make them put on the distinctive ", although his statement might be biased due to the fact that blue was one of the colours of the party he was a member of, and which would be later known as the Unitarian Party. Mitre's words are perhaps what originated the erroneous belief that attributes the creation of the Argentine cockade to French and Beruti. In any case, it is known that in March 1811 the Patriotic Society created by people from Mariano Moreno's circle wore the white and light blue ribbons.
Read more about this topic: Cockade Of Argentina
Famous quotes containing the word origin:
“Our theism is the purification of the human mind. Man can paint, or make, or think nothing but man. He believes that the great material elements had their origin from his thought.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“High treason, when it is resistance to tyranny here below, has its origin in, and is first committed by, the power that makes and forever re-creates man.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at first a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolized the world to the first speaker and to the hearer. The etymologist finds the deadest word to have been once a brilliant picture.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)