Cornelio Saavedra - Legacy

Legacy

As president of the first government body created after the May Revolution, Saavedra is considered the first ruler of Argentina. However, as the Spanish juntas were not a presidential system, Saavedra was not the first President of Argentina; that office would be created a decade afterwards. The Casa Rosada, official residence of the President of Argentina, holds a bust of Saavedra at the Hall of busts.

The Regiment of Patricians is still an active unit of the Argentine Army, currently as an air assault infantry. It is also the custodian of the Buenos Aires Cabildo, the welcoming party for visiting foreign dignitaries to Argentina and the escort and honor guard battalion for the City Government of Buenos Aires. As of September 22, 2010, the Regiment's headquarters building has been declared as a National Historical Monument by the Argentine government, on the occasion of the country's bicentennial year.

The historiography of Cornelio Saavedra is closely related to that of Mariano Moreno. As Saavedra had a conflict with him in the Junta, the perspectives towards him complement those about Moreno. The first liberal historians praised Moreno as the leader of the Revolution and a great historical man; Saavedra was treated either as a weak man overwhelmed by Moreno, or as a counter-revolutionary. This perspective did not acknowledge that Saavedra, as head of the Regiment of Patricians, was the most popular and influential man of the city since before the Revolution, and that he was reported to be staunch, cunning and ruthless.

Subsequently, revisionist authors would formulate accusations against Moreno, depicting him as a British agent and a man of mere theoretical European ideas without a strong relation with the South American context. Saavedra is depicted instead as a popular caudillo, a predecessor of José de San Martín and Juan Manuel de Rosas. This perspective did not acknowledge that the wealthy citizens were aligned with Saavedra against Moreno, that Saavedra himself was wealthy and aristocratic, and that the 1811 revolution made no requests of a social nature, save for the removal of Morenist forces from the Junta.