From war orphan to admiral
MANUEL DOMECQ GARCÍA
By Luis Verón
Next Wednesday marks another anniversary of the battle of Acosta Ñú, during which hundreds of children were massacred in an unequal skirmish. Others survived, and there was no shortage of those who became president of the Republic of Paraguay, such as the case of Emilio Aceval. Today we will remember another survivor of the War against the Triple Alliance who, over the years, became a great personality in Argentine political life, Admiral Manuel Domecq García.
"I was then nine years old. Hundreds of hungry and scattered creatures arrived from the countryside to the capital, following the pilgrims who returned from the deserts, lost for multiple reasons, from our families or guardians, tracking them uselessly. And frightened by the who stole children in the city, those of us who could escape these persecutions fled back into the interior, wandering until we found some pious person in the nearby towns, which had been abandoned and were beginning to be populated again.
"This hunt for minors had lasted from 1869 to 1870, or until later. I went back to the town of Capiatá, taking refuge in a woman from the Mongelós family, until one of my only sisters returned from Cerro Corá, and had to pick me up. with me in the capital. My male brothers all succumbed. The incident that I have described cannot be considered an isolated case, because it was carried out systematically, since the Argentine soldiers themselves went out to walk the streets, looking for small wanderers, or the children of the same neighbors, who had returned to occupy their houses, to later distribute them, as gifts, to their relatives, as living trophies or as "captives." I have had the opportunity to meet many of these unfortunate people, both in the community. capital of Argentina, as in the towns of the provinces, before and after I remained in the army of that country.
This dramatic story was told by Bartolomé Yegros, a child survivor of the War against the Triple Alliance. Theirs was one of the many tragedies experienced by Paraguayan society in the final days of the international conflict that bloodied South America between 1865 and 1870.
Children of war
History gives us several names of children who were kidnapped and taken to neighboring countries, such as the cases of Ramón Grance, Mateo Rivas, José Cantero or Manuel Domecq García. Others were lost in the black pages of the past, as not only were they kidnapped but their own identities were stolen.
Survivors report that a few days after Asunción was taken by the allied forces, in addition to the furniture, jewelry and other looted objects, hundreds of ragged and starving children who had been kidnapped by the soldiers and carried downstream by members of the invading armies, in the midst of dramatic scenes on the part of their relatives, unable to avoid such dispossession, since strong cordons of soldiers did not allow relatives and acquaintances to approach to say goodbye to the unfortunate ones.
The case of the boy Manuel Domecq García is quite curious, because, over time, he became a notable and highly respected personality in Argentine society. He was born in the town of Tobatí on June 12, 1859 and, at just six years old, he was swept up in the maelstrom of war. His father, Tomás Domecq, a military doctor, lost his life in the siege of Humaitá, in 1868, and his mother, Mrs. Eugenia García Ramos de Domecq, would have died in the battle of Piribebuy on August 12, 1869 or due to hardships. following the Paraguayan army as a resident.
Rescued from the jaws of slavery
With the allied forces, numerous families arrived in the country that, until then, lived in exile, such as the case of the Decoud Domecq family, made up of Don Juan Francisco Decoud, second chief of the Paraguayan Legion, and his wife, Doña Concepción Domecq de Decoud, both parents of important protagonists of the national resurrection, such as Don José Segundo Decoud Domecq, journalist, conventional of 1870, minister of state and main ideologue of the National Republican Association, a political party founded in 1887. His brothers Juan José, Adolfo, Diógenes and Héctor Francisco Decoud Domecq stood out in various activities, including literature and journalism, being the founders of the first independent newspaper that the country knew.
According to a report provided by Mrs. Concepción Domecq de Decoud herself, to Dr. Estanislao S. Zeballos, the child Manuel Domecq García had been picked up by soldiers of the Brazilian occupation forces. "After the families returned to Asunción," says Dr. Zeballos, "one night when a meal was being held at the house of Mr. Decoud (Juan Francisco) to rejoice at the family reunion, some Brazilians knocked on the door. He came out. young José Segundo to inquire about the purpose of the visit, and they said that they wanted to speak with the lady.”
When Doña Concepción showed up, with two of her children, the following dialogue took place: "You are looking for a nephew, ma'am; we have one." "Bring him, then." "You need to pay us for the service" "Bring it, I will give you a pound sterling (a high figure at the time)."
The Brazilians refused to hand over the child for that sum and it was only after several minutes of bidding that the handover was agreed upon, when Mrs. Decoud offered to hand over eight pounds sterling for the ransom of the child, who was hidden in a tent in the Brazilian camp.
New loss
In the absence of the parents of the boy Manuel Tomás Domecq García and his sister Eugenia, about five years old, also rescued by her uncles, and given the climate of desolation that existed in Asunción, the children were sent to Argentina to be raised by a maternal uncle, Don Manuel García Ramos, a strong rancher of the time. At one point during the long trip to Argentina, little Manuel Domecq got lost, to the desperation of the person in charge of the children. All efforts to find him were unsuccessful, they continued their journey to Buenos Aires and informed Don Manuel García Ramos of the child's disappearance.
Faced with this situation, Don Manuel resorted to every resource available to him to recover his nephew... He appealed to many friends, both in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil. He even managed to get the authorities to issue a notice that said: "Circular. Addressed to several Chiefs and Officers of the Allied Army in operations in Paraguay and other people residing in the same country, asking for news of the child Manuel Domecq who has gone missing.
We ask anyone into whose hands this form reaches, if they have any news about the whereabouts of the ten-year-old boy Manuel Domecq, white, black eyes, black hair; Please be kind enough to transmit it to the Argentine Commissioner in Asunción, Colonel D. Pedro José Agüero, directly if possible and if not to the most immediate superior, who is also requested to forward the news to said Colonel.
This child came with the lady in whose care he was, among a group of families that were collected by the allied forces last August. During the walk to the railway station the boy got tired or became ill and a Brazilian officer took him on the back of his horse and in the confusion he got lost, not being able to find him until now.
"The family that is devastated by the loss of this child will deeply thank and gratify the person who provides them with information about his whereabouts. "In Buenos Aires you can think of Peru Street on the corner of Rivadavia." This group was distributed everywhere, but, luckily, it had an effect and, after four months of agonizing waiting, the boy Manuel Tomas Domecq García was able to reunite with his uncle's family.
What happened to the child, the time he was missing again? When he was traveling to meet his uncle Manuel García Ramos, with the unconsciousness of his age, the boy decided to climb on the back of a Brazilian officer's horse, who took him to Brazil, where he was picked up by Marshal Luis Alves de Lima e Silva. , Duke of Caxías, who became so fond of him that he wanted to adopt him. Luckily, his relatives located him and his uncle traveled to Brazil to rescue him.
In Buenos Aires, the boy Manuel and his sister Eugenia went to live in the house of a sister of his mother, Mrs. Demofila García Ramos de Lanús.
Manuel the sailor
In 1873 the Argentine Naval School was founded, which operated on the ship General Brown. Called by his vocation, in 1877, the young Manuel García Domecq entered the brand new school, thus beginning a long and profitable career. He stood out as a student and graduated as a midshipman with excellent grades that made him the first in his class.
In those years, the Argentine government undertook numerous exploratory expeditions of its territory, then unknown to the authorities themselves and with the need to define its limits with neighboring countries.
The young Domecq García participated in several of these expeditions (including some to Pilcomayo), exploring distant territories and carrying out hydrographic surveys of important river courses such as the Paraná and the Yguazú. These missions led him to become one of the important experts on these issues.
In 1886 he joined the Argentine boundary commission with Brazil under the command of Commander Valentín Virasoro and composed, in addition to the young captain, of the hydrographers Niederlein and Brackhauser, Major Rohde and Lieutenant Montes. This commission worked with its Brazilian counterpart to delimit, by surveying the Pepiry-Guazú and San Antonio rivers, the true demarcation line of the border between Brazil and Argentina.
The undeniable ability of the young Paraguayan, nationalized Argentine, led him to carry out important missions commissioned by his superiors, among them being sent to contract the construction of the frigate Sarmiento, destined to be a training ship for the Argentine Navy.
After studying the various proposals from European shipyards, finally, in 1896, he contracted with the firm Laird Brothers, established in Birkenhead, England. Once the construction of the frigate Sarmiento was completed, Domecq returned to his country, being appointed commander in chief of the Río de la Plata Division.
Domecq García in Japan
By order of the government of General Julio Argentino Roca, Captain Manuel Domecq García was appointed president of the Argentine commission for the construction of the armored cruisers Moreno and Rivadavia at the Gio Ansaldo shipyard in Genova. Despite certain family problems - the death of his eldest daughter - he dedicated himself fully to supervising the construction of these two ships, the most advanced of the time in naval matters, in addition to others already delivered to the Argentine Navy: Garibaldi , San Martín, Belgrano and Pueyrredón.
But the fate of the ships whose construction was supervised by Domecq García was going to be totally different from what was planned. In 1902, Argentina signed a disarmament pact with Chile and the equalization of the naval power of both countries.
The two battleships were completed in 1904 and if they were incorporated into the Argentine fleet, the aforementioned pact would be violated. For this reason, the sale of the ships to the Empire of Japan was processed.
Domecq García, as head of the Naval Mission in Genoa, was in charge of delivering the ships to the Japanese envoys, who renamed the battleships with the names of Kasuga and Nisshin.
The Russo-Japanese War was in full swing and the Japanese Empire had invited the Argentine Government to appoint a Navy officer to attend as an observer of the war. The designation fell to Manuel Domecq García, who traveled from Genoa to the scene of war.
Observer in the Russo-Japanese War
The mission as an observer of the Russo-Japanese War was very beneficial in the career of the sailor, who gained the trust of the Japanese and had the opportunity to tour the facilities of various arsenals, the naval school, the machinists' school, etc., in addition to being on board various warships and attending more than one naval battle, some of them frankly bloody.
After almost two years in Japan, Domecq García returned to Argentina in May 1906.
The Paraguayan Domecq García, Argentine admiral
After an eventful life, knowing the horrors of a war in the middle of his childhood, carrying out exploratory expeditions, carrying out important missions abroad, among other things, on May 19, 1908, at the age of forty-nine, Manuel Tomás Domecq García received the honors of the admiralty when he was promoted to rear admiral, after a long postponement as a ship captain, serving in the Navy in different destinations.
Domecq García, the factor
Already with the palms of the admiralty, his long experience in naval matters determined that on December 17, 1908, President Figueroa Alcorta appointed him president of the naval commission in Europe. This commission had to study the proposals and collect reports from the different shipyards that would build ships to reinforce Argentine naval power.
For this purpose, he traveled again to Europe and the United States, where he commissioned the construction of the two largest warships in the world at that time and which cost the country five million pounds sterling. These two battleships were again baptized with the names Moreno and Rivadavia.
After three years at the head of the naval mission in the United States, Domecq García returned to Argentina, being appointed commander in chief of the Sea Squadron. He commanded the battleship Moreno and, now with the rank of vice admiral, he commanded the Argentine flagship, the battleship Rivadavia.
In 1922, Dr. Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear was elected President of the Republic and appointed the most prestigious sailor of the time as Minister of the Navy: Manuel Domecq García. From his ministerial functions, Domecq García was the factor in the modernization of the neighboring country's Navy, which saw its fleet increase, especially through the acquisition of submarines, which were added to the Argentine fleet, some years later.
Both President Alvear and Admiral Domecq García encouraged the construction of submarines by the Argentine Navy and promoted the equipping of a special shipyard. That shipyard was named after his main mentor: "Minister Manuel Domecq García Shipyard", recently reconditioned and reopened by the government of President Néstor Kirchner.
At the Ministry of the Navy
In his youth, Manuel Domecq García was one of the founders of the Argentine Naval Center. In 1912, he was one of the promoters of the creation of the Aeronautics of the neighboring country and, years later, as Minister of the Navy of the Argentine Republic, Manuel Domecq García was the drafter, among other things, of the project of agreement with the Republic of Uruguay for the determination of the jurisdiction of both countries over the waters that separate them; of the preliminary draft for the formation of the Argentine Overseas Merchant Navy; the remodeling of the port of Quequén and the construction of another in Uruguay Bay; of the project to exploit ferrous and plumb minerals at the Valcheta mine, among other achievements.
Being a minister, and because he met the age limit, with the recognition of the entire institution, he retired from naval activity, after fifty-eight years, four months and fourteen days of continuous service. His management was not only recognized in his country, but also abroad: King George V of England honored him with the decoration of Knight of the British Empire. Retired from public activity, the governments that came later did not hesitate to turn to the old admiral to request his wise advice.
When the war broke out that bloodied our country and Bolivia (1932-1935), Admiral Domecq García, so close to Paraguay by ties of blood and friendship, supported Paraguay's fortunes and was one of the main promoters of Argentine aid to the Paraguay.
Personally, he was the founder of the Paraguayan Red Cross Fraternal Association, which sent uniforms, blankets, food, etc. to the front, and he was a member, as a special advisor, of the Argentine commission that, chaired by the Argentine chancellor, Carlos Saavedra Lamas, finally achieved the peace agreement between the belligerents, signed in Buenos Aires on June 12, 1935.
In the postwar period, Admiral Domecq García continued to demonstrate his friendship towards Paraguay. At the desperate request of General José Félix Estigarribia, prisoner after the overthrow of President Eusebio Ayala, he welcomed the wife and daughter of the Paraguayan hero into his home and took care of mobilizing the authorities of Argentina and Brazil, to the opinion public, without forgetting the big bankers and businessmen, until finally obtaining the freedom of both prisoners.
Argentine Patriotic League
On January 16, 1919, a far-right paramilitary group called itself the Argentine Patriotic League was created in Buenos Aires and Manuel Domecq García was elected as provisional president, a position he held until April of the same year. When the general strike of rural laborers broke out in the province of Santa Cruz in November 1920, an event popularly known as Rebel Patagonia, the League enlisted to stop the strike. The League had an outstanding performance in the conflict that ended in January in 1922, with a death toll of 1,500 workers.
The meetings of this group were held in the rooms of the Military Circle, where Domecq García, together with Rear Admiral Eduardo O'Connor, distributed the weapons that the League used for its raids.
In 1938, Domecq García was one of the promoters of General Estigarribia's candidacy for the presidency of the Republic of Paraguay, telling him, among other things: "...just as in the last war the entire people of Paraguay mobilized to defend it." "You must mobilize in your government, if it arrives as I wish, that same people for work, so that the shovel and the pickaxe, instead of the rifle, are the weapons of progress."
After a long life, on January 11, 1951, at the age of ninety-two, Manuel Domecq García, that boy born in a small Paraguayan town, who knew the horrors of the war in which he lost his parents and whose fate He took to Argentina, a country he served with heroism from the wild missionary forests, the inhospitable Chaco wastelands, who actively contributed to enhancing the naval power of his adopted country, he gave his soul, after becoming deserving of the highest awards and honors. professionals, leaving behind as he died a mortgaged house and a twenty-year-old car, his uniforms, his letters and the admired memory of his Argentine compatriots. It is time for his Paraguayan compatriots to start getting to know him.