20/06/2026 15:27 - Actualidad
Un general del siglo XIX en su lecho de muerte, rodeado de escasos familiares y médicos de época, en una habitación austera de la Buenos Aires de 1820, con luz tenue que entra por una ventana, evocando soledad y dignidad
On June 20, 2026, Argentina commemorates the 206th anniversary of Manuel Belgrano's death—the lawyer who became a general and created the iconic celeste y blanca (sky-blue and white) flag that represents the nation today.
Yet his departure from this world was nothing like the hero's farewell one might expect. Belgrano died in poverty, surrounded by only a handful of family and friends, in a Buenos Aires plunged into civil war chaos—a city that didn't even publish a single line about his passing.
On September 11, 1819, Belgrano handed command of his army to General Francisco Fernández Cruz and began traveling toward Tucumán (a northern province in Argentina) to see his young daughter Manuela Mónica del Corazón de Jesús, born from his relationship with María Dolores Helguero y Liendo.
As he passed through the outskirts of Córdoba (Argentina's second-largest city), the local governor Manuel Antonio Castro came to receive him, accompanied by the garrison commanders. But what moved him most was his soldiers' spontaneous gesture: when his 25-man escort was withdrawing, they dismounted to bid farewell to their commander.
"Goodbye our general: May God restore Your Excellency's health and may we see you soon in the army"
Deeply moved, Belgrano wrote a letter to Governor Castro during a rest stop at a post house. This would be the last time he would be celebrated in his lifetime.
Belgrano planned to stay in Tucumán, but a rebellion that installed Bernabé Aráoz as governor left him unjustly imprisoned. They even wanted to put shackles on his ankles—already deformed by dropsy (a condition involving fluid accumulation, now known as edema).
At 49 years old and in failing health, he decided to return to Buenos Aires to die. The State owed him 18 salaries, and the 40,000 pesos fortune he received as a prize for his victories in Salta and Tucumán had been donated to create four schools in Tarija, Jujuy, Tucumán, and Santiago del Estero—all northern Argentine territories.
Belgrano donated his entire military prize for public education. So enthusiastic was he that on May 25, 1813, he drafted regulations for these institutions. The schools would take decades to be built.
With 2,000 pesos borrowed from his friend José Celedonio Balbín, in February 1820 he undertook the exhausting journey to Buenos Aires. His legs, swollen from dropsy, required him to be carried on a stretcher at each post station directly to bed.
He was accompanied by his personal physician Joseph Redhead—sent by General Güemes—and a couple of assistants. Throughout the journey, he received only hostility and coldness.
Joseph James Thomas Redhead, born in Edinburgh in 1765, was a highly trained European physician who arrived in Potosí (now Bolivia) in 1806 to administer smallpox vaccines. He settled in Salta and became Belgrano's personal doctor and friend.
Redhead treated his malaria with medications based on cinchona bark (a traditional remedy containing quinine) and stood by his side at the battles of Tucumán, Salta, Vilcapugio, and Ayohuma, tending to wounded soldiers on both sides.
He also called upon the Irish physician John Sullivan, 23 years old, a graduate of the Royal College of Surgeons in London, who began treating Belgrano on April 10, 1820. Sullivan, an amateur harpsichord player, performed music to distract the patient.
Belgrano arrived in Buenos Aires in March 1820 and settled in his parental home on Pirán Street, where he had been born on June 3, 1770.
He suffered from dropsy, heart problems, and kidney failure. He spent his days sitting in an armchair because lying down made breathing difficult. The nights he spent awake.
A friend, Balbín, lamented: "General Belgrano was abandoned by everyone. No one visited him; everyone avoided calling on him."
On May 25, 1820, he made his will, declaring himself single and without descendants, though he entrusted his brother Domingo Estanislao with overseeing his daughter's education. His son Pedro Rosas—raised by Juan Manuel de Rosas, a future Argentine dictator—would only learn his father's identity upon reaching adulthood.
Belgrano turned 50 years old on June 3, 1820. He died at 7 AM on Tuesday, June 20, 1820, in a chaotic Buenos Aires that at one point had three different governors simultaneously: Ildefonso Ramos Mejía, Estanislao Soler, and the City Council.
No one published a line about his death. Only those who read the "Despertador Teofilantrópico Místico Político" (a religious-political publication) by Father Francisco de Paula Castañeda learned of the passing, five days later.
The body was taken to the Convent of Santo Domingo, where Dr. Sullivan performed the autopsy. He found abundant fluid in the abdomen, a tumor in the right epigastric region, an enlarged liver and spleen, and a heart "the size of two fists."
On June 27, 1820, he was buried in the convent's atrium, dressed in Dominican friar robes, in a pine coffin covered with black cloth, sealed with lime.
Only on Sunday, July 29, 1821, did the government of Martín Rodríguez organize the funeral he deserved. At 9 AM, the procession departed from his home.
Brigadiers and colonels participated, along with civil and ecclesiastical authorities. At each corner, they stopped to pray. From the Fort (the government seat), a cannon fired every half hour with the flag at half-mast. Church bells tolled for the dead.
Shops remained closed, and the streets were empty of people.
Since 1938, Law No. 12.361 establishes June 20 as Flag Day, promulgated during the presidency of Roberto Marcelino Ortiz.
Belgrano created the flag on February 27, 1812 in Rosario (a major port city on the Paraná River), installing the Liberty and Independence batteries to fortify the coast. He informed the First Triumvirate (Argentina's first governing body):
"Needing to raise a flag, and not having one, I ordered a white and sky-blue one made, matching the colors of the national cockade"
Today, 206 years after his death, the Argentine Army honors the hero who achieved immortality as the creator of the Flag—a thinker, strategist, and military leader who gave everything for his homeland.
Manuel Belgrano (1770-1820) is one of Argentina's most important founding fathers. Unlike other independence leaders who came from military backgrounds, Belgrano was a lawyer and economist educated in Spain. He created Argentina's national flag during the independence wars against Spain. Despite his crucial role in Argentina's formation, he died forgotten and impoverished, having donated his entire military prize money to build schools. His legacy is celebrated every June 20th as Flag Day.
Source: Infobae - El adiós de Manuel Belgrano | Argentina.gob.ar - Manuel Belgrano, Creator of the Flag
Alfredo S. Quiroga
