A Liberator of Chile in Richmond

  

Celebrations in Bolivar, Missouri, 5 July 1948. 

 On 5 July 1948 President Harry S. Truman was in Bolivar (pronounced Bólivuh), Missouri, some 60 miles from his birthplace in Lamar, Missouri. He was joined there by President Rómulo Gallegos of Venezuela to unveil a statue of the Liberator of much of Spanish South America, Simón Bolívar (pronounced Boléevaar; after whom the town was, at least in part, named). A friend, Shirley Emanuel, had been taken to Bolivar by her parents that day from their home in Humansville, Missouri, only 18 miles distant. Shirley was wearing her best white dress. When she told me this story, she mentioned that it was extraordinarily hot that day, so much so that Turman told the crowd he had been unable to eat because of the heat. According to Shirley, if Truman was ever in a hot place, he would describe it as “the hottest place this side of Hades and Bolivar, Missouri.”

The unveiling of the statue of Simón Bolívar.

 I have not been able to confirm that quote, but it came to mind on 22 October. We were in Richmond with our son David who was 40 that day. Fortified with coffee and cake, he took us on a walk to Richmond Hill, Richmond Park, and down to the Thames for lunch by the river in Gaucho, an Argentinian steak restaurant. As we walked back to Richmond rail station, I noticed a bust beside the path. It commemorated Bernardo O’Higgins (1778-1842), one of the founding fathers of Chilean independence from Spain. The inscription on the plinth notes that he studied and lived in Richmond (a blue plaque on nearby Clarence House indicates that he lived there). An inscription in Spanish reads: Vivir con honor o morir con gloria (Live with honour or die in glory).

The bust of General O'Higgins in Richmond.

 O’Higgins was the son of unmarried parents. His father, Ambrosio O’Higgins, 1^st Marquis of Osorno, was a wealthy landowner, his mother Isabel Riquelme the daughter of a prominent public official in Chillán where Bernardo was born. When he was 17, he was sent to London to study history and the arts. In Richmond he met Francisco de Miranda a Venezuelan advocate of independence and joined a pro-independence group of South Americans from various countries. He suffered defeat by Royalist forces in 1814 and retreated to newly independent Argentina. There he met General José de San Martín, one of the heroes of Argentine independence. The two men entered Chile on 16 February 1817 and a year later Chile declared independence. O’Higgins was appointed Supreme Director, a post he held until 1823 when he left Chile in exile, never to return.

The annual commemoration of the birth of O'Higgins, 20 August, attended by representatives of the Chilean embassy.

 The statues of Bolívar and O’Higgins tell us that we can stumble across the history of faraway places in unexpected locations, whether by the Thames in Richmond or in Bolívar, Missouri.