Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Batalla de Caseros - 1852  archivos del Teatro Colón. 236577-2

My half brother Enrique Waterhouse who is a curator, in Buenos Aires has sent me a few images from a newly discovered batch of photographs that were found in the vaults of the Teatro Colón. They are images (Daguerreotypes and albumen prints) taken before, during and after the famous battle of Caseros on 3 February, 1852 in which Justo José de Urquiza and his Ejército Grande defeated the dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas.

While everybody knows that more than half a century later women fought in the Mexican Revolution of 1910 few would know that women did play an important part in Caseros. They followed and fought with the gauchos that finally got rid of Rosas and his regime.

The reason why I am placing this Daguerreotype here, is that I find a startling resemblance between this unidentified camp follower of the Battle of Caseros with my Argentine subject posing with my father’s mate in yesterday’s posting.