This is how Guayaquil 198 years ago, forged its independence

Posted On 09 Oct 2018

Ecuadornews:

The phrase ‘independent Guayaquil’ was pronounced with force almost two centuries ago and is still valid. Olmedo, Letamendi, León de Febres Cordero, Villamil, Coronel, Antepara, Urdaneta and many other heroes remain in the history, in the mind and in the spaces of the city. Courage marked the rebellion of October 9, 1820, which route today we remember.

A parking lot for the public that pays per hour works in Malecón Simón Bolívar and Elizalde. There was the house of José de Villamil where at the beginning of October 198 years ago the rebellion of October 9, 1820 was forged, which declared the independence of Guayaquil and that would be the example to be followed by other Ecuadorian cities.

There are other places where the octobrine feat was planned and executed and today they are occupied by iconic buildings. The heroes are eternalized in street names.

Independence motivates the progress of Guayaquil

The land delimited by a fence with pillars of celestial tone is occupied by more than thirty vehicles, in the middle of Malecón Simón Bolívar and Elizalde avenues. It is the atmosphere that is experienced at the beginning of October 2018 in this site located opposite the boardwalk.

The movement of cars that leave and enter by paying for the parking lot is continuous in that land where the house of José de Villamil was, site where the Fragua de Vulcano occurred.

There, on October 1, 1820, the hosts, on the pretext of a dance, began the conspiracy against the Spanish yugo, for freedom and progress, reflected now with the city’s work of the Malecón Simón Bolívar, emblematic point of Buenos Aires development and that per month it receives 1.6 million visitors.

A pretext for a dance, involved in the libertarian deed gathered at the home of José de Villamil. There was the Fragua de Vulcano (October 1).

A city that at that time was about 15,000 people and today continues to grow with a population that approaches 3 million inhabitants.

In the face of that vertiginous growth and development, the independence route today keeps sites that are located mostly in the center, where they witness the intense commercial movement, mostly woven by banks and businesses. These sites have different architecture, however their history is alive and revives more strongly with parades and acts of civility in honor of this land, which today is 198 of independence. It is the Pearl of the Pacific, port that generated the change of direction to the freedom of other cities.

Today it continues to stand out as the driving force of the national economy.

Five days after the feat, on October 5, 1820, those engaged with her met in the house (now disappeared) of José Joaquín de Olmedo. Now, users disembark from the Metrovía buses, others leave from banking entities located where their house once was, the current pictorial sample of the Central Bank, located in P. Icaza between Pedro Carbo and Panama.

“I did not know that the house of such an important patriot was here,” says Marcos Páez, as he strolls through this area of high pedestrian movement.

The meetings of the patriots continued despite the surveillance of the colony. Thus, on October 8, the Spanish priest Francisco Queresajú, parish priest of the San Francisco church, a few meters from the house of Olmedo, now the streets of Pedro Carbo and 9 de Octubre, put the authorities on alert.

At 05:00, leaders of the revolution announce independence and sign the minutes in the Town Hall (current Municipality).

That open site now stands out as the meeting point for religious appointments and in its square, distinguished by the monument to Vicente Rocafuerte and trees that shade pedestrian benches, it serves as a seed for different civic struggles.

There, the memory is eternalized with monuments to trades of yesteryear as the photographer.

In nearby blocks, at 20:00 that day, the insurgents stormed the barracks of the Artillery Brigade, where today the Martín Avilés building (former Crillón hotel) is located in Pichincha and Clemente Ballén, in the Plaza de la Administración, where he also shares space with the Governorate and the Nahim Isaiah Museum. This area is pedestrian and keeps the monument of Antonio José de Sucre and the Fragua de Vulcano.

The old Crillón retains a modernist architecture with skylight windows and there different municipal officials manage environment, social action and education entities, and local entities.

“My grandmother at 90 years of age, even in a wheelchair, continued to go to the seedlings on October 9, in Plaza San Francisco. I think we continue to do our homeland trying to get people out of poverty. ”
Francisco García Garaycoa, descendant of prócer

The story continues. At ten o’clock on the night of October 8, patriotic units took over the facilities of the Grenadier Battalion barracks in the reserve, which was located in the current building Valra, iconic site where an office of mayor Jaime Nebot works. The municipal representative said that progress lies in preserving what has been done and improving it. “This is an October 9, which has 342 works, in the bidding, contracting, final inspection or inauguration, are delivered to the city,” he said about works such as the Daule-Guayaquil bridge, Aerovía and trunk 4 of the Metrovía system.

For the dawn of October 9, a day like today 198 years ago, commanded troops took shelter of the cacique Benito García at his home, where today is the municipal library and in front of the Plaza de Armas, which is now the Parque Seminario, an icon of local tourism.

This place is visited daily by university students and citizens who love history and books in a hotel area and the Cathedral. Insurgents take over the barracks of Artillery Brigade, of Grenadiers, the battalion Daule and the Fortress of the Ironed one.

The chronology of these facts given in the heat of the dawn continues with the taking of barracks like the one of cavalry Daule (present building Jarrín). Today that area stands out with the appliance of appliances in the heart of the Bay, the most commercial of the city. On one side, the traffic becomes intense along the Malecón avenue and on the sidewalks the merchants seek to “hook” to the buyers.

At this point, the troops arrived commanded by José de Antepara and had their only victim, Joaquín Magallar. Two hours later, at 04:00, the action would move towards the current area of the lowlands of Santa Ana Hill, that where tens People come to take pictures after completing their walk along the boardwalk. It is the Fortress of Planchada, from where the city was defended in colonial times.

There, in 1820, the patriot incursion took possession. In parallel, troops took the military post located on what is now Eloy Alfaro Avenue, which connects the south with the city center and where the facilities of the Electric Company operate. This is a 9th of October that also has 342 works, in a bidding, contracting, final inspection or inauguration, are delivered to the city of Guayaquil.

There is a group that I would call the consolidation of the great Guayaquil. “Jaime Nebot Saadi, mayor of Guayaquil History would be sealed in the center. They meet in the Town Hall, in the current dependencies of the Municipality, and sign the act of independence and form the provincial government. There began the province of Guayaquil. That one that would choose like first leader to Jose Joaquin de Olmedo, that would arm an army that helped in the freedoms of more cities. (I)