Jose Olaya

José Silverio Olaya Balandra (Chorrillos, 1782 or 1795-Lima, June 29, 1823) was a martyr in the fight for the Independence of Peru. A fisherman by trade, he offered himself as a secret emissary between the independent government taking refuge in the castles of Callao and the patriots of Lima, a city then occupied by the royalists. He was discovered, arrested and subjected to torture to make him reveal the names of the patriots involved in the letters, but he remained silent. He was shot and before tortured in a passage that today bears his name, and which is in the vicinity of the Plaza Mayor in Lima.

Biography

According to data collected by Ismael Portal, José Olaya Balandra was born in the town of Chorrillos, in 1782, as the son of a Chorrillano fisherman named Olaya, and Melchora Balandra, his siblings being Cecilio, Mercedes, Narcisa, Josefa and Manuela. Portal relied on information from the martyr's relatives who were still living at the time he published his book (1899). Another of Olaya's biographers, Luis Antonio Eguiguren, who investigated various archives, maintains that the martyr's parents were Their names were José Apolinario Olaya and Melchora Balandra, both from Chorrillas, who had twelve children in total, the second of whom was José Olaya.

However, there are doubts about the year of birth. Apparently, Portal only limited himself to copying the year that appears engraved on the portrait of the martyr, painted by the master José Gil de Castro, who was a contemporary of Olaya. Eguiguren does not deal with the issue of the birth and assumes that the baptismal certificate that would clarify the doubt must have disappeared during the fire in Chorrillos caused by Chilean troops in 1881. Thus, he assumed that Olaya was baptized in the church of Chorrillos. another version that affirms that the year of his birth was 1795.

Another controversial issue has been his last name. The sailor and geographer Germán Stiglich (1877-1928), when reviewing the registration books of the Peruvian ports, did not find any Olaya (Spanish surname), but several Laya (name of pre-Hispanic origin). Stiglich even went so far as to affirm that the real name of the martyr was José O. Laya, an affirmation that was collected and disseminated by the historian Juan José Vega.

Olaya was from humble birth, of indigenous race, and lived from artisanal fishing in the town of San Pedro de Chorrillos, a fishermen's ranchería to the south of the city of Lima, which was famous for its baths where people went of the upper class of Lima.

It is said that his father José Apolinario was passionately sympathetic to the independence cause, to the point that he did not like to mention the pejerrey by name, because it was reminiscent of the monarchy, and he even named his best fishing net « network of silversides of the homeland", a name more in keeping with his ideology. He died in 1822, bequeathing to his son his office and his love for the free country.

It is said that Olaya was an excellent swimmer and that in a small raft he covered the route from Chorrillos to the island of San Lorenzo, and from there to Callao, taking fish for sale.

One version also states that he began to serve the patriot cause very early, when the Liberation Squadron under the command of Thomas Cochrane arrived on the Peruvian coast in 1820. On that occasion he visited the ships of said squadron and offered to take Correspondence for the patriots of Callao, and later for those of Lima.

The independence of Peru, declared for the first time in Huaura in November 1820 and on July 28, 1821 in Lima, by General José de San Martín, only became effective in Lima and in the north; but Cuzco, the central highlands and the south were still under the control of the royalist army -mostly made up of indigenous and mestizos loyal to the King-; these on more than one occasion returned to threaten Lima and Callao. When San Martín returned from Guayaquil after a secret conversation with Simón Bolívar, he installed the Constituent Congress of 1822, and immediately resigned his position as Protector of Peru. Congress appointed José de la Riva Agüero as President of the Republic. The royalist army, under the command of José Ramón Rodil, taking advantage of the fact that the patriotic troops were far away, took Lima. The members of Congress took refuge in the Real Felipe Fortress in Callao. There was also the Venezuelan general Antonio José de Sucre, who had sent the Liberator Bolívar with an advance of his army.

It was in this context that the sacrifice of José Olaya occurred. Sucre urgently needed to communicate with the patriots of Lima, since he wanted to know the movements of the royalists and the supplies they had. Olaya once again offered to be the bearer of the messages. He made contact in Lima with Juana de Dios Manrique, an aristocrat and patriot who was the niece of Antonio Riquero, a former accountant and one of the refugees in Callao; this character was the link with Sucre.

Olaya secretly carried the written messages, covering the route between Chorrillos and Lima, pretending to carry fish for sale in the city; This route, 15 km long, was heavily guarded by the royalists, so the risk was great. Nevertheless, Olaya made the tour many times; exactly how many is unknown. The royalists began to suspect that someone was leaking information and redoubled their surveillance.

On June 27, 1823, when he was carrying, among other messages, a letter from Sucre to Narciso de Colina (a patriot from Lima), Olaya was discovered (it is said that due to a denunciation^{[citation required ]}). Ambushed by a picket of royalist soldiers -indigenous and mestizo- on Acequia Alta street (currently at the intersection of block 5 of the Caylloma and Moquegua streets), before being arrested he threw the letters into a ditch; another version, less credible, says that he ate the missives.

Taked to the Viceroy's Palace in the presence of Rodil, the latter tried to get him to betray the patriots committed to the letters, offering him prizes and a lot of money in exchange; As it did not work, he resorted to threats. Since Olaya remained unharmed, he was tortured. He suffered two hundred blows, they tore out his nails and hung him by his thumbs. But Olaya was not intimidated by the pain and remained silent. Some people arrested on suspicion of being involved with the patriots of Callao (one of them was Antonia Zumaeta de Riquero) were even brought before him, but before each of Olaya denied knowing them. Her mother was also brought into her presence, but even with that she did not break. It is said that, in the midst of torture, he uttered his famous phrase:

"If a thousand lives were happy, I would lose them, before betraying my homeland and revealing the patriots."

Finally, he was sentenced to death by firing squad on the charge of treason. At eleven o'clock in the morning of June 29, 1823, he was taken to a passage next to the Plaza Mayor of Lima, then called Callejón de los Petateros, and which now bears his name: Pasaje Olaya . His executioners, according to custom, asked him if he had a last wish. Olaya asked that he be buried with the red and white cockade, the emblem of his free homeland, a wish that was granted. Then, he proceeded to be executed by firing squad. His corpse was dragged to the Plaza de Armas and there beheaded by the executioner. He remained on public display all afternoon, until, at night, some fishermen from Chorrillas put him in a cart and took him to bury him in his native land, with his bicolor cockade pinned to his chest. It is currently unknown where from Chorrillos is his body.

Tributes

Pasaje Olaya, seen from the Plaza de Armas of Lima.

President José Bernardo de Tagle issued a Supreme Decree on September 3, 1823, intended to honor the memory of the hero. Said norm establishes:

"For 50 years he will pass the magazine of Commissioner José Olaya as a living Lieutenant of the Army Infantry in the General Staff of the Plaza;

When he is appointed in that act, the Chief Sergeant of that square will answer: Heroes' mansion!

In the Municipality of this capital a book will be formed in which, with previous knowledge and decree of the government, the patriotic facts worthy of eternal memory will be written, and on its first page this decree will be copied so that the fame of the patriot Olaya will be transferred to the centuries.

The municipality of the village of Chorrillos will have to celebrate every year on June 29 a solemn exequias in the church of the same population for the benefit of the soul of the patriot Olaya, and the same municipality; it will have in that act seat among the mayors the closest relative of the aforementioned Olaya.

In the hall of the Municipality of the village of Chorrillos you can find a canvas in which the following is written:

THE JOSÉ OLAYA PATRIOTA SIRVED WITH GLORIA TO THE PATRIA AND HONOR THE LUGAR OF HIS NATION."

The Army of Peru proclaimed him "Patron of the Weapon of Communications".

His main biographers have been Ismael Portal, author of Morir por la patria, el mártir José Olaya (1899), and Luis Antonio Eguiguren, author of El mártir pescador José Silverio Olaya y the pupils of Real Felipe (1945).

The Peruvian painter José Gil de Castro (1785-1841), his contemporary, is the author of a portrait of him, which is on display at the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of Peru.

Olaya was shot the same day that his place of residence, Chorrillos, was celebrating the festivity of the patron saint of fishermen, San Pedro. Chorrillos has been celebrating every year, in his tribute, a crowded civic-military parade, where countless institutions from all over Lima participate, on the Grau boardwalk, facing the sea.

In fiction

• In 2021 the television series was released Other liberatorswhere Olaya was played by Pietro Sibille.