Lautaro Lodge
The Lautaro Lodge was an organization founded in 1812 by Spanish-American revolutionaries, mainly Argentines and Chileans, with the aim of coordinating actions to establish the independence of the Spanish colonies in America and, on the based on the principles of liberalism, establish a republican and unitary system of government.
The Lautaro Lodge was a branch of the so-called Great American Meeting Lodge or Lodge of the Rational Knights, founded by the Venezuelan hero Francisco de Miranda in London in 1798 Within the main members of the Lautaro Lodge are some of the main Liberators of the American South Cone, such as the Argentines José de San Martín and Manuel Belgrano, as well as the Chileans Bernardo O'Higgins and Ramón Freire.
Origin and name
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In 1807, the Venezuelan Francisco de Miranda founded subsidiaries of the Rational Knights in Cádiz and Madrid. The first branch of the lodge was established in Cádiz (Spain) in 1811, with the code name Lautaro Lodge, referring to the toqui or Mapuche leader Lautaro, who led the resistance against the Spanish conquerors in the General Captaincy of Chile. in the XVI century and thus helped to keep part of Araucanía independent from the Spanish crown until the occupation of the territory three more centuries late by the Chilean army.
It was inspired by its organization in the Freemasonry lodges and was initially directed by José de Gurruchaga. Among the main members who participated in this society were:
- Carlos María de Alvear (rioplatense)
- Bernardo O'Higgins (chileno)
- José de San Martín (rioplatense)
- Tomás Guido (rioplatense)
- José Cortés de Madariaga (chileno)
- Julián Alvarez (rioplatense)
- Bernardo Monteagudo (rioplatense)
- José Antonio Álvarez Condarco (rioplatense)
- Juan Enrique Rosales (chileno)
- José Matías Zapiola (rioplatense)
- Ramón Freire (chileno)
Relationship with Freemasonry
According to the Argentine historian Emilio Corbière, Freemasonry arrived in the Río de la Plata at the end of the XVIII century, influenced by the Spanish Freemasons and not by the English as has been believed. When José de San Martín, Carlos de Alvear and other patriots arrived in Buenos Aires in 1812, the Order was already established: the Independence Lodge existed in 1795 and a homonymous one was established in 1810, presided over by Julián Álvarez, which was called Logia de San Juan, and supplied the basic elements for the Lautaro. The Lautarinas were operative Masonic lodges (as opposed to speculative ones) but not in the traditional sense of the term (that is, linked to construction guilds), but with revolutionary objectives, as well as symbolic ones; hence the error of many authors, even masonic, which allowed fables to be generated about it.
José Stevenson Collante, for his part, affirmed that in this revolutionary process, a large part of its members had the double investiture of Freemasons of Universal Regular Lodges and Freemasons of American Revolutionary Patriotic Lodges.
According to the renowned Masonic author Albert Gallatin Mackey, the Lodge would be made up of two chambers: the symbolic or blue Freemasonry, which consisted of the first three degrees, and the superior or red Freemasonry, made up of the 4th and 5th degrees, Rose Cross and Kadosh, respectively, according to Masonic terminology. This chamber or section was named by San Martín as the Grand Lodge of Buenos Aires, and it was the one that acted in politics regardless of Lautaro, which did not intervene at all in its deliberations. Therefore, it would not be one, but two autonomous organisms, even when they were closely related to each other.
Among the main members who participated gained notoriety:
- José María Caro, Mexico
- Bernardo O'Higgins, Ramón Freire and Juan Mackenna of Chile
- John Paul Fretes
- José de San Martín, Carlos María de Alvear, Bernardo de Monteagudo, Gervasio Posadas y Tomás Guido, de las Provincias Unidas del Río de la Plata (Argentina)
- José Cortés de Madariaga (Chilean priest, Venezuelan priest)
In Buenos Aires
The Lautaro Lodge had its first branch in America in the City of Buenos Aires, in 1812, secretly created by José de San Martín, Carlos María de Alvear, and Julián Álvarez. Its main objective was to fight to achieve the independence of Spanish America, triumphing on the military level, and making politics follow that basic objective. From the end of 1812, the Patriotic Society joined it, which was created by the followers of Mariano Moreno.
San Martín had participated in London in the meetings of the group that took place in the houses of Andrés Bello and Luis López Méndez.
The Lautaro Lodge of Buenos Aires held its meetings in the homes of one of its members or in a place located in what is currently Balcarce street, in front of the Santo Domingo Convent.
Among its members or "Brothers" most important were counted:
- José de San Martín
- Carlos María de Alvear
- José Matías Zapiola
- Ramón Eduardo de Anchoris
- Bernardo de Monteagudo
- Juan Martín de Pueyrredón
- Antonio Álvarez Jonte
- Nicolás Rodríguez Peña
- Julian Alvarez
- José Antonio Álvarez Condarco
The influence of the Lodge in Río de la Plata politics reached its highest point during the governments of the Second Triumvirate and the first two Supreme Directors of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata, Gervasio Posadas and Carlos María de Alvear.
The "Grand Lodge" or "Ministerial Lodge"
After the fall of Carlos María de Alvear, the Lautaro Lodge lost influence but gained new momentum with the appointment of the new Supreme Director, Juan Martín de Pueyrredón. He was the one who reorganized the Lautaro Lodge under the name of "Gran Logia" or "Ministerial Lodge" and he put her at his service. This new lodge was directed by the Supreme Director Pueyrredón, his minister Gregorio García de Tagle and General Tomás Guido, a friend and confidante of San Martín.
Among its members were heterogeneous personalities such as:
- Juan Martín de Pueyrredón
- José de San Martín
- Tomás Guido
- Gregorio García de Tagle
- Vicente López and Planes
- Antonio Sáenz
- Feliciano Antonio Chiclana
- Felipe Arana
- Sunday French
- Antonio Luis Beruti
- Juan José Paso
- Pedro Agrelo
- Manuel Moreno
- Cornelio Saavedra
- Martín Rodríguez
- Manuel Belgrano
- Eustoquio Díaz Vélez
- Marcos Balcarce
- Juan Larrea
- Esteban Agustín Gascón
- Julian Alvarez
- Angel Augusto de Monasterio
The Grand Lodge offered its unconditional support to the Supreme Director and the Congress of Tucumán and was the mainstay of the Continental Plan carried out by General San Martín and the Army of the Andes to culminate the Chilean War of Independence, which had fallen back into the hands of the royalists, restore the independence government and end Spanish rule in the Viceroyalty of Peru, the main center of Spanish power in South America.
The influence of the Buenos Aires Lodge spread little by little among other South American countries, founding several subsidiaries.
The lodge was dissolved in 1820 due to political differences between the Buenos Aires Directorate and General San Martín. The government had commissioned San Martín, while he was preparing the expedition to Peru, to march with his army against the troops of the federal caudillos, revolted on the country's coast. But San Martín refused, arguing that he would not tolerate "bloodshed between brothers". Faced with this refusal, the Directory decided to dissolve the lodge, a process that was completed shortly after the Battle of Cepeda, which produced the end of the national authorities and the beginning of the Anarchy of the XX Year.
In Santiago de Chile
The main mission of the Lautarina Lodge was to establish independent governments in Latin America. Given its nature as a secret organization, it helped coordinate and establish contacts between many of the leaders of the independence of Chile and Argentina. Prominent associates of the lodge were Bernardo O'Higgins and José de San Martín. O'Higgins was the author of the Main Constitution of the Lautaro Lodge established in the trans-Andean country. The contact between the Chilean Lautarina Lodge and its affiliates in Argentina was possible thanks to the field marshal of San Martín, José Antonio Álvarez Condarco.
The Lautaro Lodge of Santiago de Chile was installed on March 12, 1817, after the victory of the patriots in the Battle of Chacabuco. It had subsidiaries in Peru, Bolivia and Uruguay.
It is currently being discussed whether it was the Lautarina Lodge that planned the execution of the Carrera brothers (Juan José and Luis) in Mendoza and the murder of Manuel Rodríguez in Til-Til, both events that occurred in 1818, and in which Bernardo de Monteagudo, a member of the Lodge, was involved.
The most important members of the Chilean subsidiary were:
- Bernardo O'Higgins
- José de San Martín
- Tomás Guido
- Antonio González Balcarce
- José Ignacio Zenteno
- Juan Gregorio Las Heras
- Ramón Freire
- Manuel Blanco Encalada
- Miguel Zañartu
- Ramón Arriagada
- Camilo Henríquez González
- José Antonio Álvarez Condarco
- Hipólito de Villegas