Joel Bowman, with today’s Note from the End of the World…
Empires… political cycles… roses in spring… nothing lasts forever, dear reader.
Yesterday afternoon we took a turn around the nearby Paseo el Rosedale garden, a short bicycle ride from our pied-à-terre in the Palermo Chico barrio of Buenos Aires.
Like so many parques and plazas around this fair city, the grounds have a history of their own…
This particularly lush stretch of land, known as Parque Tres de Febrero, stands in honor of the date, in 1852, when military strongman, Juan Manuel de Rosas, was overthrown from his seat of power in Buenos Aires Province.
Regional discontent had been mounting throughout the 1840’s, cumulating in the Platine War, which Rosas declared against Brazil in 1851. But by then, the situation had deteriorated at home and abroad such that victory for the old general was nigh impossible.
Decline and Fall
Like the decline and fall of all political figures, the tale is long and sordid (and for another time…) but, suffice to say that, when Rosas’s opposition rode in from Uruguay (backed by money from Brazil), the man once known as the “Restorer of the Laws” knew the game was over.
After an unsuccessful battle against his usurper, Justo José de Urquiza, Rosas fled to the capital, a few kilometers south. Once there, he disguised himself and boarded a ship bound for Britain, where he lived out his days in exile.
Rosas died on foreign soil in March, 1877… but his own private grounds, which were confiscated after his overthrow, were turned into public grounds and include an Ecoparque, a Japanese Garden, a boating lake and the famed Rose Garden, which you can see, from the handlebars of our bicycle, above…
There’s plenty of upheaval and renewal to cover down here at the End of the World next week, but for now, we leave you with the week that was.
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We’ll be back in the saddle next week, with more Notes From the End of the World.
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
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A Ride in the Park