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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
The Lautaro lodges of revolutionary South America had their roots in Spain and England where creole patriots dreamed and plotted the overthrow of Spanish colonial power. The name was that of an Indian chief of the Araucanians of Chile, immortalized by the poet, Alonzo de Ercilla y Zúñiga. There is general agreement among Latin American historians that the Lautaro lodges played a significant role in the struggle for independence. Still debated is whether or not they were masonic or merely resembled the Freemasons in organization and principles.
The author expresses his great indebtedness to Miss Raelene Pritchard, for preliminary work in translating and assembling material for this article.
1 The details of the European background of the Lautaro lodges of America are from Lazcano, Martin V., Las Sociedades Secretas Políticas y Masónicas en Buenos Aires, I, 40–50 passim Google Scholar. This is an exhaustive and well-documented two-volume work by a distinguished Argentinian.
2 Mitre, Bartolomé, Obras Completas, I, 198, 199, Note 18Google Scholar. Mitre, President of Argentina, 1862 to 1868, is probably the best single source of information about the Lautaro lodges. His father, Don Ambrosio, was a member of the Sociedad Patriotica, founded by José Bernardo Monteagudo to attract and indoctrinate young revolutionists of Buenos Aires, and attached to the Lautaro lodge. In the second place, in the course of preparing his exhaustive history of General San Martin, Mitre, collected a great number of Martin, San letters and other documents, most of them found in a series of appendices (1-3), Obras, V, 134–621 Google Scholar. And in the third place, Mitre was near enough in time to have personal interviews with principals in the lodges, such as Zapiola, Juan Gregorio de Las Heras, and Julián Alvarez. Mitre was a reputable historian who knew how to make judicious use of his materials.
3 Mitre, Bartolomé [Pilling, William, trans.], The Emancipation of South America, pp. 48, 49.Google Scholar
4 San Martín to Godoy Cruz, no date [c. 1816], Lazcano, op. cit., II, 17–20.Google Scholar
5 Lazcano (op. cit. I, 293–299) provides the text followed in this article. Mackenna, Benjamin Vicuña, Obras Completas, V, “Vida de O’Higgins,” 266–271 Google Scholar, presents a text of the original, which differs little from the Santiago version, though the numbering of the articles is not the same. The “Lautarina” has added to it a section called “Reglamento de Debates y Ordenes,” which does not appear to have been in the original. Otherwise the parts are the same: the “Preambulo,” the “Constituciones,” and the “Leyes Penales.”
6 Ibid., pp. 211,271,272.
7 A century after the appearance of the lodges there was a sharp debate about their possible masonic connections. However, the evidence seems to justify a description of the lodges as being masonic-like, but not actually masonic. The argument can be stated as follows: (1) contemporary lists of masonic lodges in America do not include the Lautaros; (2) the Masons were against monarchy, while San Martin on occasion favored constitutional monarchy for the American states; (3) unlike Masons, the Lautarians were not anti-clerical, in fact, San Martin, O’Higgins, and Zapiola were to all appearances devout sons of the church; (4) since there were old established masonic lodges in Buenos Aires in 1812, why did San Martin establish a new organization, if the masonic system would have served as well? San Martin in his youth was possibly a member of Spanish Freemasonry, and after his exile he was a member in Brussels. But this proves nothing concerning the Lautaro lodges as such.
8 Ibid., p. 292.
9 Juan José Passo, Juan Alvarez Jonte, and Nicolas Rodriguez Peña.
10 Gaceta de Buenos Aires, 1810–1821, Vol. 3 (1811-1813), “Extraordinaria Ministerial de Buenos-Ayres, Miercoles 22 de Octubre de 1812, Manifiesto del Gobierno,” pp. 313–320 Google Scholar; Mitre, op. cit., I, 207; Ricardo Rojas [Hershel Brickell and Carlos Videla, trans.], San Martin, Knight of the Andes, pp. 46, 47.
11 Pueyrredón to San Martín, Buenos Aires, September 10, 1816, Mitre, op. cit., V, 304–306.Google Scholar
12 The Pueyrredón-San Martín correspondence of this period illustrates the faithfulness with which the Director kept in touch with his chief. See especially Pueyrredón to San Martin, from Buenos Aires: September 10, November 2, November 16, December 17, 1816, and March 10, 1817, ibid., pp. 307–309, 315–318, 319–320, and 344.
13 Pueyrredón to San Martín, Buenos Aires, October 14, 1816, ibid., pp. 311–313.Google Scholar
14 Pueyrredón to San Martín, Buenos Aires, January 2 and March 3, 1816, ibid., pp. 330–332, 340–343.Google Scholar
15 The Argentinians: San Martin, Colonel Hilarión Quintana, Zapiola, Guido, Las Heras, and Alvarado. The Chileans: O’Higgins, Zentano, Zañartú, Luis de la Cruz, Francisco Pérez, and the commandant Rivera. Benjamin Vicuña Mackenna, Vida de O’Higgins, V, 295, Note 163.
16 O’Higgins to San Martín, Santiago, July 15, 1818, Mitre, op. cit., V, 434–439.Google Scholar
17 O’Higgins to San Martín, Santiago, August 27, 1818 ibid., p. 439.
18 San Martín to O’Higgins, Mendoza, October 18, 1818, ibid., pp. 441–442, and note at bottom of page 441. This was the point where a monarchy seemed only a breath away.
19 O’Higgins to San Martin, Santiago, February 17, 1819, ibid., pp. 445, 443.
20 Pueyrredón to San Martin, Buenos Aires, March 11, 1819, ibid., pp. 375–377.
21 O’Higgins to San Martin, Santiago, April 1, 1819, ibid., p. 448.
22 Pueyrredón to San Martin, Buenos Aires, August 25, 1818, ibid., pp. 363, 364. In the same letter Pueyrredón sadly admits that he over-reached in promising to raise 500,000 pesos. “I cannot raise 500,000 pesos here, not even if I filled the jails with capitalists, and the English will not help, either.”
23 O’Higgins to San Martín, Santiago, March 15, 1819, ibid., p. 445.
24 O’Higgins to San Martín, Santiago, March 17, 1819, ibid., pp. 445–446.
25 Mitre, op. cit., III, 89, 90, Note 70. (This is also the reference for the document dated April 3, 1819, and signed by José Ignacio Zenteno, Secretary.)
26 Guido to San Martin, Santiago, April 3, 1819, ibid., pp. 90, 91.
27 Borgoño to San Martín, Santiago, April 5, 1819, Mitre, op. cit., V, 537, 538.Google Scholar
28 Piccirilli, Ricardo, “San Martín y la Desmembración de la Logia de Lautaro,” Historia (Argentina), Vol. I, No. 3 (January-March, 1956), pp. 89–117 Google Scholar; Mitre, op. cit., Ill, 132.
29 Mitre, op. cit., V, 591–593.
30 San Martín to O’Higgins, Lima, August 10, 1821, Mitre, op. cit.. III, 470.Google Scholar
31 A comprehensive modern work on Monteagudo is the three-volume Vida de Monteagudo, by Mariano de Vedia y Mitre.
