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His Ancestoral Personality

To describe a human being’s personality is always an arduous task because objectivity can not be totally reached. In this specific case, my filial feelings influence the vision I have of my father. Although my perception is limited, , I believe this chapter will have valuable information for the reader. In addition, my psychological knowledge allowed me to approach this issue more objectively.

One the most interesting things about my father’s personality are the multiple names people used to refer to him which reflected his diverse facets. For many he was a good man, an excellent governor who had the respect of his political supporters as well as his opponents: “Doctor Carlos Evans”. Others called him “Carlitos” based on his sense of affection and friendship. For his birth family he was “El Negro” (“The Dark One”) referring to the color of his eyes, different than those of his siblings. My mother did not use this nickname, which she thought was discriminatory and preferred to call him “Carlos.”

To understand his inner development first and the nature of his character, it is necessary first at all to journey back through his ancestors, which explain his solid, Christian and coherent values. The second steep consists in exploring the different stages of his life, which marked him profoundly. Finally, reading his administration as governor and his performance as national congressman will allow to the reader to understand him as a public figure.

To conclude the introduction to this chapter, I must to say that the life of my father often seemed to me like a story that has no beginning and no end. In other words, I have the feeling that his life is a historical fragment.

FIRST PART

His Ancestors on the maternal side- “The Villanueva”

On his maternal side, he belonged to “The Villanueva Family” settled in Mendoza in the beginning of the eighteen century by Francisco Villanueva and María Serrano de Villanueva. From the Spanish province of Cuenca they traveled with his son, Luis who had been born in San Lorenzo de Padilla to Mendoza that belonged in those moments to the “Virreynato” of Perú.

“Virreynato” means Viceroyalty that was a Spanish colony in America. There were in North and Central America until Panamá Viceroyalty de Nueva España, in the north region of South America, Viceroyalty de Nueva Granada, in the meridian region of the Viceroyalty Del Perú. And in the south and insular region the Viceroyalty del Río de la Plata. Mendoza had belonged to the Viceroyalty del Perú until the Viceroyalty de la Plata was created in 1776.

Francisco and María were disappointment with the situation in Spain that was conducted in those times by Felipe IV. It was happening a war today called “Succession War” and a huge economic crisis for what the rich people was living how people of 18 the middle class, these was living as poor and these last ones was wandering asking for a piece of bread. This politic and economic collapse was accompanied for adverse climatic phenomena like droughts, alluviums, and hailstorms. Therefore, castellans as Francisco and María undertook their definitive uprooting and immigrated to the rich lands that belonged to Spain in South America. Moreover the last name Villanueva had a Jew origin and during those times Jews were expulsed from Spain.

They selected Mendoza, because the Cuenca region and Mendoza area have in common their geography. Consequently, castellans who installed in Mendoza could cultivate the same vegetables and fruits that they had been cultivating in the Cuenca land. In contrast, the harvest had superior performance than the harvest in Spain because of the better soil in Mendoza. These harvests were possible with the help of the Huarpes Indians, the true first habitants of Mendoza area, who knew how to irrigate the desert land through irrigation canals. In addition, the couple had three slaves who also helped.

The Francisco y Maria’s descendants include politicians, magistrates, military men, intellectuals, and priests, and others who achieved high positions in their respective careers. For instance, Benito Villanueva was President Provisional of Argentina. They participated in independence wars from Spain and later in the civil wars that my country suffered. They maintained the Castilian value system through generations, such us, the exaltation of “being over doing” and an enormous preoccupation with loyalty, courage, honor and dignity.

Of course, big families have always-black sheep in their point of view. In this case, one of the blackest sheep was Benigno Villanueva, an eccentric and adventurous personage who got to be a legend by his performance as an international military, or as an adventurous, depending of the point of view. Being very young, he killed another young men during a duel and as a result of this event, Benigno was sent obligatorily to serve the service of the national troops. Those were the times Rosas who was a “caudillo” of the state of Buenos Aires with power over Argentina territories. “Caudillo” means a type of South- America political leader that arose with the 19th-century wars of independence. Leading private armies, they used there military force in order to achieve the power in the nearly independent states. They had an authoritarian style of leadership. Juan Manual de Rosas was also large landowners who sought to advance their private interests. The people who followed him were called “rosistas” and those who were against him were called

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