Led by mayor Francisco Azcué, the ceremony for the 210th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence was held this morning, an occasion in which he remarked that this is a date “that continues to challenge us because July 9, 1816, was one of the most significant political decisions in our history”.
After describing the characteristics that stood out in our territory in those years, “where there was no guarantee of success but there was conviction,” Azcué recalled the words “of historian Tulio Halperín Donghi, who wrote that Independence was not the natural outcome of the May Revolution but a response to extraordinary circumstances that forced the men of that time to make decisions that would definitively change the course of these lands”.
“Independence was not inevitable, it was a choice, and choosing always implies assuming responsibilities; that is why what General José de San Martín stated remains valid: it is necessary that we call ourselves independent so that they know and respect us,” and that “was not a matter of words, it was a matter of identity. San Martín knew that no people can build their future if someone else decides for them,” the mayor stressed.
In that vein, Azcué pointed out that the deepest lesson of that Congress of Tucumán was that “independence requires taking charge of one's own destiny; because those deputies did not inherit a country, they imagined it, discussed it, and built it amidst enormous differences. This is a great lesson because great transformations begin when a community assumes responsibility and decides where it wants to go, and this reaches us here, in Concordia. History shows us that Argentina was built from every city, from every sector that decided to contribute something to the collective project”.
Azcué affirmed that it is in cities “where democracy becomes concrete. Where a public work, a street, changes the life of a resident; where a school opens opportunities; where an entrepreneur generates work, and it is there that politics ceases to be a speech to become facts,” which is why when changes and transformations are promoted “we are exercising, every day, a contemporary form of independence; of depending less on improvisations, of resigning ourselves to things always being the same, the independence of believing that our future depends on decisions made from elsewhere”.
Finally, the mayor stressed that “our task is to build a Concordia that depends less and less on circumstances and more and more on the capacity, talent, and commitment of its people, thinking long-term. That is the path we want to travel towards the Bicentennial: a city that believes in itself and that finds that confidence and the strength to grow”.
Present were the Minister of Treasury and Finance of Entre Ríos Fabián Boleas, Vice-mayor Magdalena Reta de Urquiza, members of the Cabinet, councilors, the presidents of the Argentine and Uruguayan delegations to the Mixed Technical Commission of Salto Grande, consular authorities, representatives of the Armed Forces and Security Forces, Malvinas Veterans, students and teachers of Technical School No. 2, members of intermediate institutions, and the general public.
After the ceremony, the authorities moved to the San Antonio de Padua Cathedral to attend the Solemn Te Deum presided over by Monsignor Gustavo Zurbriggen.
After describing the characteristics that stood out in our territory in those years, “where there was no guarantee of success but there was conviction,” Azcué recalled the words “of historian Tulio Halperín Donghi, who wrote that Independence was not the natural outcome of the May Revolution but a response to extraordinary circumstances that forced the men of that time to make decisions that would definitively change the course of these lands”.
“Independence was not inevitable, it was a choice, and choosing always implies assuming responsibilities; that is why what General José de San Martín stated remains valid: it is necessary that we call ourselves independent so that they know and respect us,” and that “was not a matter of words, it was a matter of identity. San Martín knew that no people can build their future if someone else decides for them,” the mayor stressed.
In that vein, Azcué pointed out that the deepest lesson of that Congress of Tucumán was that “independence requires taking charge of one's own destiny; because those deputies did not inherit a country, they imagined it, discussed it, and built it amidst enormous differences. This is a great lesson because great transformations begin when a community assumes responsibility and decides where it wants to go, and this reaches us here, in Concordia. History shows us that Argentina was built from every city, from every sector that decided to contribute something to the collective project”.
Azcué affirmed that it is in cities “where democracy becomes concrete. Where a public work, a street, changes the life of a resident; where a school opens opportunities; where an entrepreneur generates work, and it is there that politics ceases to be a speech to become facts,” which is why when changes and transformations are promoted “we are exercising, every day, a contemporary form of independence; of depending less on improvisations, of resigning ourselves to things always being the same, the independence of believing that our future depends on decisions made from elsewhere”.
Finally, the mayor stressed that “our task is to build a Concordia that depends less and less on circumstances and more and more on the capacity, talent, and commitment of its people, thinking long-term. That is the path we want to travel towards the Bicentennial: a city that believes in itself and that finds that confidence and the strength to grow”.
Present were the Minister of Treasury and Finance of Entre Ríos Fabián Boleas, Vice-mayor Magdalena Reta de Urquiza, members of the Cabinet, councilors, the presidents of the Argentine and Uruguayan delegations to the Mixed Technical Commission of Salto Grande, consular authorities, representatives of the Armed Forces and Security Forces, Malvinas Veterans, students and teachers of Technical School No. 2, members of intermediate institutions, and the general public.
After the ceremony, the authorities moved to the San Antonio de Padua Cathedral to attend the Solemn Te Deum presided over by Monsignor Gustavo Zurbriggen.