2023-07-07 04:29:24
Always during the Julia Festival, the television channels send their interviewers to the center of Santa Ana and the most logical and frequent question is: why is Santa Ana called the Heroic City? Unfortunately some people do not know the answer to that qualifier. Motivated by this ignorance of some Santanecos, I gave myself the task of preparing these lines for the purpose of illustrating the population, of course in a very summarized way.
It was all due to the heroic deed of the 44 in 1894. History says that in those years there was the dictatorship of the Ezeta Brothers, Carlos the president in San Salvador and Antonio the vice president in Santa Ana. We would have to go back to that time and enter in context to find out if it really was a dictatorship. In my opinion they were not such bad rulers, since they did some good things for El Salvador. Among them: they introduced a tax on coffee exports, a reduction in the hours of daily work for peasants, the obligation to give day laborers three meal times, an increase in the daily payment to 2 colones per day when previously they were paid only 18 cents a day to the farmer. They created the Colón as the national currency, some banks were also created. All of this annoyed the coffee growers, which is why an armed movement began in Santa Ana that ended up defeating the Ezeta Brothers.
Possibly the attitude that Antonio Ezeta always showed in Santa Ana contributed greatly to the discontent. The story goes that he was very arrogant, he sent his opponents to jail, he demanded large sums of money to release them, he demanded loans from farmers using many persuasions , he only spent spending a lot of money on cockfights, and not answering a greeting or not giving him way on the sidewalk was grounds for jail. All this was generating a general discontent that provoked a collective reaction that led to the insurrectionary movement. In 1893 coup attempts began, which failed. The leaders were imprisoned and shot. Little by little, many leaders had to flee to Guatemala where a group led by General Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez, General Lisandro Arévalo and Major Tomás Regalado formed. They were coordinating plans with people who infiltrated the barracks, the building where the Colegio de La Asunción was located in Santa Ana, and the police, the building where the Municipal Mayor’s Office is currently located.
They agreed to initiate actions on April 28 and attack at dawn (2:00 am) on April 29. The historic event begins when they entered from Guatemala through the town of Jerez de la Frontera on the morning of April 28, then arriving in Candelaria de la Frontera at noon. Then they had lunch in Comecayo, rested and dined in Portezuelo, then arriving at the village of San Antonio to finally arrive at the south side of the Church of Santa Lucía at 11:00 pm. By this time, many Santanecos had joined the cause. The story says that there were approximately three thousand men and women.
In Santa Lucía they received help and food from many locals, including Alejandro Larromana, who with other young people took care of all the horses. There was also Mrs. Eusebia Brenes, who gave them tamales and chocolate, Mrs. Concha Aguirre, who gave them coffee, Mrs. Chon Linares, who gave them bread, and so on, etc. At this moment another very seasoned general, Francisco Hurtado, joined them. At this point, the priest Juan de Dios Sandoval already had people infiltrating the barracks. Little by little they arrived at the Santa Lucía ravine on Caridad street, currently Libertad street, near where the Teconalá center is today. Then they got closer to El Calvario church and Menéndez park, beginning the attack at 2:00 am. There were deaths and injuries but the military action was so fast that the barracks were taken in 15 minutes. The next objective was to capture General Antonio Ezeta, who lived on the corner of Calle de la Caridad and fourth avenue north, opposite where the Confía building is currently located, but he fled to Coatepeque to ask his brother Carlos for help and thus retake Santa Ana. Within this campaign, the third objective was to take over the Police (current municipal mayor’s office), whose task was entrusted to Major Tomas Regalado. Again there were many dead and wounded, the action lasting approximately 6 and a half hours. Once the objective was achieved, General Gutiérrez set up his command post at the entrance of the Police, in front of Libertad Park. He ordered to organize the defense of the city in the area of Molino, Cerro Tecana, Primavera, Comecayo and Loma Alta. On May 1, 1894, he promoted Tomás Regalado to general, and had the description of “Santa Ana, Heroic City”which is the greatest recognition that any other city in El Salvador has received.
The Ezeta were supposed to initiate a strong and enveloping military action to retake Santa Ana. In fact, that’s how things happened. Thousands of soldiers coming from the capital tried to penetrate the defensive fence, without achieving their goal. There were many battles, but the most relevant were seven, but they were always rejected. In these battles, General Tomás Regalado, General Rafael Antonio Gutiérrez, General Lisandro Arévalo, General Francisco Huertado, etc. shone for their bravery and caudillismo.
The city resisted a siege of forty-two days.
After the armed action ended, General Gutiérrez was elected President of the Republic, naming General Tomás Regalado as Inspector General of the Army. They with their magnetic force on the troops, their reckless courage and caudillismo, wrote a glorious page, worthy of being remembered by all current and future generations! For all this feat is that Santa Ana is called the HEROIC CITY.
By Dr. Oscar Montes
Historian
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