Francisco Bolognesi, maximum hero of Arica . Son of Andrés Bolognesi Camparello -natural Italian musician from Genoa- and Juana Cervantes Pacheco. He was born in Lima in a house on Afligidos Street, today Jirón Caylloma, on November 4, 1816 according to his baptismal certificate in the San Sebastián parish; and he died on June 7, 1880 defending Arica before the Chilean troops. He had three siblings:Mariano, who became an artillery colonel, and Margarita and Manuela, both married to foreigners and living outside the country. As a child he first grew up in Lima, later educating himself at the San Jerónimo de Arequipa conciliar seminary (1825-1832); Due to the early death of his father, he entered the service of a commercial company as a bookkeeper. At the same time, he undertook several trips to the region of Carabaya (Puno) and Cuzco to extract coffee, husk and coca and market these products. During the 1840s, he witnessed the caudillesque struggles between Ramón Castilla and Manuel Ignacio de Vivanco, he even had to witness the battle of Carmen Alto (July 1844), meeting that allowed the final triumph of the constitutionalist troops of Castile. He entered the army as a volunteer for the National Guard during a conflict against Bolivia (1853). He was promoted to lieutenant colonel and appointed second in command of the Libres de Arequipa battalion (1854); At the orders of Castile he had to face the government of José Rufino Echenique , which is why he was aide-de-camp to Castilla himself after his triumph in La Palma (January 1855). As commander of the flying squadron and first chief of the artillery brigade, he left against the Vivanco revolution in Arequipa (1858), being wounded in the thigh. This earned him promotion to colonel, and as such he participated in the conflict with Ecuador (1859-1860). In 1860, President Castilla commissioned him to Europe to study advances in the field of artillery, returning two years later with 54 cannons, the first rifled artillery in the country; he was soon appointed commanding general of artillery. Due to some tests carried out on the beaches of Conchan, a journalistic controversy took place and Bolognesi, in an article published in El Comercio , he defended the artillery corps (April 7, 1862). He again traveled to Europe, this time sent by President Juan Antonio Pezet , bringing on this occasion the Brakely cannons that in the battle of Callao (on May 2, 1866) defeated the Spanish squad. Although he did not participate in this action because he was outside the country, on his return he was appointed general commander of the Callao batteries (1868). He retired from the Army at the age of 55 (1871) after serving as general commander of artillery and civil governor of Callao. He was in retirement when the war with Chile broke out (1879), however, he went to his superiors and asked to be received as a volunteer; he was over 60 years old. In command of the third division he attended the defeat of San Francisco (November 19, 1879) and the victory of Tarapacá (November 27, 1879), attending the latter with a very high fever. Once the Peruvian defense was reorganized in Tacna, he advanced to the port of Arica and was entrusted with the general command of Arica (April 3, 1880). When the Chilean attack began, he summoned his officers to a war meeting, unanimously agreeing to defend it:
Four days later he honored this promise, heroically offering his life when he was hit by an enemy bullet (June 7, 1880).
He married Josefa de la Puente y Rivero and had four children:Margarita, Federico, Enrique and Augusto; these last two died in the battles for the defense of Lima (1881). Account Roque Sáenz Peña -future president of Argentina and combatant in the hill- in my memories, that Bolognesi:
He was a small man in stature. There was slowness and hardness in his movements, as there was in his physiognomy; his voice was clear and whole despite his old age; the years and sorrows had silvered his hair and his round and abundant beard, the tanned complexion of his energetic and virile face stood out... his intelligence was uncultivated, he lacked preparation but he had a clear perception of things and events; the experience of the years and the malice that unfolds in the restless life in the camps had given his spirit a certain agility of conception... he had known the European armies and made detailed studies on armaments
Media files
Life of the hero Francisco Bolognesi broadcast by the program It happened in Peru.