Among the echoes of the turbulence of the 19th century, an intriguing and unknown figure emerges, who, however, will be central in the last stage of the political organization of the Argentine territory in dispute with the indigenous people: Benjamin Morra.
Born on March 10, 1886 in Buenos Aires, at 95 Alvear Street in the La Recoleta neighborhood, Benjamín Camilo Morra was the protagonist of the repression of the last Argentine malón, which occurred in 1919 in Formosa. The pilagás had massacred all the inhabitants of Fortín Yunká, and Morra joined the military campaign aimed at restoring national order.
As he came from a prosapia family, his life was intertwined with the history of the country. His maternal great-grandfather was Justo José de Urquiza, a prominent politician and governor of the province of Entre Ríos who defeated Juan Manuel de Rosas in the Battle of Caseros in 1852.
His maternal grandfather gained fame for topping a flagpole with the head of a chief.
His paternal grandfather, Camilo Morra, held a dozen noble titles., among them that of the Marquis of Monterocchetta, a well-known Italian nobleman in his time. His father, the Marquis Carlo Morra, was president of the Central Society of Architects and designed schools and buildings that left their mark on the architecture of Buenos Aires and contributed to the building development of the city.
On his maternal side, his grandfather Benjamín Victorica, a lawyer and military man, participated in the Conquest of Chaco and left a strong mark by founding several towns where indigenous peoples previously lived: He gained fame for topping an Argentine flag pole with the head of a chief during the founding of General Roca.
Doctor and poet
Twisting his family inheritance, Benjamín Morra studied medicine, but this profession linked him, like his ancestors, to significant milestones in Argentine history. He received his doctorate with the thesis Pílorus essential spasm of childhood, published in Buenos Aires in 1912 as a 73-page pamphlet. In 1916, he published in Tucumán Prophylaxis in venereal diseases and syphilisanother 153-page pamphlet.
In addition to contributing to the field of medicine, Morra dedicated himself to writing fictions. His name echoed in the pages of the famous Faces and maskswhere he signed chronicles and poems that stood out less for their literary quality than for the documentary value of social and political events of his time.
Published poems include from my album (1914), where he uses chained tercets with consonant rhyme to explore the love suffering of Colombina and Pierrot. That same year, he published the poetic prose Pierrot’s Confidence, on the same topic. In 1917 it appears Madrigal, a poem that follows the tradition of Italian Renaissance composition. He also ventured into film as part of the cast of An Argentine romance (1915), by Angélica García de García Mansilla in collaboration with Max Glücksmann.
Morra protected a chief and secretly helped him escape.
Repression in the estuaries
But it is the repression of the malón of 1919 that gives him greater visibility and colors his life with mysteries and controversies. Doctor and writer, far from his warrior lineage, Morra assumes his South American destiny and By his own vocation he joins the army of Captain Enrique Gil Boy in the direction of the Patiño estuary to combat the pilagás.
During the campaign, he served as a doctor and unleashed his literary prowess in recording his experiences and observations. His interaction with characters like Nela-Lagadík, a chief captured to serve as a guide and with whom Morra kept a constant chat, he reveals his most human and understanding side.
in the note Through the land of Indiansin Faces and masksin which he tells of his experience on the expedition, describes the chief as “a splendid guy” and later assures that they became “very friends.” The truth is that Morra protects the chief from the soldiers who blamed him for the deaths in the fort and secretly helps him escape.
When the doctor describes his preparation for the trip, the equipment he received and the challenges along the way, he narrates in detail the progress of the group of 28 men led by Captain Boy.
In addition to the meeting with Nela-Lagadik, he highlights the hard days of marching, the scarcity of resources and the difficult weather conditions that demoralized the troops.
Despite these adversities, the group continued forward, motivated by the conviction to help their compatriots in the fort. The trip was physically devastating and psychologically challenging., since the continuous threat of attacks kept the men in a state of constant alert. They were hungry and an already tired mule was emerging as food. But they refused to sacrifice it, because the animal had carried the two children who survived the attack on its back.
Finally he says that The arrival at the fort was the discovery of the devastation left by the assault, with a total of 17 dead, including soldiers and civilians.
Morra documents both the brutality of the conflict and the resilience and will of those who, like him, bravely faced hardship in an attempt to bring relief and justice to a land marked by violence.
After the fire of the tolderías, a cry is heard, it is that of a pilagás baby.
There is an area of his story of extreme beauty: After the fire of the tolderías at the hands of Boy’s troop, a cry is heard, it is that of a pilagás baby. More than crying, it is an Indian cry that wants to prevail over the sparks that the whites light.
Morra’s story about participating in the “ultimo malón” (which paradoxically takes place two years after the film The last evil by Alcides Greca, from 1917) constitutes an indispensable source for historians, as demonstrated by the most complete work in the magazine Everything is history (No. 215 of 1985). However, neither in this issue nor in the rest of the articles is this doctor given the relevance that he really had.
As if his time in the campaign against the pilagás had sealed his existence forever, After the repression, Benjamín Morra led an austere and low-profile life. He never married, he lived with his mother, Inés Victorica, and his days continued in total discretion.
On a special date, December 24, 1942, at 1787 Montevideo Street in Buenos Aires, Morra died from complications of a stomach tumor. His nephew, Miguel Ángel Cárcano, grandson of Ramón Cárcano, who was governor of Córdoba several times, took charge of the procedures.
To this day he rests in the Recoleta cemetery in the pantheon built by the famous sculptor Luigi Brizzolara, who carries a shield with two silver swords, whose points downwards are placed in the cross of Saint Andrew and with four spur stars, made of gold. .
His last years in retirement and his discreet death contrast with the intense activity and controversies that marked his youth and maturity, and which testify to the complexities of Argentine history and politics at the beginning of the 20th century.
His biography offers a window to look freshly at a period of change and conflict. At the crossroads of medicine, politics, and military history, Benjamín Morra embodies the challenges of inhabiting a multifaceted identity. His life trajectory in all its complexity is essential testimony of a period that shows the prevailing contradictions in forging a national history.