Chapter 22 Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz

(1829-1874) I seek my true face, which was formed before the world was formed. Yeats: The Twisted Star On February 6, 1829, the insurgents who had been pursued by Lavalle withdrew from the south, intending to join Lopez's troops.When they were three or four leagues away from Pergamino, they stopped at an unknown manor; at dawn, a man had a terrible nightmare. Women sleeping together.No one knows what he dreamed about, but at four o'clock the next day, Suarez's cavalry defeated the rebel army and chased Jiulige in one breath until the gloomy snail field. The sabers of the Peruvian and Brazilian wars cut heads and died in ravines.The woman's name was Isidora Cruz; her later son was named Tadeo Isidoro.

My purpose is not to recount his history.Of the days and nights that constituted his life, only one night interested me; and I will not speak of any other than that which helps to illustrate that night and which is not necessary to talk about.His deeds have been recorded in a brilliant book; that is to say, a book that is all-encompassing and suitable for all (1 Corinthians 9:22), because its contents have withstood almost infinite Endless repetition, interpretation, or distortion.Many people commented on the experience of Tadeo Isidoro, always highlighting the influence of the plains on the formation of his character. However, gauchos like him also spent time in the forests on the banks of the Paraná River and the rolling plateaus in the east. lifetime.He did live in a monotonous wild world.Before he died of hemorrhagic smallpox in 1874, he had never seen mountains, gas lamps, or workshops, nor had he seen a city. In 1849, he went to Buenos Aires with a group of cattle drivers from the firm of Francisco Javier Acevedo; the others went to the city to spend their money; In the nearby small inn, they never left each other.He stayed for many days, silent, lying on the ground, drinking yerba mate, rising at dawn, falling asleep at vespers.He knows that the city has nothing to do with him, and this idea is neither spoken nor understood.One of the hirelings was drunk and made fun of him.Cruise didn't talk back, but on the way back, around the campfire at night, the man couldn't stop teasing him.Before this, Cruise had no resentment, or even expressed displeasure, but at that time he stabbed him to the ground with a dagger.Cruise had to flee and hid in a swamp.One night a few days later, the screams of the Chahar birds made him realize that the police had surrounded him.He tested his knife against a branch for sharpness; then he took the spurs off his boots so they wouldn't get in the way when he was fighting on foot.He would rather fight hard than be tied down.He suffered multiple injuries to his forearm, shoulder and left hand; but he also severely wounded the bravest of the gang.The blood from the wound flowed down his fingers, but he became more and more courageous; Xiang Mingshi lost too much blood, became dizzy, and was disarmed.In those years, serving in the army was a way of punishing criminals: Cruise was exiled to a small castle on the northern frontier.He fought in the Civil War as a soldier; sometimes fighting in defense of his homeland, sometimes on the opposing side. On January 23, 1856, sergeant major Eusebio Laprida led 30 white soldiers to fight 200 Indians in the Caldoso Lake area.Crews was one of thirty men who received spear wounds in the battle.

There are many gaps in his heroic but obscure history. Around 1868 we hear that he was in Pergamino again: married or living with a woman, had a son, bought a small plot of land. In 1869 he was appointed Inspector of the Country Police.He had left the old for the new; he might have felt happy in those days, though deep down he wasn't. (A crucial, glorious night awaited him: the night at last he saw his face and heard his name. Of course, that night ruined his career; more precisely These are not a night, but a moment, an action of that night, for actions are our symbols.) Any destiny, however long and complex, is really reflected in only one moment: the moment when people realize who they really are.It is said that Alexander of Macedon saw the reflection of his glorious military exploits in the myth of Achilles; Charles XII of Sweden saw the reflection of his own military exploits in Alexander's deeds.Tadeo Isidoro Cruz was illiterate, not from books, of course; he saw himself clearly in a melee and in a man.What happened is this:

At the end of June 1870, he was ordered to hunt down a villain who had killed two people.The fugitive was originally a deserter from the Southern Frontier Force under the command of Colonel Benito Machado; in one drunken riot he killed a mulatto in a brothel; in another he killed a resident of the Roxas district; People come from Red Thirst Lake.Forty years ago, the rebel army gathered in that place and ended up dying in the wilderness to be eaten by hawks and dogs; Manuel Mesa also came from that place, and was later executed in the Victory Square. He shouted angrily; the stranger who gave birth to Cruise was also from Red Thirst Lake, and was later killed in the ravine by a saber that had experienced the wars in Peru and Brazil.Cruise had forgotten the name of that place; now he recognized it with a faint, inexplicable restlessness... The criminals, pursued by soldiers, rode long distances to and fro, captivating the eyes and ears; but July 12 Still surrounded at night.He hid in a field of stiga.It was pitch black and pitch black; Cruz and his men dismounted and crept toward the bushes, where, deep in the shadows, the fugitives were either sleeping or laying in ambush for an attack.A Chaha bird chirped; Tadeo Isidoro Cruz thought he had already experienced this situation.The fugitive came out of his hiding place to fight for his life.Cruise had a vague glimpse of his menacing appearance, his face almost completely hidden by his long hair and gray beard.For obvious reasons, I won't describe that fight anymore.Suffice it to say that several of Cruise's men were seriously wounded or killed by fugitives.As Cruise wrestled in the dark (his body wrestled in the dark), he began to understand.He understands that there is no good or bad fate, but people should act according to their inner calling.He knew that armbands and uniforms were his bondage now.He knew that his nature should be a lone wolf, not a pack dog; He would not allow an outnumbered man to kill a brave man, and he turned and joined the deserter Martin Fierro in a fight with the soldiers.