Great Military Parade of Chile
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For more than a century the Great Military Parade of Chile has been an enduring legacy of the Independence Day holidays in Chile, held in Santiago, Chile's O'Higgins Park on September 19 yearly in honor of the Glories of the Chilean Army with a military parade involving not just the ground forces but by the rest of the Chilean Armed Forces: the Chilean Navy, the Chilean Air Force, and the Carabineros de Chile, also in of the anniversary of the formal inauguration on that day in 1810 of the First Government Junta, which witnessed the first military parade of the independent nation at the Plaza de Armas, Santiago. It is the final act of the national independence celebrations, seen by more people through TV and the Internet, and heard on radio.
Per Law 2977 of 1915, Army Day is celebrated on the 19th of September in honor of the Army's role in the defense of the Chilean nation, thus the date is dedicated to the Chilean Army and is a national holiday. The parade, however, dates back to 1896.
Brief history
During the long Spanish era in Chile, whenever a new governor-general takes his office in Santiago, a military parade is called by the troops of the city garrison under the Spanish Army.
On Sept. 19, 1810, the formal inauguration of the First Government Junta took place in Santiago which saw the first ever military parade of the new nation.
Another military parade was held on September 28, 1819, in honor of the formal victory in the Chilean War of Independence with units of the Army of the Andes taking part. The parade would move to its present home in 1830 under President Tomas Ovalle, albelt in the then fields of La Pampilla in the Santiago area, where the parade was held with the ceremonies ending in the Plaza de Armas with a Feu de joie. The parades, nicknamed "despejes" by the people, would take a new form in the years ahead.
In 1831, a military exercise was ordered by the government of President Joaquin Prieto on the Pampilla fields, which would witness the first ever parade on September 19 in the following year with Diego Portales taking the salute. The Pampilla area became its permanent home in 1842 when President Manuel Bulnes acquired lands in the area for the annual parades and military exercises, and was transformed into a military installation in 1845. It was turned into the O'Higgins Park (then the Cousiño Park) in 1873, thanks to the efforts of Luis Cousiño, who, inspired by the parks he had seen in Europe before, decided that he would help adapt it to the Chilean situation. He asked Manuel Arana to design it, who then added a Field of Mars to the design of the park for the annual military parades, and it has been held there every since. Another big parade was held in 1884 as the War of the Pacific was then in its final months as the Army pushed on its final offensive.
The president day parade, in the Prussian manner, officially began on September 19, 1896, even through in the late 1880s the parades held at the Field of Mars at O'Higgins Park, thanks to the efforts of the Prussian military mission to Chile under Captain Emil Körner, showed signs of Prussianization and modernization little by little. With the victory in the Chilean Civil War, in which Körner and the pro-modernization officers supported the Congress, the Prussian practice began to be standardized. The parade of 1896 witnessed Chilean Army units parading in the German manner, per companies and troops at first, and later by battalions and squadrons. Two years later, as the German-trained artillery and cavalry made their walk, trot and gallop passes at the tribune one pass at a time, the goose step made its debut in the parade, with the Army NCO School being the first to adopt the practice that would later be the Chilean Army standard by the 1901 parade, which was also the first since conscription was formally introduced. The parade of 1902 was the first in which foreign contingents marched past; in celebration of the recently signed Pacts of May, reprensentatives from the Armed Forces of the Argentine Republic marched past at the tribune at the parade field for the first time. Despite the tragedies that happened in 1910 as the nation celebrated its centennial year, the parade that year went on as planned, with Emiliano Figueroa, then acting president, receiving the salute from the units of the army and the navy, in his first parade as chief executive.
The parade's September 19 date was officially sanctioned in 1915 as Chilean Army Day (Dia de las Glorias del Ejercito) per a presidential decree by President Ramón Barros Luco and Interior and Public Security Minister Pedro Nicolás Montenegro, then confirmed by Law 2977 by the National Congress, celebrating the Army, the first full day of the full independent nation, and the 1810 inauguration of its first government.[1] Luco took the salute on that year's parade, the first since it was made official. It has remained the same ever since, with the latter additions of the Air Force and the Carabineros de Chile in the following years, and evolving with the changing time despite having cancelled twice in 1924 and 1973 (the parade of 1932 was held on September 17 for the only time in its history).
Timeline of parades since 1925
- 1925
- Parade held after a one-year break, celebrated the 1925 Constitution, Luis Barros Borgoño's last parade as President, preceded by a September 10 parade in honor of the visit to the country of HRH the Prince of Wales
- 1926
- President Emiliano Figueroa's 2nd and last parade as President, the last parade of the Carabineros as a part of the Army
- 1927
- Carlos Ibáñez del Campo took the salute on his first parade as President
- 1931
- Chilean Navy contingent reduced due to the sailors rebellion weeks before, Manuel Trucco Franzani's only parade as President, Chilean Air Force Academy makes debut marchpast as part of Chilean Air Force
- 1933
- Chilean Air Force makes debut appearance, Arturo Alessandri Palma's 4th parade as President
- 1936
- Horse Rifles Regiment Mounted Band makes debut appearance with the unique regimental drumhorse
- 1939
- Pedro Aguirre Cerda's first parade as President
- 1940
- Air Force NCO School makes debut appearance
- 1942
- President Juan Antonio Ríos takes the salute on his first parade
- 1962
- Parade first broadcast on television
- 1968
- Reorganized Army NCO School, with its Dragonantes on Parade March, returns to the parade grounds months after its reopening, Naval Polytechnical Academy (then the Naval Specialties Schools System) makes debut marchpast
- 1970
- First parade without the horse artillery columns
- 1974
- Augusto Pinochet takes the salute as President at his first parade
- 1975
- Los Viejos Estandartes, the Chilean Army Hymn, played as the official march for the 1st time
- 1978
- Parade broadcast for the first time in color in the midst of the Beagle Crisis, 2nd Motorized Division regiments marched past
- 1982
- Regimentsgruss Marsch adopted by the Air Force Academy, which also converts to white uniforms and cavalry sabres, and the ENAER T-35 Pillán makes debut flypast, mounted column makes final appearance, Air Force NCO School drops the bugles on the Corps of Drums, first FACh women's contingent appearance
- 1985
- Landgraf Marsch adopted as the official march past of the Army NCO School
- 1995
- Naval Polytechnical Academy makes first official march past within months after its formal renaming, Massed Naval Bands contingent return after an 8-year break
- 1998
- Army Communications School makes debut march past
- The Army Special Forces School marches past for the first time singing the Chilean Army Hymn
- 1999
- Mounted column and mounted band segment reinstated
- 2000
- Leopard 1 makes final drive past, horse artillery segment reintroduced, Chacabuco Regiment Historical Company makes first ever march past
- 2001
- Color guard column and mobile column both make their final appearances
- 2003
- Mounted Band of the First Cavalry (Horse Guards) Regiment "Grenadiers" begins using the present two drum horses format
- 2006
- Michelle Bachelet, the first woman President of Chile, takes her first salute, together with the first ever lady Minister of National Defense, Vivianne Blanlot
- 2007
- Army Services School makes debut march past, 1st parade for foreign cadets and NCO students of the Carabineros, Army segment command uses combat dress for the first time
- 2008
- Debut marchpast for the Carabiniers Canine Training School
- 2009
- Carabineros mounted contingents make their national debut, Army divisions nationwide featured for the 1st time
- 1st march past of the Marine Corps in combat uniforms
See also
References
- ^ Ministry of the Interior and Public Security (February 1, 1915). "Law 2977 of 1915". Retrieved 9 March 2011.