“Celebrating a death is difficult to explain”: Blancos stage their biggest march yet to Masoller in honor of Saravia

Two thousand horses, veterans and young militants, party leaders and rank-and-file supporters made their way to Masoller in what Blancos described as the largest march since the tradition began in 2004. They gathered at the site where Aparicio Saravia was mortally wounded during Uruguay’s last civil war.

Saravia led the Blancos against the Colorado government of José Batlle y Ordóñez in 1904. He was shot in the abdomen and died several days later. His fight for political participation and electoral guarantees, together with the legend of his leadership from the countryside, remains one of the National Party’s central historical references.

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Celebrating a death is difficult to explain.

“Celebrating a death is difficult to explain,” Álvaro Delgado, president of the party’s governing board, acknowledged at the start of his speech. “But in reality we come to celebrate what that death left behind. His revolution was not in vain. What Aparicio created was a cause.”

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But in reality we come to celebrate what that death left behind. His revolution was not in vain. What Aparicio created was a cause.

Delgado said Masoller represented belonging, identity and a cause rooted above all in freedom. The night before, the pilgrimage had taken supporters to the Lunarejo Valley, where campfires lit and warmed young people who played guitars and cards.

Former President Luis Lacalle Pou did not attend, but supporters repeatedly invoked his leadership. They wore stickers bearing his face and shouted his name during Delgado’s appeal for permanent organizing and a return to government in 2030. “People are beginning to resign themselves, and we cannot allow that,” Delgado said. “We must have a permanent militant task to become the option that creates hope to return to government in 2030.”

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Masoller expresses much of what we feel. It means a sense of belonging, identity and a cause based above all on the cause of freedom.

The march took place during celebrations marking the National Party’s 190th anniversary. Supporters in the crowd also chanted, “Luis, Luis,” as some continued to wonder whether Lacalle Pou would appear, as he had the previous year.

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People are beginning to resign themselves, and we cannot allow it. We must have a permanent militant task to become the option that creates hope to return to government in 2030, as Uruguay deserves, with the National Party leading a governing coalition.