Francisco Moreno | |
|---|---|
 Francisco P. Moreno | |
| Born | Francisco Pascasio Moreno (1852-05-31)May 31, 1852 Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Died | November 22, 1919(1919-11-22) (aged 67) Buenos Aires, Argentina |
| Known for | Exploration of thePatagonia |
| Awards | Founder's Medal(1907) Cullum Geographical Medal(1909) |
Francisco Pascasio Moreno (May 31, 1852 – November 22, 1919) was a prominent explorer and academic inArgentina, where he is usually referred to asPerito Moreno (perito means "specialist, expert"). Perito Moreno has been credited as one of the most influential figures in the Argentine incorporation of large parts ofPatagonia and its subsequent development.
Moreno was born to Francisco and Juana Thwaites Madero inBuenos Aires. Raised in a traditional patrician family, he studied in localparochial schools. He shared his spare time with his father searching for artifacts and fossils and, at age 14, created a homemade museum of his extensive collections.
Following graduation in 1872, he participated in the founding of the Argentine Scientific Society. He embarked on the first of the series of scientific expeditions that made him well known: a survey ofRío Negro Territory, largely uncharted country. In January 1876, he reachedLake Nahuel-Huapi in the southernAndes, and on February 15, 1877, he discovered and namedLake Argentino. He also explored numerous rivers inPatagonia. On March 2, he discovered and namedMount Fitz Roy, after the commander of the expedition ofHMS Beagle in the 1830s. The native people also called itChalten.[1]
In 1880, Moreno went to France, where he spoke at a meeting of the Anthropology Society of Paris, discussing two prehistoric skulls he had unearthed in Río Negro territory. He believed one was from the Quaternary period, and the other had ritual deformation in a manner similar to the skulls of theAymara people of the Andes andAltiplano.
After his return to Argentina, that year he embarked on his second major expedition to the territory ofPatagonia. He was taken prisoner by aTehuelche aboriginal tribe and condemned to death.[2] He escaped on March 11, one day before the appointed execution. During this period he met the Tehuelche chief,Inacayal, who was hospitable to him. Later Inacayal led a resistance to the government, not surrendering until 1884.
In 1882–1883 Moreno explored the Andes fromBolivia southward, and in 1884–1885 he made new explorations of the territory south of theRío Negro and of Patagonia. He was appointed as chief of the Argentine exploring commission of the southern territories, and member of numerous European scientific societies. For his contributions to science, Moreno received a doctorateHonoris causa from theNational University of Córdoba in 1877.
He is also known for his role in defending Argentine interests. He made defining surveys that led to theBoundary treaty of 1881 between Chile and Argentina. In honor to this contribution, the Argentinian glacierPerito Moreno, was named after him. These surveys and others yielded Moreno a vast collection of archaeological and anthropological data and artifacts, for which he founded an anthropological museum in Buenos Aires in 1877.[2]
In 1888, he founded theLa Plata Museum of Natural History, the most important of its kind in South America. The scholar Jens Andermann has studied how Moreno's collection of artifacts at these two museums helped establish Argentine history, and the government's claim to its territory.[3] Through these scientific and cultural collections, Moreno contributed to thenational mythology.[4] He brought artifacts and materials in from remote regions to be examined, catalogued and studies at the museum in the capital. Andermann has written that such museums of natural history and anthropology "enabled and justified state control of both the natural resources andindigenous populations of Argentina."[3] They also helped develop the national narratives being shaped. Moreno served as the first Director of Museo de la Plata, guiding it until 1906.
As director of La Plata Museum of Natural History, Moreno sackedFlorentino Ameghino in 1888, even denying him entry to the museum.[5]
In 1902 Moreno was appointedPerito (a technical specialist or expert), in which capacity he disproved Chilean claims to thecontinental divide in the Southern Cone. Moreno proved that manyPatagonian lakes draining to thePacific Ocean were part of theAtlantic Ocean basin. During thequaternaryglaciations, they had becomedammed by moraines, which changed their outlets to drain to the west and Chilean territory.[citation needed]
In 1903, Moreno donated some of the land previously given to him in order to establish theNahuel Huapi National Park. In a letter dated 3 November 1903 to the Minister of Agriculture Wenceslao Escalante, Moreno justified his donation, among other things, by comparing it with the establishment of national parks in the USA.[6] He was appointed assistant director of the National Education Council in 1911 and helped secure funding for theBernasconi Institute, a landmark primary school built in Buenos Aires. It was constructed on land Moreno sold to Swiss Argentine industrialist Félix Bernasconi. Its archaeological and natural history museums were created in part with his extensive collections of artifacts.
He established theScouting and Guiding in Argentina, theArgentine Boy Scouts Association in 1912, and joined former U.S. PresidentTheodore Roosevelt in a tour of Patagonia. He continued to oversee theLa Plata Museum well after his official retirement.
In later years Moreno responded to political developments in South America at the time ofWorld War I by joining the reactionaryArgentine Patriotic League shortly before his death in 1919. Moreno was first interred in aLa Recoleta Cemetery crypt. In 1944 his remains were transferred and reinterred at Centinela Isle inLake Nahuel Huapi.
A species of Argentinian lizard,Liolaemus morenoi, is named in his honor.[7]
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