María Sáez de Vernet

María Sáez Pérez de Vernet (19 November 1800 – 20 October 1858) was the wife of Luis Vernet. She wrote a personal diary during her residence in Port Louis, Falkland Islands, which was preserved together with other documents and letters in the Argentine National Archive when her husband's papers were donated to the Argentine National Archive.

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Sáez and the second or maternal family name is Pérez.
María Sáez de Vernet
Born
María Sáez Pérez

(1800-11-19)19 November 1800
Montevideo, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata
Died20 October 1858(1858-10-20) (aged 57)
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Resting placeLa Recoleta Cemetery
NationalityArgentine
Notable workDiario de 1829 en Malvinas
Spouse
​
(m. 1819)​
Children7

Biography

Sáez was born in Montevideo, which at the time was part of the Spanish Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. She was the daughter of Francisco Sáez, a wealthy businessman, and Josefa Pérez.[1] On 17 August 1819, she married Luis Vernet, whom she had met when he set up a commercial enterprise with Conrad Rücker. They had seven children.[1]

While living in Puerto Luis on the Falkland Islands Sáez kept a personal diary, which was preserved amongst the archive of her husband's papers donated to the Argentine National Archive.[2] She was accomplished at playing the piano; travelers and personalities who passed through the colony, referred to the "refinement" and cultural level of the Vernets. On several evenings she played the piano and sang.[3] Robert Greenhow wrote that Sáez "played Rossini's music with great gusto."[4]

Sáez died in Buenos Aires in 1858. The vault of the Vernet family is at La Recoleta Cemetery, Buenos Aires.[5]

Modern response

The diary was referenced by the Argentine revisionist author Antonio Montarcé Lastra as part of his argument for Argentina's claim for sovereignty of the Falkland Islands.[1][6] Sáez was also used as the basis of the principal character in two historical romance novels.[7][8] Ernesto Cilley Hernández, Sáez's great-grandson, published the diary in bilingual Spanish-English form in 1989.[9]

In 2012, the National Library of the Argentine Republic held a research scholarship contest named for Sáez in relation to Argentina's claim over the Falkland Islands.[10] As part of International Women's Day 2015, the Museo Malvinas e Islas del Atlántico Sur of Buenos Aires presented the exhibition Malvinas, mi casa, which included a series of watercolors reflecting life in the Falklands in 1829, based on Sáez's diary and lectures by her descendants on Argentina's claim to the Falklands.[11]

References
  1. Montarcé Lastra, Antonio (1946). Redención de la soberanía: Las Malvinas y el diario de doña María Sáez de Vernet [Redemption of Sovereignty: The Falklands and the Diary of Mrs. María Sáez de Vernet] (in Spanish). Padilla y Contreras. p. 29. OCLC 1418148. Retrieved 2 August 2018 – via Google Books.
  2. "DISCURSO MARCELO LUIS VERNET". Retrieved 5 August 2018. "En las páginas del diario de María, las cartas, papeles oficiales y contratas de trabajo, que hoy conservamos en el Archivo General de La Nación, aún late la vida de todos los días del Puerto de la Soledad de Malvinas."
  3. Suárez Urtubey, Pola (22 September 2011). "Un piano en las Malvinas de 1829" [A Piano in the Falklands in 1829]. La Nación (in Spanish). Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  4. Gregorio Quesada, Vicente (1881). La cuestion de límites con Chile [The Question of Borders with Chile] (in Spanish). Impr. y librería de Mayo, de C. Casavalle. p. 56. Retrieved 2 August 2018 – via Google Books.
  5. "BIENES DECLARADOS - CIUDAD AUTÓNOMA DE BUENOS AIRES" (PDF). Ministerio de Cultura. Retrieved 5 August 2018.
  6. Peña, Manuel Pedro; Peña, Juan Ángel (2017). Falklands or Malvinas: Myths & facts. Pentian. pp. xc–xci. ISBN 9781524301279.
  7. Menton, Seymour (2010). Latin America's New Historical Novel. University of Texas Press. p. 9. ISBN 9780292786271.
  8. Marcaletti, Romina Mariana (2013). "The "Malvinas question" and its symbols: experience, memory and subjectivity". Malvinas in the University: 2012 Essay Contest (PDF). Buenos Aires: Ministry of Education. pp. 64–88.
  9. Guglielmino, Osvaldo (11 November 1998). "Historia de los kelpers argentinos" [History of the Argentine Kelpers]. Clarín (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  10. "Beca de investigación 'María Sáez de Vernet'" ['María Sáez de Vernet' Research Scholarship] (in Spanish). National Library of the Argentine Republic. Archived from the original on 23 September 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  11. "Día de la Mujer en el Museo Malvinas" [Women's Day at the Falklands Museum] (in Spanish). Falklands and South Atlantic Islands Museum. Archived from the original on 8 March 2015. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
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