Diario La Nación
- A KIND GESTURE BY THE ARGENTINE PLAYERS
- THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOLIVIAN DELEGATION SPEAKS TO “LA NACION”
- A DISTINGUISHED LEADER OF THE ARGENTINE DELEGATION VISITS US
Santiago's La Nación, printed as the South American Championship was about to begin, gave its sports coverage to the foreign delegations arriving in Chile. It announced that the Argentine players would lay a wreath at the O'Higgins monument, with half-back Segundo Médici speaking for them. A special correspondent boarded the Bolivian team's steamer and interviewed delegation president Luis Castell Quiroga. He said his side hoped to be a bond between Chilean and Bolivian sportsmen and called it an honour to make their Copa América debut in Chile. He also said he would ask not to be scheduled for the opening match after more than six days of travel. A profile introduced the Argentine delegate José León Rodeyro, a former national deputy who had led his country's delegation to the 1924 labour conference in Geneva, and reported his visit to the paper's offices.
This edition translates three selected articles from the page. The Bolivian interview starts with a cut-off headline and stops mid-word at the edge of the selected area. One word in it is partly illegible but readable from context as 'saludo' (greeting). The page prints the Argentine half-back's first name as 'Segungundo', given here as Segundo. Text at the binding edge and along the right-hand edges of some image sections is cut off and is not translated. The commentary leaves out José León Rodeyro's career and how the South American Football Congress set the match schedule, because none of the fetched sources covers either topic.
Translation
A KIND GESTURE BY THE ARGENTINE PLAYERS
At 10 o'clock this morning, the Argentine players will gather to lay a wreath of flowers at the O'Higgins monument. Half-back Segundo Médici will speak at the ceremony on behalf of the players.
THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOLIVIAN DELEGATION SPEAKS TO “LA NACION”
As soon as the steamer dropped anchor, our Special Correspondent went aboard and presented the greetings of “La Nación” to the president of the delegation, Mr. Luis Castell Quiroga. Mr. Castell Quiroga said he was very grateful for our newspaper's courtesy, adding that he had heard the very best of it.
“I want ‘La Nación’,” he said, “to be the first newspaper to convey our most cordial greeting to Chile's sporting youth.”
“We come with no other aim than to serve as a bond of union between Chilean and Bolivian sportsmen.”
Continuing the conversation, Mr. Castell Quiroga said that they had come with every enthusiasm to fight, in good sportsmanship, for the Bolivian colours, and that he considered it an honour that Chile should be the country where they would play for the first time in matches for the classic Copa América.
Asked when they would play their first match, the president of the Bolivian delegation said that on arriving in Santiago he would ask that they not be scheduled for the opening match, since they were tired after more than six days of travel and having had to endure the change in temperature.
“The team I lead,” he added, “comes in the best of training condition, and we have confidence in our preparation. We do not, however, presume to be bett—
A DISTINGUISHED LEADER OF THE ARGENTINE DELEGATION VISITS US
Among the members of the Argentine Association's delegation is Dr. José León Rodeyro, one of the leading figures representing the sister nation in the current championship.
Mr. Rodeyro is also a political and social personality in his own country. He has been Minister of Government and president of the Electoral Board of the province of Mendoza, federal secretary of the province of La Rioja, and national deputy for the federal capital in the 1920-1924 term. As secretary of the Legislation Committee, he was the author and rapporteur of the laws on the repression of alkaloids and on rents.
In 1924 he left the Chamber of Deputies to head his country's delegation to the Sixth Labour Conference in Geneva, where it fell to him to defend the Argentine thesis of “Reciprocity in workplace accidents.”
He currently holds the important post of legal adviser to the National Sanitation Works; he holds a university chair, and as a lecturer he has shown particular expertise in social questions.
He visited our country in 1920 and took part in the celebrations for the transfer of office to President Alessandri. Linked by ties of blood to distinguished families of Viña del Mar society, he feels a special fondness for our country.
Yesterday afternoon we had the pleasure of receiving a visit from Mr. Rodeyro, who spent a few minutes with the Director and Sub-Director, Messrs. Carlos Dávila and Arturo Meza Olva, respectively.
Context
How Bolivia's first South American Championship turned out
The tournament Castell Quiroga's team had travelled to join ran from 12 October to 3 November 1926 and was contested by Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay; Brazil withdrew before the start, so only five of the six CONMEBOL members took part. Every match was played at the Estadio Sport de Ñuñoa in Santiago. The delegation president's wish to avoid the opening fixture, voiced in this interview, was not met: the competition began on 12 October, four days after this page was printed, with hosts Chile beating Bolivia 7–1, David Arellano scoring four. Bolivia then lost 5–0 to Argentina four days later, 6–1 to Paraguay on 23 October and 6–0 to Uruguay on 28 October, when Héctor Scarone scored five times. The confidence in preparation that Castell Quiroga expressed to La Nación, together with his disclaimer of any claim to superiority, preceded a debut in which Bolivia lost all four of its matches.
The Argentine squad that laid the wreath
The Argentine players whose ceremony at the O'Higgins monument the paper announced arrived as title holders: Argentina had won the 1925 edition after drawing with Brazil in the final match of that competition. The speaker named by La Nación, the half-back 'Segundo Médici', matches the only player of that surname in the published 1926 squad list, the Boca Juniors defender Ángel Médici, born in 1897 and already capped 22 times. On the field the holders did not retain the title. Argentina beat Bolivia 5–0 but lost 2–0 to Uruguay, a result that pulled Uruguay level at the top of the table, and later drew 1–1 with Chile. Uruguay clinched the championship on 1 November with a fourth win in four matches, Héctor Castro scoring four goals.
Why a Bolivian team's visit to Chile carried political weight
Castell Quiroga's wish to serve as 'a bond of union' between Chilean and Bolivian sportsmen was spoken against a long territorial dispute. At independence Bolivia had a coastline of more than 400 km on the Pacific, and in the War of the Pacific Chile occupied that coastal territory. The Treaty of Peace and Friendship, signed in Santiago on 20 October 1904, formally ended the war between the two countries. Under it Chile granted Bolivia in perpetuity the freest right of commercial transit through its territory and Pacific ports, and the treaty provided for a railway from the port of Arica to the La Paz plateau, inaugurated on 13 May 1913. Bolivia kept pressing the question. From November 1920 it sought revision of the 1904 treaty through the League of Nations, and it also negotiated directly with Chile to obtain sovereign access to the Pacific. The Bolivian delegation that landed in October 1926 was therefore the guest of a country with which its government still had an open dispute over access to the sea.
The Tacna–Arica question in the weeks after the visit
In 1926 Bolivia's search for the sea was tied to the separate Chile–Peru dispute over the provinces of Tacna and Arica. In 1925 President Calvin Coolidge, as arbitrator, set the terms of the plebiscite over the two provinces. On 30 November 1926, less than two months after this page appeared, US Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg submitted a proposal to Chile and Peru under which both would cede to Bolivia, in perpetuity, all their rights in Tacna and Arica. Chile's foreign minister replied that the proposal went much farther than the concessions the Chilean government was willing to make. The Bolivian delegate's cordial words to a Santiago newspaper thus appeared less than two months before Bolivia's access to the Pacific returned to the centre of inter-American diplomacy.
Original
UN SIMPATICO GESTO DE LOS JUGADORES ARGENTINOS
UN SIMPATICO GESTO DE LOS JUGADORES ARGENTINOS A las 10 de la mañana de hoy, los jugadores argentinos se reunirán para depositar una corona de flores en el monumento de O'Higgins. A nombre de los jugadores hará uso de la palabra en este acto el medio zaguero Segungundo Médici.
EL PRESIDENTE DE LA DELEGACION BOLIVIANA HABLA PARA “LA NACION”
RESIDENTE DE LA DELEGACION BOLIVIANA HABLA PARA " LA NACION " Tan pronto fondeó el vapor, nuestro Enviado Especial subió a bordo presentando al presidente de la delegación, señor Luis Castell Quiroga, el saludo de " La Nación ". El señor Castell Quiroga se manifestó muy agradecido de la deferencia de nuestro diario, del que manifestó tenía las mejores referencias. - " Quiero que sea " La Nación " - dijo-el primer diario que presente nuestro más cordial sal [?] do a la juventud deportista chilena. " " No traemos otra pretensión que la de servir como un lazo de unión entre los deportistas chilenos y bolivianos ". Y siguiendo en su conversación, el señor Castell Quiroga manifestó que venían con todo entusiasmo a luchar, en buen deporte, por los colores bolivianos y que consideraba un honor el que fuera Chile el país donde ellos jugarían por primera vez, en lances por la clásica Copa América. Interrogado sobre la fecha en que jugarían la primera partida, el presidente de la delegación boliviana dijo que a su llegada a Santiago solicitaría que no se les fijara el primer encuentro por cuanto vienen cansados después de más de seis días de viaje y de haber tenido que soportar la diferencia de temperatura. - " El team que presido-agregó-viene en las mejores condiciones de entrenamiento y tenemos confianza en nuestra preparación. No tenemos, sin embargo, la pretensión de ser mejo -
UN DISTINGUIDO JEFE DE LA DELEGACION ARGENTINA NOS VISITA
UN DISTINGUIDO JEFE DE LA DELEGACION ARGENTINA NOS VISITA Integra la delegación de la Asociación Argentina el doctor José León Rodeyro, una de las primeras figuras de la representación del país hermano en el actual certamen. El señor Rodeyro es además una personalidad política y social en su país. Ha sido Ministro Local de Gobierno y presidente de la Junta Electoral de la provincia de Mendoza, secretario federal de la provincia de La Rioja, diputado nacional por la capital federal en el período 1920-1924. Como secretario de la Comisión de Legislación, fué autor e informante de las leyes sobre represión de los alcaloides y sobre alquileres. En 1924 abandonó la diputación para presidir la delegación de su patria a la VI Conferencia del Trabajo en Ginebra, donde le tocó defender la tesis argentina de " Reciprocidad de los accidentes del trabajo ". Actualmente ocupa el importante cargo de asesor legal de las obras sanitarias de la nación; profesa una cátedra universitaria y como conferencista ha demostrado una especial preparación en temas sociales. Visitó nuestro país en 1920 y tuvo participación en los festejos de la transmisión del mando del Presidente Alessandri. Vinculado por lazos de sangre a distinguidas familias de la sociedad viñamarina, siente por nuestro país especial predilección. En la tarde de ayer tuvimos la satisfacción de recibir la visita del señor Rodeyro, quien compartió algunos minutos con el Director y Sub-Director, señores Carlos Dávila y Arturo Meza Olva, respectivamente.
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