Kolmaniatis
Plaque, Buenos Aires, Cesar Villamayor Revythis at left, and a professor from
the Naval History Museum, Argentina, in period costume
Quite
close to the Hydra Museum and its Merchant Marine Academy, there are a series
of commemorative plaques and statues. Waiting for the fast hydrofoil that would
take me once again away from Hydra, after an all-too-short sojourn, I chanced
on a plaque honoring a man from Hydra who gained fame as a naval hero in a war
for independence, not, in this case, for Greece, but rather for Argentina.
The
boat was coming, and the plaque only registered for a moment, as I took a last
look out on Hydra’s magnificent harbor, more or less the same scene as it was
in 1821 when the Greek War of Independence began, or 1810 when a young Hydriot
named Nicholas Kolmaniatis left the place in a hurry.
I
would not have thought much more about this until recently, when I have been
involved in the Greek War of Independence Bicentennial Celebrations of my
island, Hydra, and her role in the fight for freedom. In the ubiquitous online
café of Facebook, I noticed a fellow with a combination of Spanish and Greek
surnames commenting in Spanish, a fluent Spanish speaker myself, I responded,
and I began an online correspondence with Cesar Augusto Villamayor Revythis.
Kolmaniatis
Monument, Hydra – Photo by Spilios Spiliotis
