The stick, or just a stick, was the first weapon of the
man. Thus, remember that the weapon is the hand that holds it, and the
so-called "weapon" is just the tool.
The cane as an
instrument of self-defense existed in many cultures, the Basques, for instance,
used the makila, a cane that they learned to handle with precision, and due to
that, Napoleon Bonaparte, created a platoon of Basques with makilas. In
Argentina, the Basques acted as security guards in some pulperías (which were
small groceries or stores in the Argentinean countryside) to calm down the
troublemakers.
In Europe, the
father of the cane combat was the
Frenchman Pierre Vignny, who also taught the techniques to Edward William
Barton-Wright, the creator of Bartitsu, known as "the fighting arts of
Sherlock Holmes."
The Irish also
developed a cane fighting method called batareaicht, fought it with the
shillelagh, a very hard cane, a baton, and combined it with a fighting style
called Gleacaíocht, where fists, sticks and legs were combined.
As we see,
fighting with clubs is a worldwide art, thus..., in South America we also had
our own, a totally native discipline of fencing, and this story begun around 1900,
in Buenos Aires City and its surroundings.
The tango was a
music that was heard in the bars and bordellos of the slums, a music of the
lower and working class, who spent their daily wage, after work, with women and
so on, as time went by, tango became their chosen rhythm, while “the upper
class young man”, he also wanted to go to know it in those cafés, tango was
becoming fashionable...
What do you
think would happen if ... in such a place? in a bordello, for instance, in the
slums, it could have been in Isla Maciel, Dock Sud, or Boedo; where could be
found dock workers, slaughter house workers, laborers, and others, who spent
their time there before coming home, to find some warm company there ... and
what could have happened, if they saw an upper class young man coming in there,
in his expensive suit, putties and bow tie?..., well, nothing could have ended
up well for him, let’s remember that it was the time of tough guys, bullies and
braggarts, who always carried a knife, and if you did not have one, there will always
be someone willing to give you one.
I addition, at
that time, lunfardo, (the Argentinian slang, which developed with terms from
everywhere, brought by the European immigrants), was consolidated , and the term "patota (gang)" was created by the upper-class young people
who went to the brothels located in marginal places, where they could not
individually survive a fight with men from the slums ( experienced knife
fighters), because of that they attended
these clubs in a group, that is, in a gang (patota). In addition to cane
fighting, fencing and boxing, the French Savate also entered, but the latter
discipline was unsuccessful and ceased to be practiced among high society
groups.
Finally, these
young men acceded to pistols and revolvers of American and European origin that
they carried and used indiscriminately.
Among the
Buenos Aires elite, the young Jorge Newbery, an exceptional athlete, by the way,
along with Delcasse, a fencer, and Arturo Bonafont, who we will speak about
later, were the pioneers in the development of self-defense classes for the
inhabitants of Buenos Aires, and it is from there on when the spreading of
teaching boxing starts, and that is when Arturo Bonafont, on his behalf, starts
to teach fencing stick in an important institution called GEBA (Club Gimnasia y
Esgrima de Buenos Aires/Buenos Aires Gymnastics and Fencing Club), looking for
a synchronism, let’s say that this is like today’s boom of self-defense, why? We
all know why.
Now talking
about the cane system of Arthur Bonafont, it was born as a need of the
gentlemen to defend themselves. The cane, the weapon and symbol of the
gentleman, and even the oldest one, is the one chosen for fighting. This system
developed by him is totally local, at the same time in Europe, the father of
the cane fighting, the Frenchman Pierre Vignny, teaches its use to Edward
William Barton-Wright, his system, la Canne Vigny, shows us, that everywhere in
each continent happened the same, from
different origins, the cane was born as the gentleman's weapon.
On its side, Bonafont
system is wonderful for self-defense, true, fast, simple, powerful, it’s not
stick-fighting, that is one of the wonders that Bonafont noticed, you do not
have to be involved in a fight, you have to finish it, among its peculiar
characteristics, for example, the grip is inverted, which reduces the distance,
but it makes it faster, unpredictable and strong, the positions are simple, and
natural, the displacements, reduced, with a technique in which you could face
one or more opponents, in open and closed spaces.
It was during
the 1930's when he left his fighting system documented, his discipline embodied
in a combat treaty, in a book titled "Method of Defending oneself with a
cane in the Street", by vicissitudes of life, it was impossible for him to
write a second part.
Arturo, a man
skilled in combat, said about this system, "A solid cane of those that are simply adopted to serve as support, to
the most peaceful man, is a tool that handled by a skilled person in that art,
can easily become a highly effective weapon for self-defense. "What a
clear vision he had”.
With these
words he defined the arrival of a combat "When the time to defend
ourselves undoubtedly has come. We must observe instantly the position,
attitude, gesture or aggressive movement of the adversary, to apply our attack,
arresting or counterattacking his own in the act of its very initiation. Seeing
and executing everything with the speed of a lightning bolt has to be all at
once "without any doubt he was a spectacular fighter.
Currently the Bonafont system of fencing cane is still
alive, you only have to find who teaches you.
Those of us who
have fought with a stick, stick-fighting, or any system with a stick, we know
that the premise is not to lose the weapon, well, that is basic, and Don Arturo,
said this "the blow with the cane has to cross over, has to be given with
attitude, to avoid the grasp by your opponent "this only can be said by
that who had fought, a real master of fighting...
Currently this
system is being disseminated by Maestro Eduardo Festorazzi and Maestro Jorge
Prina, of the Argentinian Fencing Association, with extensive research and
training, confirming that the legacy of Arturo Bonafont is still alive.
