Freemasons in Argentina
Since people from any religion could become a Freemason as long as they believed in one God as the higher entity, you can imagine the Catholic Church did not like this part one bit.
Pope Clement XII accused the Masons of heresy and many Freemasons were persecuted after that. This is the main reason the Masons began to act in secrecy and their members started using coded words and symbols to recognize each other without it being too obvious.
This is what makes documenting the existence of the first lodges based on concrete evidence a bit challenging.
Freemasonry in Argentina
The Masonic brotherhood in Buenos Aires dates back to the end of the 18th century, thanks to the dissemination of the lodges in the region by travelers, merchants, soldiers, and intellectuals from England and Spain, France and Portugal.
From that moment on, the first known lodge in Argentine territory was the Logia Independencia (Independence Lodge), with authorization granted in 1795 by the Scottish General Grand Lodge of France.
José de San Martín, the liberator of most countries in the Southern Cone, was the creator of the Lautaro Lodge.
With the approval of the Act of Independence, San Martín demanded that the congressmen had to swear by the two objectives of the Lodge: Independence and republic, to make it clear that the nascent country had a precise direction. It would set the tone for many future politicians and influential people in Argentina.
Fue el General Don José de San Martín un masón? - El Teólogo Responde - IVE-
San Martin was a Freemason
Although there are a dozen lodges that operated during the colonial era and the start of the Republic, on December 11, 1857, the Grand Lodge of Argentina was created. Its first headquarters were located at the place where the Banco Nación building can be found today, in front of Plaza de Mayo. At that time this was the location of the first Teatro Colón, before it moved to the Avenida 9 de Julio.
Mid-19th century there was a total of seven Masonic lodges in the country, with more lodges being created over time.
The main lodge in Argentina is located on Perón 1242 in Buenos Aires, called the Gran Logia de la Argentina de Libres y Aceptados Masones:
La masonería argentina, repleta de jóvenes | La Nación – Gran Logia de la Argentina
As you can see by the title on the front of the main lodge in Argentina, this is not exactly a “secret society” — you can visit the website here.
In the 19th century, when the country was being formed, Freemasonry participated in all the processes: in Independence, emancipation, the Constitution, and in the union of the country.
In 1884, President Julio Argentino Roca, promulgated the law 1420 of common, secular, free and compulsory education, which is an event celebrated each year by Freemasonry in Argentina. Domingo Sarmiento, a 33rd degree Mason and President before Roca, was the one who laid the basis for this law.
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