El Siambrettista

On October 24th 1954, a big number of passer-by people of Buenos Aires Autonomous City were privileged witnesses of a very peculiar event. It was a sunny Sunday morning when the president Juan Domingo Perón was leading a caravan of scooters that had never been seen in the Argentinian roads. This act was, in fact, the “presentation in society” of the emblematic Siambretta, according its evidenced in “Mundo Peronista” #57 magazine, released on November 1st 1954.

First sheet of the article	Second sheet of the article	Third sheet of the article

On that occasion, the president -riding on his particular bordeaux colored Siamlambretta 125 LD- leadered a caravan of 30 Siamlambrettas LD 125, donated by SIAM, driven by integrants of the Unión de Estudiantes Secundarios (UES) (an organization of High School Students close related to the government), in a roundtrip ride from the presidential house in Olivos City to Plaza de Mayo, in a way of introduce the Siambretta to the general public, a true exponent of the booming national industry of that time.

Leaving appart the diversity of feelings that generates the ex-president, it’s true that this type of events -with a high grade of personalism- were very characteristic of his administrations. It was expected, we believe, that SIAM wanted to use his figure for this particular presentation of its new vehicle, which was the result of the connections with the biggest foreign industrial referents of the time during his term of office.

For a long time, the date of October 24th was part of that group of “unprovable myths” that surrounds the Siambretta world all the time. But now, thanks to the investigation made by the tireless Camilo Marchessi for El Simbrettista, we can now confirm, with tangible evidence, that was presented on that date… and in that way.

That’s way, and having in mind that just a very few vehicles in history were presented to the public being driven by a head of state, we believe the October 24th is -and will be- a day to commemorate the “Siambretta Day”, and what better than celebrate it giving a little ride on out Siambretta, isn’t it?