Students of Spanish! :
Sitio Gaucho Forum
Its author, José Hernández was born in 1834, in the estates of his mother´s patrician relatives, the Pueyrredón family. He lived his first years in a farm of the family not far from Buenos Aires, in this same place, some years before, his grand uncle Juan Martín de Pueyrredón with his gauchos had fighted with General Bedford during the English Invasions. Juan Martín de Pueyrredón was also "Supreme Director" of the so called Provincias Unidas and as such, he had the task of footing the bills for San Martín´s campaign across the Andes. An uncle of J. Hernández, Colonnel Manuel Alejandro Pueyrredón was in fact a legendary hero during this campaign.
José Hernández participated in some battles of the civil war between the provinces, war that divided sourly the family, which had members on both sides. He was jailed because of his articles as journalist, and his freedom was hardly obtained by his independence war hero uncle. He was exiled and past hard times because of his political opinions.
During his life he had spent many years between the gauchos at big and distant family farms (estancias) and in battle. Angry with the situation being suffered by gauchos because of the Government´s policies he started writing his verses "to save the gaucho." His work Martín Fierro is the most famous of the gaucho literature, a genre that flourished at the end of XIX century.
Martín Fierro has some popular success when published but was ignored by literary circles, twenty five years later Leopoldo Lugones, a very recognized writer, impressed with M. Fierro made a cicle of conferences about it, astonishing literary people and putting the book in the place it deserved.