J
José Hernández
writer
- Born:
- 1834-11-10, Perdriel, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Died:
- 1886-10-21, Belgrano, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Professions:
- writer
Biography
On 10 November 1834, in the dusty outpost of Perdriel outside Buenos Aires, José Hernández drew his first breath—one that would later fuel the lungs of Argentine letters. A pen became his lasso, and with it he conjured La vuelta de Martín Fierro (1879), the sequel that turned a wandering gaucho into the nation’s secular scripture. Earlier verses had already galloped through the pampas in Nobleza gaucha (1872), while posthumous pages kept the legend spurred in Los hijos de Fierro (1880). When his own final sunset came on 21 October 1886 in the leafy barrio of Belgrano, the city that once listened to his stories closed the book on the man, but not on the voice that still rides across every line of Argentina’s epic.
