The gaucho Martín Fierro
The sixth canto
English versión of José Hernández’s poem —
José Hernández’s “El gaucho Martín Fierro” is a classic epic poem, divided into two parts, published in 1872 and 1879. It tells the story of Martín Fierro, a rural Argentine man, who is forced to flee his home and live as a fugitive due to a draft(forced recruitment for war) it describes the injustice and mistreatment of the gauchos by society and government, and also it celebrates their way of life and values. This poem is widely considered one of the most significant literary works in Argentina and is deeply ingrained in the country’s cultural heritage.
In this presentation, I will be providing a detailed explanation of the first part of the poem, referred to as “The departure of Martín Fierro.” The complete poem can be accessed through the following link:
The departure of Martín Fierro
When he deserts from the border, Fierro technically becomes a criminal.
Twas three long years since I’d left my home,
Three years of woe and care;
I was scarred with sorrow, want, and pain,
But ready to try my luck again,
And as the ‘peludo’ makes for its hole,
I headed for my lair.
Our character waits and hopes for a raid to happen so that he can escape in the disorder and confusion. But, he is faced with the organization of a large-scale and surprise punitive expedition against the Indians, with cannons, a large part of the army, and the presence of the War Minister: “a minister or whatever they called him, Don Ganza,” which derails his initial plans.
If in Canto III we have the opportunity to read the only precise geographical reference in which Fierro moved, now we know that the story takes place between 1868 and 1874, a period in which Martín José Mariano Dolores del Corazón de Jesús de Gainza was Minister of War and Navy during the presidency of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.
With his original plans foiled, Fierro takes advantage of another opportunity and, one night when he sees the “Chief and the Justice of the Peace” playing and drinking together, he doesn’t wait any longer and escapes.
One night when the Justice and the Chief
Were close in confabulation,
Passing a bottle to and fro,
I thought I’d risk a chance, and so —
On a horse I caught, like a trail of smoke,
I faded out from the station.
He knows now that he has reasons to avoid justice and that he will have to spend the rest of his days as a ruthless gaucho. Nevertheless, and perhaps running some risks, he decides to return to his village with the hope of seeing his wife and children again. The situation that Fierro finds himself in is desolate. There is no family, no home, no estate. He has lost everything, perhaps irrevocably, because of the forced recruitment he has been a victim of.
Only a few bare poles were left,
And the thatch and nothing more;
Christ knows it was a mournful sight,
It withered my heart up like a blight,
And there in the wreck of my ruined home,
To be revenged I swore.
Fierro, already aware that he was being pursued, decides to “be worse than a beast,” this is the “Breaking Bad” moment in the story, and this act of despair, with this unleashed resentment, will explain some of his immediate actions. On the other hand, the loss of his children will generate in us, his readers-spectators, the eventual expectation of a family reunion.
What happened to Fierro’s wife? This question, which focuses on that poor woman who barely reaches the status of a character, is the foundation of Gabriela Cabezón Cámara’s great novel.
This author will give voice to Fierro’s wife in the same way that José Hernández did with the gaucho, not only to conjecturally restore a fragment of history, but to tell the story of a woman who discovers herself, and with this, an ecstatic world of senses, shapes, and colors.
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