Bunge (Carlos Octavio) is a very modern Argentine writer. Among his works may be mentioned: Nuestra América, Ensayo de Psicología Individual y Social, La Novela de la Sangre, La Poesía Popular Argentina, and Nuestra Patria, an anthology for use in the Argentine schools, containing, besides extracts from other Argentine authors, many episodes written by Bunge himself. Of him, Blasco Ibáñez, in his La Argentina y sus grandezas, says: “Carlos Octavio Bunge es el más fecundo de los escritores jóvenes. Tiene un talento proteico que se ejercita con facilidad en todos los géneros.... Ha escrito un cuento, La Sirena, de una originalidad sólo comparable a la de Poë, y que basta para la reputación de un autor.” Bunge died May 22, 1918.
Gorriti (Manuela), an Argentine writer of note, was born in Salta in 1819. She was married to General Manuel Isidro Belzú, one time president of Bolivia. Her life was full of misfortunes, but she never ceased to write. She displays in her writings unusual power of imagination. In 1865 her complete works appeared in Buenos Aires in two volumes, entitled Sueños y Realidades. In the later years of her life until 1874, the date of her death, she devoted herself to education, being directress of a college in Lima.
Sastre (Marcos), an Argentine educator and didactic author, was born in Montevideo in 1809. Among his more important works are Anagnosia, Guía del Preceptor, and specially, El Temple Argentino, a vivid and graphic description of the enchanting islands of the Paraná, their scenery, flora, and fauna.
Gutiérrez (Juan María) was born in Buenos Aires. He was a lawyer by profession, but is best known for his writings. Like Sarmiento, he fled to Chile to escape the tyranny of Rosas, and devoted himself to journalism, public education, and the publication of didactic works. In 1846 he was appointed director of the Naval Academy of Valparaíso, introducing during his term very important reforms. From 1845 to 1849 he edited a collection of poems by José Joaquín Olmedo, another collection, entitled América Poética, El Arauco Domado by Pedro de Ona, and textbooks such as El Lector Americano, La Vida de Franklin, Elementos de Geometría. He returned to Argentina in 1852, after Rosas’ defeat at the battle of Caseros, lending his efforts to the advancement of education, as he had done in Chile. He was appointed president of the University of Buenos Aires, and entirely revised its obsolete curriculum and faculty. In addition to being one of Argentina’s foremost educators, he has the distinction of being her first literary critic of note. Among his works on literary criticism may be mentioned the following: Artículos Críticos y Literarios (1860); Estudios Biográficos y Críticos sobre Algunos Poetas Sur Americanos Anteriores al Siglo XIX (1865); Apuntes Biográficos de Escritores, Oradores, y Hombres de Estado de la República Argentina. His style is characterized by correctness and precision. In 1873 he was made president emeritus of the University of Buenos Aires. He died the following year.
Lacasa (Pedro) was born in Buenos Aires in 1810. Early in life he gave up his studies to devote himself to agriculture. When the revolution of 1839 broke out, he took part in it, and rose to the rank of colonel. In 1865 he took part in the war against Paraguay. He died in Jujuy in 1869. His son, Pedro Lacasa, published in 1870 a volume containing his poems, a biography of General Lavalle, and one of General Miguel Soler.
Mitre (Bartolomé) was born in Buenos Aires in 1821. In 1838, when hardly seventeen years old, he became known as a soldier and poet by taking part in the siege of Montevideo as a captain, and by publishing a collection of poems. In the second siege of Montevideo he rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel. When the campaign in Uruguay was ended, he went first to Bolivia and then to Chile, where he was editor of El Mercurio. This was not his first experience in journalism, for he had already been the director of La Nueva Era and El Nacional in Montevideo, and La Época in Bolivia. His articles in El Mercurio were a bitter attack against the government, and he was forced to leave the country, living in Peru for a time. In 1852 he returned to Chile, but, hearing of the revolt against the tyrant Rosas, he hastened back to his native country, and took an active part in the battle of Caseros, being in command of the Uruguayan artillery. From that time dates the rise of his political power in Argentina. As we have seen, he was defeated at Cepeda (1859) in his fight against Urquiza, but in 1861, at Pavón, he led the force of Buenos Aire to victory, becoming president of Argentina from 1862 to 1868. The rapid strides Argentina has made in the last fifty years date from Mitre’s presidency. He encouraged the construction of railroads, the establishment of telegraphic communication throughout the republic, and the founding of schools. During the war against Paraguay (1865-1870), which rendered difficult the carrying out of Mitre’s beneficial plans to the fullest measure, he distinguished himself as the commander-in-chief of the allied armies, that is, those of Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. He was editor of La Nación, which shares with the famous La Prensa the distinction of being the leading newspaper of South America.
When we consider the political and military events in Mitre’s life, the quantity and quality of his literary work are really astonishing. We wonder where he found time to write his remarkable histories of San Martín and Belgrano (in nine octavo volumes), his various volumes of poems, his translations from Longfellow and Dante, and his extensive correspondence. As a poet and orator, he ranks among the first in Argentina; and, as an historian, he remains to this day the great fountain source to which all those who desire to know the history of Argentina must turn. He is perhaps the greatest man of letters Argentina has produced. As versatile as Sarmiento, though not so voluminous, he displays in general a juster appreciation of facts and a greater equipoise and a more even excellence in literary form.
Goyena (Pedro), an Argentine lawyer and publicist, was born in Buenos Aires in 1841. He was the editor of La Revista Argentina and professor of Roman law at the University of Buenos Aires. His style, both as writer and orator, is known for its purity and brilliancy.
Nelson (Ernesto) is a man well known in Argentina in educational circles. He was born in Buenos Aires in 1875 and was educated there. He has spent ten years in this country studying educational movements. He was recently Director General de Enseñanza Secundaria y Especial in Argentina. Among his publications are Recopilaciones de Correspondencia de la Nación, Hacia la Universidad Futura, and numerous articles. He represented his country at the St. Louis Exposition in 1904; took his doctor’s degree at Columbia University, after four years of residence; and was a member of the Argentine Commission at the Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco, in 1915, and a delegate to the Second Pan-American Scientific Congress in Washington in 1915-16. He has edited for use in this country a Spanish-American Reader, the first book of its kind, dealing, as it does, with all phases of South American life and customs.
López (Lucio V.), the son of Vicente Fidel López, is a contemporary Argentine political writer and critic. He was born in 1857, and was professor of political law in the University of Buenos Aires in 1890, when President Juárez Celmán was turned out of office. He was among the leaders of that movement. He enjoys a great reputation as a keen observer and writer on political events in Argentina.