Martin Fierro’s Return: A Saga of Family, Loss, and Redemption
The Return of Martin Fierro
Hernández, José
I call attention to the silence
And silence to care,
I’m going this time
If memory helps me,
A show that to my story
He lacked the best.
Background
In the second part of The Return of Martin Fierro, the character “Martin Fierro” narrates a series of adventures on his journey. Through memories of his past (as recounted in the previous book), he eventually finds his career and lost children, learning that his wife has died. A new character, Picardy, sings to the audience in a distinctive style, sharing his life story. In this second book, children speak of sentences that each one of them happened to be “orphans.” After listening to the father’s advice to his children, the narrator ends his song and the story.
Characters
Main
Martin Fierro: The prototype of the gaucho, now a grown man. After a sometimes violent past, he repents of his fights and attitude, showing compassion for others. The work ends with advice to his children, the product of three years’ experience at the border, two as a gaucho outlaw, and five among the Indigenous people.
Secondary
- The Eldest Son of Martin Fierro: Narrates the difficult adventures he experienced after becoming orphaned and homeless, including several years unjustly imprisoned.
- The Second Son of Martin Fierro: Had better luck initially, being separated from his family but adopted by an aunt who cared for him until her death. His life changes when a tutor takes care of him, but he faces homelessness again after the tutor’s death.
- “Picardy”: A character who appears when Martin Fierro reunites with his children. He sings the story of his life, adding a “rogue” element to the narrative.
- “El Moreno”: A singer who engages in a round of songs and chats with Martin Fierro during the reunion feast. A colorful character.
Part One
Chapters I to V
Presentation of Martin Fierro as a gaucho countryman and singer. The qualities of a man are described. Martin Fierro summarizes the sad moments of his life: land abandonment, loss of family, and living on the run. Cruz and Martin are attacked by Indigenous people and are saved by a chief who makes them captives. Martin Fierro gives a detailed account of what he perceives as the temperament and lifestyle of the Indigenous people, portraying them as savage, lazy, abusive, and insensitive to women: NO LOVE HAVE A NAID / NI FOULBROOD KNOW IS TO LOVE; / NOT TO EXPECT / BRONZE THOSE TITS! / I knew them TO GET THERE AND SINCE Cale.
Part Two
Chapters VI to X
A smallpox epidemic spreads among the Indigenous people, reaching Cruz before they can flee. Martin Fierro suffers greatly and mourns the death of his friend. After burying Cruz, he hears the cry of a woman mourning her son, who was killed in front of her while living as a slave. After a struggle, Fierro kills the Indigenous captor and, grateful, the woman offers Martin her horse. They travel through the desert to the border, where they part ways.
Part Three
Chapters XI to XIX
Martin learns from an old friend that the judge who was chasing him has died and is advised that the government no longer seeks him. Happy, Martin attends a race between landowners and finds two of his children. They tell him their mother is dead and recount their experiences over the past ten years.
The eldest son tells of his adventures after being “orphaned” and wrongly accused of stealing, leading to his imprisonment. The second son recounts being abandoned, taken in by an aunt, then a tutor who died, leaving him homeless again, with his inheritance inaccessible until he turns thirty. The heartbroken widow is separated from him by the priest and the judge.
Part Four
Chapters XX to XXVIII
The celebration for the father and two sons continues. A new character, “Mischief,” arrives and tells his life story in a unique way, including being orphaned, taken in by aunts, and his adventures, particularly his interest in gambling and its consequences.
Part Five
Chapters XXIX to XXXIII
(From here, the author speaks.) Amidst the festivities, a white singer, “Brown,” challenges Martin Fierro to a guitar duel. Martin Fierro accepts, reminisces about his early days as a singer, and invites the audience to listen until dawn. He responds to the brunette, telling the story of his family, describing their cultural characteristics and the status of Black people. Both refer to Black and white, highlighting similarities and differences. They share wisdom, love of singing, knowledge of nature, and concepts of law and time. Cursing the darkness that killed his mother, Martin Fierro spends the night in the field with his children, watching the stars. The book ends with the advice of father and friend Martin Fierro to his children and Cruz, speaking of work, courage, women, song, and other lessons learned from experience: THESE THINGS And many media / MY SOLITUDE. / KNOW THAT NO falsehoods / OR ERROR IN THESE TIPS: / S OF THE MOUTH OF OLD / THE TRUTH OUT ANDE. Finally, the author bids farewell with a brief justification of his work.
- In this second part, the emphasis on singing by the characters reflects the popular wisdom that José Hernández wanted to highlight.
- What this brush paints / or time has to erase wrote José Hernández in the introduction to the second part of his poem. Hernandez died on October 21, 1886, leaving behind a work that endures as a worthy representative of gaucho literature, both Argentinian and universal.