SOURCE: Holmes, Henry Alfred. “Introduction to Martín Fierro: The Argentine Gaucho Epic by José Hernández.” In Martín Fierro: The Argentine Gaucho Epic by José Hernández, translated with an introduction by Henry Alfred Holmes, pp. XVIII-XXXVI. New York: Hispanic Institute in the United States, 1948.

In the following introduction to his translation of Hernández's Martín Fierro, Holmes summarizes the narrative poem and concludes that Hernández attempted to link the gaucho to three different states: the lands, the heavens and his fellow man.

The Gaucho

His origin is as striking as everything else about him. In the sixteenth century the Spanish colonizers of the Buenos Aires litoral headed westward and southward over vast plains whose only inhabitants were scattered Indians. The white man's sword and steed slaughtered such red men as did not run away. His passion made concubines of their wives and daughters...