The Argentine epic, par excellence, is Martín Fierro, an epic poem in verse that narrates the misadventures of the gaucho Martín Fierro, who is nothing more than a reflection of rural life in Argentina in the mid-nineteenth century.
While the first part of the work shows the wonders of the Argentine countryside sung by a good man who has made them his life, after an unexpected event, we see the other side of the coin, making evident the corruption of the state systems that already from that time burdened Latin America with arbitrary decisions that made rich and powerful people richer and more powerful and plunged the rest into misery.
In the case of Martín, he was condemned to war, in a kind of forced recruitment. A war against the native Indians of the place, the true owners of the lands that those same people who condemned him coveted. The author of this book, José Hernández, although from a well-off family, was able to see in his story and perhaps because of that same affinity he felt towards country people, having grown up in a family estate, he was able to extract the essence of the problems that plagued Argentina and its triggers.
After experiencing the misfortunes of military life, which the author knew well, Martin decides to decree and with this begins a new life. This time no longer as a good man but as one of these gauchos who do whatever it takes to earn a living. At this point the work becomes more violent as it sings about the attempts of the government forces to capture the protagonist and how he opposes the pure style of the pampas.
The first part of the work ends with a certain contemplative air, of once again immersing oneself in the beauty of the landscape while fleeing from the maelstrom of modernity which, through the forces of what they call order, extends like a shadow over rurality as well, and from which Martin escapes towards those same lands for which he was forced to fight.