Everything about Juan Bautista Alberdi totally explained
Juan Bautista Alberdi (
29 August 1810 –
19 June 1884) was an Argentine
political theorist and
diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in
exile in
Montevideo and
Chile, he was one of the most influential Argentine liberals of his age.
Alberdi studied law in
Buenos Aires. He fled from Argentina in fear of his powerful opponent, the
caudillo Juan Manuel de Rosas. This didn't prevent him from writing many books opposing Rosas. After Rosas was
overthrown in
1852, Alberdi decided not to return to Argentina but instead to remain in Chile.
When it was decided to write a
constitution for Argentina, Alberdi sent copies of a paper he'd written, entitled "Bases and Starting Points for the Political Organization of the Argentine Republic", to the Constitutional Assembly delegates. Many of the suggestions contained in it were incorporated into the
Argentine Constitution of
1853. He later became an Argentine diplomat in Europe.
Juan Bautista Alberdi was born in
San Miguel de Tucumán,
province of
Tucumán,
Argentina, in the year of the
May Revolution, the beginning of Argentine emancipation from the motherland, Spain. His father, Salvador Alberdi, was a Spanish merchant; his mother, Josefa Aráoz y Balderrama, had been born into an Argentine family of Spanish descent. She died as a result of Juan Bautista's birth.
His family had supported the Argentine Revolution from the beginning. His father was close to Belgrano, an important revolutionary, who had a decisive influence on the life and work of Alberdi.
At a young age, Juan Bautista Alberdi moved to Buenos Aires. There he studied in the "Colegio de Ciencias Morales" (roughly, a secondary school for study of social sciences). Nevertheless, in 1824 he abandoned his studies prematurely, due to his love of music.
He soon resumed his studies, getting prepared in Buenos Aires to be a lawyer. Alberdi continued those studies in Córdoba and in 1840 finished them in Montevideo. During this process, his ability to teach himself stands out, besides his formal studies.
Owing to Alberdi's participation in the so-called "Generation of '37", a group of young and liberal intellectuals heavily influenced by the
Enlightenment and liberal thought traditions in which also stood out other argentinian thinkers such as
Esteban Echeverría and
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, and his refusal to swear allegiance to the Federal regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas, Alberdi in 1838 began a voluntary exile: first, in Montevideo; then, in Europe and, afterwards, in Chile. He returned to Argentina after the victory of
Justo José de Urquiza over the Federal forces in the decisive
battle of Caseros in 1852.
Under the new regime, Alberdi assumed diplomatic duties in Europe. These were interrupted since the re-organization of the Argentine Republic in 1862. He again established himself in Argentina in 1878, but a strong disagreement with Bartolomé Mitre pushed Alberdi to leave for France, where, at the age of seventy-three, he died on
July 19,
1884, in a suburb of
Paris. His body was returned to Argentina and was interred in
La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Bibliography and sources
Alberdi's work
This is a partial list of Alberdi's writings. See also at
Wikisource .
Books about Alberdi
Alberdi y su tiempo, Jorge M. Mayer, Buenos Aires, Eudeba, 1963.
Historia Argentina, José Luis Busaniche, Buenos Aires, Solar-Hachette, 1973.
Historia de la Argentina, John Lynch et al, Buenos Aires, Crítica, 2002.
Las ideas políticas en la Argentina, José Luis Romero, Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1975.
Vida de un Ausente, José Ignacio Garcia Hamilton, Buenos Aires, Editorial Sudamericana, 1993.
Other sources
Juan Bautista Alberdi Award (HACER)
Photo Album of Alberdi's grave at La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires
This article is in part a translation from in the .
Juan Bautista Alberdi Quotes (Spanish)Further Information
Get more info on 'Juan Bautista Alberdi'.
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