Martín del Barco Centenera

Born in 1535 in Extremadura, Martín del Barco Centenera was a Spanish cleric who joined Juan Ortiz de Zárate’s expedition to the Río de la Plata in 1572 as chaplain. He spent many years moving through South America and was later associated with the church in Paraguay, experiences that gave him firsthand knowledge of the turbulent early colonial world.

He is best remembered for La Argentina, published in 1602. The poem offers a wide-ranging account of the conquest and settlement of the Río de la Plata region, along with events connected to Peru, Tucumán, and Brazil. Because it draws on what he saw and lived through, the work is valued both as literature and as a historical source.

Centenera died around 1602. Today he is remembered as an unusual figure in early Spanish American writing: a religious man who also served as a chronicler of exploration, conflict, and daily life on the colonial frontier.