author
Vicente Fidel López
1815–1903
A major voice in 19th-century Argentina, this historian, lawyer, and politician helped shape how the nation understood its own past. His life moved through exile, public service, and years of ambitious historical writing.
1 Audiobook
Argentina, Legend and History
by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Carlos O. (Carlos Octavio) Bunge, Luis María Drago, Juana Manuela Gorriti, Pedro Goyena, Juan María Gutiérrez, Pedro Lacasa, Lucio Vicente López, Vicente Fidel López, Vicente López y Planes, Bartolomé Mitre, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Marcos Sastre
About the author
Born in Buenos Aires on April 24, 1815, Vicente Fidel López was the son of Vicente López y Planes, the writer of the Argentine national anthem. He studied law, became part of the Generation of 1837, and joined the circle of young intellectuals who opposed the rule of Juan Manuel de Rosas.
That opposition pushed him into exile in Chile, where he worked as a journalist, educator, and writer and became connected with the educational efforts of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. After returning to Argentina in the early 1850s, he built a public career that included work as a lawyer, university leader, legislator, and government minister.
López is remembered above all for his historical writing. His books on Argentina's past made him one of the country's best-known historians of the 19th century, even as later scholars debated some of his methods and interpretations. He died in Buenos Aires on August 30, 1903.