MARTÍN FIERRO FOR STUDENTS · THE RETURN · 1879
Canto 19 Explained: The Younger Son's Love for a Widow and His Forced Recruitment
A source-linked English study guide alongside José Hernández’s original Spanish poem.
What happens in Canto 19?
After leaving Vizcacha's home, the younger son avoids the judge and lives independently but in poverty. He falls in love with a widow who rejects him. Seeking relief, he consults a diviner who sells him a sequence of bizarre remedies, none of which cures his feelings. A priest eventually tells him that the widow has promised not to remarry. The son says he gives up pursuing her and later hears that the priest advised the judge to expel him from the district. Soon afterward he is seized and sent to the frontier with a contingent.
Original verses: three passages worth studying
The following stanzas are taken directly from the repository's original-text corpus, without modernization. Explanations elsewhere on this page are interpretation, not translation.
Anduve a mi voluntá,como moro sin señor;ese jué el tiempo mejorque yo he pasado tal vez;de miedo de otro tutor,ni aporté por lo del Juez.
A la viuda, en cuanto pude,un trapo le manotié;busqué la ruda y al pie,puesto en cruz, hice mi rezo;pero, amigos, ni por esode mis males me curé.
Tal vez por ese consejoy sin que mas causa hubiera,ni que otro motivo diera,me agarraron redepentey en el primer contingenteme echaron a la frontera.
Main characters and voices
Martín Fierro's younger son; a widow he wishes to marry; a paid diviner or folk healer; a priest; a judge described in a report from a friend.
Literary themes to identify
Unrequited love and consent; quack remedies; credulity and exploitation; institutional power; forced frontier service; inheritance left unresolved.
Gaucho vocabulary in context
viuda (widow); adivino (diviner); ruda (rue plant); contingente (group drafted for service); pago or partido (home district); rodeo (herd of cattle).
What to notice in the narration
The remedies are presented satirically and fail to change the widow's wishes. Her refusal must be respected rather than framed as an illness to be cured. The suggestion that a priest influenced the judge reaches the narrator through a friend, so the guide separates the report from confirmed causation. The boy's possible inheritance remains an open question.
Reading-comprehension and discussion questions
- What does the son hope to achieve by consulting the diviner?
- Which remedies does he try, and do they work?
- What reason does the priest report for the widow's refusal to marry?
- What information about the judge comes from the young man's friend rather than direct observation?
- How does the canto return to the unresolved property left by his aunt?
Support answers with details from the original canto. Different interpretations may be justified if the quoted passages and narrative context support them.
Sources and further reading
Primary source: José Hernández, La vuelta de Martín Fierro (1879), Canto 19, reproduced from the site's structured Spanish corpus. Summary and questions are original English educational commentary, not quoted authorial explanations.
Original canto · Summary of both parts · Character guide · All study guides