MARTÍN FIERRO FOR STUDENTS · THE RETURN · 1879
Canto 2 Explained: Fierro and Cruz Arrive Among Indigenous Communities
A source-linked English study guide alongside José Hernández’s original Spanish poem.
What happens in Canto 2?
Fierro recalls the sorrow of leaving his home and family, then tells how he and Cruz entered the country beyond the frontier and reached an Indigenous settlement. They arrive during a gathering about a possible raid and are suspected of being spies. Their horses are taken and they are threatened. A man who interprets for the group eventually informs them that a leader has spared their lives so they may be held for a possible prisoner exchange. Fierro then describes armed gatherings, surveillance and questioning. The descriptions of Indigenous people are hostile and sweeping: they are the speaker's perspective, not a balanced account of Indigenous societies.
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.
Recordarán que con Cruzpara el desierto tiramosen la pampa nos entramos,cayendo, por fin del viaje,a unos toldos de salvajes,los primeros que encontramos.
Vino al fin el lenguarazcomo a trairnos el perdón;nos dijo: "La salvaciónse la deben a un cacique;me manda que les espliqueque se trata de un malón."
"Les ha dicho a los demásque ustedes quedan cautivospor si cain algunos vivosen poder de los cristianos,rescatar a sus hermanoscon estos dos fugitivos."
Main characters and voices
Martín Fierro and Sergeant Cruz; Indigenous leaders and mounted members of the settlement as Fierro describes them; an interpreter (lenguaraz) who explains the leader's decision.
Literary themes to identify
Exile and family loss; arrival in unfamiliar territory; captivity and prisoner exchange; fear and suspicion; the narrator's anti-Indigenous prejudices; separating poetic testimony from history.
Gaucho vocabulary in context
toldería or toldos (Indigenous camp or settlement); parlamento (council or meeting); lenguaraz (interpreter); cacique (leader); malón (raid, a historically situated term); huincá (Indigenous term used here for outsiders or non-Indigenous people).
What to notice in the narration
The text explicitly reports suspicion, a threatened killing, a decision to retain the men as possible exchange captives and a tense guarded stay. Its more sweeping claims that Indigenous people are uniformly cruel are prejudiced generalizations and cannot be presented as fact. The vocabulary and events are best studied with a separate historical account of Indigenous political organizations and frontier agreements.
Related reading: Indigenous peoples and the southern frontier ↗
Reading-comprehension and discussion questions
- Why does Fierro continue recalling his family before describing the settlement?
- What do the residents fear when Fierro and Cruz arrive, according to the narration?
- What explanation does the interpreter give for keeping the two men alive?
- Which statements describe particular events and which unfairly generalize about entire Indigenous peoples?
- What external historical sources would help test the narrator's claims?
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 2, 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