MARTÍN FIERRO FOR STUDENTS · THE RETURN · 1879
Canto 24 Explained: Picardía Defends His Vote and Is Punished by the Police
A source-linked English study guide alongside José Hernández’s original Spanish poem.
What happens in Canto 24?
Picardía continues his account of the police officer who persecuted him. During a contested election the officer demands that he surrender his voting list and support the candidate backed by the committee. Picardía insists he will vote for whomever he chooses. Police strike him with sabers, and he is confined in a cepo. He concludes bitterly that justice follows the advantage of the cunning and powerful. These events are told by Picardía, whose earlier gambling dishonesty remains part of his characterization.
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.
Y quiso al punto quitarmela lista que yo llevé,mas yo se la mesquiné,y ya me gritó: "¡anarquista!Has de votar por la listaque ha mandao el Comiqué."
"En las carpetas de juegoy en la mesa eletoral,a todo hombre soy igual,respeto al que me respeta,pero el naipe y la boletanaides me lo ha de tocar."
Atravesao me agarróy se aprovechó aquel ñato;dende que sufrí ese tratono dentro donde no quepo;fi a jinetiar en el cepopor cuestión de candilatos.
Main characters and voices
Picardía as first-person narrator; the hostile police officer nicknamed ñato; police at the election; a judge and election committee mentioned in the account.
Literary themes to identify
Electoral coercion; political freedom; authority and retaliation; the gap between justice and power; an ethically complicated narrator.
Gaucho vocabulary in context
eleciones (vernacular spelling of elecciones, elections); lista (voting list); candilato (candidato, candidate); Comiqué (Comité, political committee); cepo (confinement device); ñato (officer's nickname).
What to notice in the narration
The scene sharply opposes a demand for controlled voting and Picardía's claimed right to choose his candidate. The narrator's prior deception at cards adds tension to his defense of fair dealing. The canto is literary testimony about coercion, not proof of every allegation against the judge.
Related reading: Picardía's earlier conflict with the officer
Reading-comprehension and discussion questions
- What does the officer demand of Picardía at the election?
- How does Picardía answer when told whom to vote for?
- What happens when the police intervene?
- Why does the comparison between playing cards and voting matter?
- What parts of the account require distinguishing Picardía's words from independent historical evidence?
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 24, 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