MARTÍN FIERRO FOR STUDENTS · THE RETURN · 1879
Canto 25 Explained: Forced Frontier Recruitment and the Families Left Behind
A source-linked English study guide alongside José Hernández’s original Spanish poem.
What happens in Canto 25?
Picardía recounts a recruitment drive shortly after the election. An armed police party rounds up men for a contingent bound for the frontier. The commander rebukes each man for different alleged offenses, including not voting, failing to obey summonses or criticizing authorities, and adds him to the list. Mothers, sisters and wives plead for their relatives while the judge claims the decision belongs to the commander. Picardía emphasizes the families' distress and uncertainty.
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.
Después de muy pocos días,tal vez por no dar esperay que alguno no se juera,hicieron citar la gente,pa riunir un contingentey mandar a la frontera.
"Vos también sos trabajoso;cuando es preciso votarhay que mandarte llamary siempre andás medio alzao;sos un desubordinao,y yo te voy a filiar."
Ante aquella autoridápermanecían suplicantes,y, después de hablar bastante,"Yo me lavo"; dijo el Juez,"Como Pilatos los pies:esto lo hace el Comendante."
Main characters and voices
Picardía as narrator and one of the men awaiting assessment; the police officer; the commander; a judge; recruited men; mothers, sisters and wives.
Literary themes to identify
Compulsory military service; patronage and political punishment; family separation; official evasion of responsibility; social inequality.
Gaucho vocabulary in context
contingente (group recruited for service); leva (compulsory recruitment); partida (armed police party); Comendante (commander); papeleta (document or paper); partido (local district).
What to notice in the narration
The passage explicitly connects the commander's accusations with electoral behavior and other local conflicts. It also portrays the human cost in the families who remain. These are Picardía's reported experiences, not a complete statistical account of nineteenth-century recruitment.
Reading-comprehension and discussion questions
- How does the armed party gather men for service?
- Which alleged offenses does the commander cite?
- What does the judge tell the families seeking relief?
- How does the narrator depict mothers and wives during the recruitment?
- How does this scene echo Fierro's earlier account of being sent to the frontier?
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 25, 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