Andrade, Olegario Victor (1839–1882)

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Andrade, Olegario Victor (1839–1882)

The Argentine poet, journalist, and politician Olegario Andrade was born March 6, 1839, in Alegrete, Rio Grande do Sul, during his parents' exile in Brazil during the dictatorship of Juan Manuel de Rosas. The family returned to Entre Ríos province in 1845 and after his parents died he became a ward of Justo José Urquiza, who later served as president of the Argentine Confederation (1854–1869). Andrade married the Uruguayan poet Eloísa González. He began writing poetry in high school in Concepción, Uruguay, and became a politician and journalist during the turbulent years of nation-building, writing for newspapers such Reforma Pacífica, Pueblo Entrerriano, and Porvenir. He served as deputy in the legislature of Santa Fe province (1859) and was secretary to president Santiago Derqui. Once he moved to Buenos Aires he became an opponent of President Bartolomé Mitre and, after 1865, of the War of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay. An influential romantic and epic poet of nineteenth century Argentina, especially the generation of 1880, with Eugenio Cambaceres, Eduardo Wilde, Miguel Cané, and Rafael Obligado, he wrote his best poetry during the years 1876–1881, in the collections El nido de condores and El arpa perdida. His complete works can be found in his Obras poéticas, published in 1915. He died in Buenos Aires October 30, 1882 and is buried in its famed Recoleta Cemetery.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Andrade, Olegario Victor. Obras poéticas. Buenos Aires: La Cultura argentina, 1923.

Tiscornia, Eleuterio F. Vida de Andrade. Buenos Aires: Academia Argentina de Letras, 1943.

Salduna, Horacio. Lucio V. Mansilla y la historia de Entre Ríos: Una olvidada polémica con Olegario Víctor Andrade, 1877. Buenos Aires: Editorial Dunken, 2003.

Vazquez Cey, Arturo. La poesía de Olegario Andrade y su época. Buenos Aires: Coni, 1929.

Georgette Magassy Dorn

Encyclopedia of Latin American History and Culture