Gutiérrez, José María (1831–1903)

José María Gutiérrez (b. 20 June 1831; d. 26 December 1903), lawyer, journalist, and public figure deeply involved in issues concerning the character of Argentine nationhood, constitutionality, and administration. Gutiérrez served in numerous government positions, beginning in 1852 in the Ministry of Government of Buenos Aires Province, and as secretary of the Chamber of Representatives (1854–1857). He participated in the first Battle of Cepeda (1859) and in the Battle of Pavón, where the Confederation of Provinces was defeated in 1861. From 1862, Gutiérrez founded and edited La Nación, a paper devoted to defending Bartolomé Mitre, who became the first constitutional president of Argentina in 1862; in 1878, Gutiérrez founded another paper, La Patria Argentina. He was minister of justice and public instruction in 1877, was minister of state from 1890 to 1892, and from 1895 until his death, served on the National Council of Education.

See alsoCepeda, Battle of; Pavón, Battle of.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Vicente Osvaldo Cutolo, ed., Nuevo diccionario biográfico argentino, vol. 3 (1971).

Tulio Halperín Donghi, ed., Proyecto y construcción de una nación: Argentina, 1846–1880 (1980).

John Lynch, Argentine Dictator: Juan Manuel de Rosas, 1829–1852 (1981).

Additional Bibliography

Adelman, Jeremy. Republic of Capital: Buenos Aires and the Legal Transformation of the Atlantic World. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999.

Rock, David. State Building and Political Movements in Argentina, 1860–1916. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002.

                                           Hilary Burger