This “biography” of Juan G. Gregorio de las Heras, the able lieutenant of José de San Martín, was written by a colonel in the Argentine army and published by the Círculo Militar in Buenos Aires. Once the reader becomes aware of this, he should be fully prepared for its tone and content. After following Las Heras’ campaigns in exhausting detail, he learns that when this professional military man became governor of Buenos Aires province he was transformed from a soldier into a statesman: “Así, el hombre de arrojo impetuoso, muchas veces revelado en el fragor del combate, se convirtió en magistrado ecuánime y prudente y en conductor de pueblos in gestación” (pp. 18-19). The relevance of this view as expressed in the Argentina of December 1965 should be obvious.
The author lauds “nuestro héroe” (a phrase which quickly becomes shopworn) to the skies, and, as frequently occurs in this genre of Latin American historiography, he finds meanings implicit in the life of his protagonist which are not national or continental but cosmic. Although the subtitle of the volume suggests an extensive biographical study of Las Heras, in actuality over four hundred pages of text are concerned with one decade (1813-1822) in the life of a man who died in 1866 at the age of eighty-five. About the early formative years in his life or the later years of Chilean exile there is little substantial information or insight.
For the reader concerned with the campaign of Argentine troops in Chile during 1813-1814, the preparation of the Army of the Andes in 1814-1817, and the subsequent campaigns in Chile and Peru through 1822 there is much of value here. Tables of organization, journals of day-to-day field activities (in particular the crossing of the Andes in 1817), detailed descriptions of troop movements in the major engagements, and problems of command, particularly as related to Las Heras—all are presented in considerable detail. Herein, certainly, rests the value of the present volume. But its title should indicate this more clearly. The relatively brief bibliographical listing shows that Nellar has used the standard primary and secondary works, but that he has not gone far beyond them.
