This addition to the Sanmartiniana collection was written by a former acting director of Argentina’s National Archives. It is a detailed, narrative account of José de San Martín’s life, from the time his ancestors settled in the remote post at Yapeyú, his military career in Spain, his participation in the Logia Lautaro and his arrival in Buenos Aires early in 1812, to initiate new efforts to emancipate his own land. Villegas relates the situation in that city and the political and military developments that led to the bloodless revolution of October 1812. The author is especially critical of Bernardino Rivadavia for his forceful influence upon the ruling triumvirate, and praises the October revolution—where San Martín participated decisively—for making possible the earnest beginning of the final push against the Spanish power in southern South America.
Villegas’ ambitious undertaking is to make a full revision of the extensive sources on the subject. He does this in the prologue with a brief though undocumented critique of numerous friends and foes of San Martín, and later on by disputing the opinion of other writers, but in most cases, without providing their references and not even their names.
To a large degree the weakness of this book stems from the plethora of marginal information it contains, much of it of very dubious relevancy to the subject. However, and in spite of the assertion that San Martín is the archtype of the Argentine criollo, this work is free from the canonizing rhetoric of many of the publications on the life of the Argentine liberator.
Although this work does not break new ground, it makes its most fruitful contribution in briefly discussing the hopes of the separatistas, the cool attitude adopted by England beyond getting a free-trade resolution, and the lack of a strategical plan of the leaders of the May 1810 revolution. The author includes a good number of photographs and an index with documents, but the historical contribution of several of the latter is far from clear. Although the book indicates that it is Volume I, there is no mention of further volumes.
A reader who expects that this work may provide the analytical depth found in other studies dealing with leading historical figures and their times, such as Beatriz Bosch on Justo José de Urquiza or Jorge M. Mayer on Juan Bautista Alberdi, will be somewhat disappointed.
