The Argentine poet, playwright, orator, politician and historian Ricardo Rojas He was born on September 16, 1882 in the northern province of Tucumán. His family held an influential position in the province of Santiago del Estero, where his father was governor.
Red he came to Buenos Aires in 1899 to study law, like many other provincial intellectuals of his generation. He never finished his studies at law school, and began to dedicate himself exclusively to literature, publishing his first poems in 1903.
Patriarch of Argentine letters, Red cultivated all literary genres, with the greatness and uniqueness of the Americas as a common thread. However, as a humanist he made his most enduring contribution to understanding Argentina at the deepest intellectual and cultural levels. The spirit of Argentinity, or awareness of a national identity within the broader context of the Americas as a civilization, dominated his thinking. In works like Silver Crest (1912) and Eurindia (1924), Red proclaims the essential greatness of Argentina and all of Hispanic America, as derived from a symbiosis of European and indigenous cultures.
In 1912 Red he became the first professor of Argentine literature at the University of Buenos Aires. Then, in 1922, he founded the Instituto de Literatura Argentina, and for twenty-five years it was his inspiration and guiding force. He served as rector of the university from 1926 to 1930.
Between 1917 and 1921, Red published his monumental History of Argentine Literature, which is both an exegesis of Argentine culture and a remarkable compilation of Argentine literature from colonial times to modern times.
Red it also played an important role in Argentine politics. It was through his efforts to form a new political party that the Patriotic League was formed in 1919. In 1930, with the fall of President Hipólito Yrigoyen, and due to his support for the Unión Cívica Radical party in its struggle against the power of the oligarchy, Red He was confined for a few months in the Ushuaia prison, along with many other radical leaders.
Later, as a result of his open opposition to the regime of Juan Domingo Perón (1946-1955), he suffered political persecution and the loss of his position at the university.
Ricardo Rojas he died in Buenos Aires on July 29, 1957. In his honor, on that date the “National Culture Day“.