The 1837 generation ({{langx, es, Generación del '37) was an Argentine intellectual movement named after the date a literary hall with most of its members was established. Influenced by the new romantic ideas, they rejected the cultural Spanish heritage of the country. They did not acknowledge any national roots in the

indigenous peoples There is no generally accepted definition of Indigenous peoples, although in the 21st century the focus has been on self-identification, cultural difference from other groups in a state, a special relationship with their traditional territ ...

or the period of European colonization, focusing instead on the Revolution as the birth of the country, as it gave them freedom, the possibility to behave as free people. They considered themselves "sons of the

May Revolution The May Revolution () was a week-long series of events that took place from 18 to 25 May 1810, in Buenos Aires, capital of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. This Spanish colony included roughly the territories of present-day Argentina, ...

", as they were born shortly before or after it, and wrote some of the earliest Argentine literary works. The group established a literary hall in 1837 in Buenos Aires, hence the name. This ''Salón Literario'' closed six months after it was created because of the reiterated warnings from the government. Initially, they claimed to be neutral in the

Argentine Civil Wars The Argentine Civil Wars were a series of civil conflicts of varying intensity that took place in the territories of Argentina from 1814 to 1853. Beginning concurrently with the Argentine War of Independence (1810–1818), the conflict prevente ...

, they wrote works biased against the federal governor

Juan Manuel de Rosas Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confedera ...

(such as '' El Matadero'' by

Esteban Echeverría José Esteban Antonio Echeverría (2 September 1805 – 19 January 1851) was an Argentine poet, fiction writer, cultural promoter, and liberal activist who played a significant role in the development of Argentine literature, not only thro ...

or '' Facundo'' by

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (15 February 1811 – 11 September 1888) was President of Argentina from 1868 to 1874. He was a member of a group of intellectuals, known as the '' Generation of 1837'', who had a great influence on 19th-century Argent ...

) because Rosas was the Buenos Aires government of that time, but they were also against the former Unitarian governments, with whom they didn't agree in their absolutist manners that were considered by them as a mere restoration of the manners of the Spanish colony. Their efforts to install a full democratic Republic and guarantee civil rights by means of a peaceful ''propaganda'' were vain and shortly after that they ended up exiled or assassinated. After Rosas was overthrown in 1852, their writings inspired the first

Argentine Constitution The Constitution of the Argentine Nation () is the Constitution, basic governing document of Argentina, and the primary source of existing Law of Argentina, law in Argentina. Its Argentine Constitution of 1853, first version was written in 1853 b ...

in 1853, and their persons promoters of the ''Organización Nacional'', the articulation and organization of the political divisions, infrastructure and institutions of the country, that in its final form didn't was federal nor unitarian but a balance of both. They were called "unitarians" in a loose sense and by Rosas ''propaganda''. Some notable members of this generation were

Juan Bautista Alberdi Juan Bautista Alberdi (August 29, 1810 – June 19, 1884) was an Argentine political theorist and diplomat. Although he lived most of his life in exile in Montevideo, Uruguay and in Chile, he influenced the content of the Constitution of Argen ...

, Juan María Gutiérrez,

who was president between 1868 and 1874, Miguel Cané (senior),

Bartolomé Mitre Bartolomé Mitre (26 June 1821 – 19 January 1906) was an Argentine statesman, soldier and author. He was President of Argentina from 1862 to 1868 and the first president of Argentine Civil Wars#National unification, unified Argentina. Mitre i ...

, Andrés Lamas, Antonio Somellera, Vicente Fidel López, Carlos Tejedor, Juan Bautista Peña, Florencio Varela, Juan Cruz Varela, José Mármol, José Rivera Indarte (Buenos Aires), Quiroga Rosas, Antonino Aberastain, Santiago Cortínez (San Juan), Benjamín Villafañe, Félix Frías (Tucumán), Francisco Álvarez, Paulino Paz, Enrique Rodríguez, Avelino Ferreyra, Ramón Ferreyra (Córdoba), Juan Thompson (Corrientes).

References

, 1846. ''Dogma Socialista de la Asociación de Mayo, precedido de una ojeada retrospectiva sobre el movimiento intelectual en el Plata desde el año 1837.'' (in Spanish) https://web.archive.org/web/20160319135757/http://trapalanda.bn.gov.ar/jspui/bitstream/123456789/2810/1/008235.pdf Cultural generations Submovements of Romanticism Argentine Civil War Argentine literature Organizations established in 1837 Classical liberalism Domingo Faustino Sarmiento