Florencio Varela (23 February 1808 – 20 March 1848) was an Argentine writer, poet, journalist and educator. Florencio was born in Buenos Aires on 23 February 1808, he was the sixth child of Don Jacobo Adrián Varela and María de la Encarnación Sanjinés, he had a keen interest in the literary arts from a young age. In his youth he wrote poetry and a theatre production. After graduating from the

University of Buenos Aires The University of Buenos Aires (, UBA) is a public university, public research university in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is the second-oldest university in the country, and the largest university of the country by enrollment. Established in 1821 ...

in 1827 Varela became involved in politics, his association with the Partido Unitario meant that he was exiled to

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

in Uruguay after the defeat of General Juan Lavalle. Varela settled in Montevideo starting a family and associating with several other exile writers and intellectuals who opposed the rule of

Governor A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...

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 ...

. After suffering a heart condition Varela moved to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil where he recovered his health and worked on his history of Argentina. In 1842 he returned to Uruguay. In 1843 he travelled to Europe in order to garner British and French support to the project of a new state comprising

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

, Rio Grande do Sul and some Argentine provinces. While in France, and like many other young travellers did, he met

José de San Martín José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (; 25 February 177817 August 1850), nicknamed "the Liberator of Argentina, Chile and Peru", was an Argentine general and the primary leader of the southern and central parts of South America's succe ...

. On 1 October 1845 he founded the newspaper "Comercio del Plata" in Montevideo, he also founded the biblioteca de obras originales y traducidas (library of originals and translations). He became one of the fiercest critics of Governor Rosas. On 20 March 1848 he was assassinated by Andrés Cabrera, who was acting under the orders of

Manuel Oribe Manuel Ceferino Oribe y Viana (August 26, 1792 – November 12, 1857) was the 2nd Constitutional president of Uruguay and founder of Uruguay's National Party, the oldest Uruguayan political party and considered one of the two Uruguayan "tr ...

and Rosas. He is buried in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.

External links

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Todo-Argentina profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Varela, Florencio Unitarianists (Argentina) Argentine journalists Argentine male writers Argentine librarians Writers from Buenos Aires 1807 births 1848 deaths Burials at La Recoleta Cemetery 19th-century journalists Argentine male journalists 19th-century Argentine male writers University of Buenos Aires alumni