Jose Francisco de San Martin is one of Argentina’s greatest independence heroes, clearly evident by the innumerable streets, avenues, plazas, villages, buildings and so on named in his honour. It would be difficult to visit the country even for the shortest period without coming across his name somewhere. San Martin was born in 1778 in the former Jesuit settlement of Yapeyu in the province of Corrientes. He attended the academy in Buenos Aires before travelling to military school in Spain where he served in the Spanish Army from age 15 and fought in Spain, Africa and France and in the Napoleonic invasions between 1808 and 1811, the year he was to resign, returning to his native Argentina the following year.

Upon his arrival he started to train the new cavalry regiment and soon after he replaced General Manuel Belgrano as leader of the independence forces. San Martin went on to form his on army - the Ejercito de los Andes - a few years later in Mendoza, where he was also governor for many years. In 1817 he led his army, made up of almost 4,000 men, across the Andes into Chile defeating the Spanish at Chacabuco although his comrade-in-arms Bernardo O’Higgins received most of the acclaim (evident by the number of streets and avenues in Chile which bear his name). The decisive victory took place at the Battle of Maipu in 1818 securing Chile’s independence. Afterwards, San Martin moved north to Peru and declared independence in 1821. For a while he governed Peru but later resigned after clashing with Simon Bolivar, Venezuela’s independence hero.

San Martin later moved back to Mendoza where he soon became disillusioned with the new independent nation. Discontent between the cities and the provinces continued unabated and no agreement could be reached as to whether the government should be centralised or federal. So, San Martin travelled to Europe, first to Brussels and then to France, where he lived for the rest of his life, never returning to Argentina. He was largely forgotten about until he died in 1850. His remains were later repatriated and now lie in the Catedral Metropolitana in Buenos Aires’ Plaza de Mayo. Each year he is remembered on the Monday closest to 17 August with a national holiday.