He was the editor of the newspaper "The Argentine" and the founder of the "R�o de la Plata". He lived exiliated in Brazil, but back in Argentina, he entered in the Autonomist Party, by which he got elected in 1879-1881. The immediate success of Mart�n Fierro impelled to him to the publication of the second part, "The Return of the Mart�n Fierro" (1879) composed of 33 chapters, which that in later editions has been published jointly with the first. As much in his journalistic work as in his poetic, tie to the gauchesca tradition, he took part in the defense of "the people from the inland" against "the people of the city".

Works in prose: Life of the Chacho; biographical characteristics of General Angel Vicente Pe�aloza (1863), Instruction of the farmer (1882). He passed away in the city of Buenos Aires 21-10-1886.

He carried out different public positions and, as a diplomat (Minister of Outer Subjects), he was in Europe in several occasions. He was dean of the faculty of Philosophy of Buenos Aires. Among his works, which are fragmented and testimonial, we can distinguish Juvenilia (1884), a novel in which he evokes childhood and youth memories.

"In a trip 1881-1882" (1884), "Printings of Venezuela and Colombia", "Light Prose" (1903), "Literary conversations", among others were posthumously summarized and printed in his "Speeches and Conferences" (1909). He is one of the figures of a group of writers called "men of the 80", which were influenced by the naturalism. He died in Buenos Aires in 1905.