ABSTRACT
Among Latin America’s finest and best-known Romantic writers, Esteban Echeverría was largely responsible for the introduction into Argentina, and the Southern Cone in general, of the movement he personifies. He is also an early example of the strong tendency among Latin American writers of the 19th century to become important political figures, a regional characteristic which in more muted fashion continues today. As in the case of José Martí and (to some extent) Pablo Neruda, it is somewhat difficult to separate the value of his strictly literary contributions from what he represents to Latin American intellectual history as a whole: just as he, and they, would have had it.
