History Literature / MartinFierro

* {{Cowboy}}: The gauchos, at some point. But there is a few major diferences, for example the distaste of guns, or the ''mestizo'' origin.

* TheAllegedSteed: When Martin Fierro was recruited to fight at the Frontier, he came on a CoolHorse so cool that the Commander stole it from him. Fierro and the other recruits are forced to use very old and slow horses, and they are fighting {{BadassNative}}s with cool horses.

** At Songs VII to X of the Second Book, Martin Fierro narrates how he helped a cautive woman to escape the Indians and come back to the Frontier.

* BladeOnAStick: The weapon of the Indians.
** At Song III, Martin Fierro declares that the Indians dominate this weapon so well, they have ImprobableAimingSkills.
** In the same song, Martin Fierro denounces that the {{Gaucho}}s have [[TheGunslinger guns]] and [[NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight so they should have the advantage against the Indians]], but GunsAreWorthless without ammunition so they have to fight with [[BladeOnAStick polearms]] too. The last part is because the Argentinian Army [[spoiler: invokes CannonFodder with The {{Gaucho}}s]].

* ImprobableAimingSkills: At Song III, Martin Fierro declares that the Indians can kill any enemy with [[BladeOnAStick polearms]] and the [[SufferTheSlings boleadoras]].

* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Averted by the Argentinian Army. The {{Gaucho}}s have guns and the Indians have only [[BladeOnAStick polearms]]. But the Army wants the Gauchos to be CannonFodder, so they invoke GunsAreUseless by [[ArmsDealer selling the bullets]] to ThePioneer.

* AscendedFanfic: Jorge Luis Borges wrote two wonderful short stories about minor characters: ''The End'' and ''Biography of Tadeo Isidoro Cruz''.

* BladeOnAStick: The WeaponOfChoice of the Indians.

* CorruptPolitician: UpToEleven. Almost all the government, authority or landowner is dirty, one way or another.

* GreaterScopeVillain: All the misfortunes Fierro and all the Gauchos suffer are by design: in RealLife, PresidentEvil Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (who never gets mentioned on the book) had decreed the [[{{FinalSolution}} '''Conquest of the desert''']] so the native Indians will be subjected to KillThemAll and the Gauchos will be replaced by the Gringos (immigrants of European descent).
* GunsAreWorthless: The recruited {{Gaucho}}s discover that yes, without ammunition they really are. This trope was invoked by the Argentinian Army. See ArmsDealer.

* NationalWeapon: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas The "Boleadoras" or “Bolas”]], see SufferTheSlings.

* PersecutedIntellectuals: When Fierro reflects that the Judge punished him because Fierro didn't vote in the last election, Fierro invokes this trope arguing that The Judge took him for one of them. However, the truth was that Fierro didn't vote because DumbIsGood and [[{{ApatheticCitizens}} he is simply not interested in that]].

* RapePillageAndBurn: At Song III, Fierro describes how the Indians destroyed the settlements of the Frontier: They {{Plunder}} and BurnBabyBurn the town, [[WouldHurtAChild kill kids and old people]], and [[TheCaptivityNarrative take the women captive]] and [[FlayingAlive torture them]]. (Argentinians even have a name for this attacks: a ''malón''). Fierro was conscripted into defending the settlements, but he can’t do it properly: The army has no firearms because the Colonel [[spoiler: sold them to the settlers so they can hunt ostrichs]]. The Argentinian army is ''exploiting'' this trope: [[spoiler: As long as there are ''malones'' the settlers will ask for the Government to continue SettlingTheFrontier, so the army recruits the {{Gaucho}}s as CannonFodder who cannot stop the ''malones'', while the army officials become {{CattleBaron}}s until is time to implement the FinalSolution]].

* TechnicalPacifist: Martin Fierro claims to fight and kill when he has the need at Song I, but the facts narrated at Song III (Fierro killed an [[{{ChasedByAngryNatives}}Indian who was chasing after him)]] Song VII (Fierro provoked and killed a black man in a bar fight), Song VIII (Fierro provoked and killed a BitPartBadGuys) and Song IX (Fierro kills many men of the [[{{Mooks}}Partida]] who wanted to arrest him for the two last killings) contradict this fact, or at least seem to be ''very'' MetaphoricallyTrue.

* BadassBeard: Almost every gaucho in the work.