Line #25 Literature/MartinFierro


1	[[quoteright:295:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/fierro_por_breccia_2219.jpg]]
2	->''Aquí me pongo a cantar\
3	Al compás de la vigüela,\
4	que al hombre que lo desvela\
5	una pena estrordinaria\
6	como el ave solitaria\
7	con el cantar se consuela''[[note]]Here I come to sing to the beat of my guitar:\
8	because a man who is kept from sleep by an uncommon sorrow\
9	comforts himself with singing, like a solitary bird[[/note]]
10	-->--'''José Hernández''', "Martín Fierro"
11
12	Martín Fierro is considered the basis of the ArgentineLiterature, and the pinnacle of the ''gauchesque poetry'', and it has spawned at least one official sequel and two [[AscendedFanfic Ascended Fanfics]] by the master of MindScrew, Creator/JorgeLuisBorges. In a [[CrapsackWorld rural landscape]], Fierro is a {{gaucho}} that has been forced to join the [[UsefulNotes/ArgentinesWithArmoredVehicles Argentinian Army]] to fight the [[ChasedByAngryNatives Mapuche and Ranquel Indians]] in TheSavageSouth. There he spends three years in miserable conditions, unpaid and half naked, until he decides to go back to home. However, he suffers a HeroicBSOD when he realizes that his family had left long time ago [[StrangerInAFamiliarLand because they had been gradually deprived of their belongings.]].
13
14	Fierro then goes in a revenge rampage with anyone stupid enough to cross his path, and he becomes a fugitive of [[LawfulEvil The Law]] until he finally throws himself in a FinalBattle with the police. There, [[spoiler:one of the cops (another gaucho named Cruz [[note]]Cross, in Spanish[[/note]]) makes a HeelFaceTurn and defends Fierro from the injustice of his life]].
15	Finally, [[spoiler:they both decide to [[RunForTheBorder cross the frontier]] and go living with the ''indios'']].
16
17	!!Martín Fierro provides examples of:
18	* 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 {{Badass Native}}s with cool horses.
19	* AntiHero: Fierro is a deserter, a murderer, and a racist, but he was pushed beyond his limits and had his BerserkButton smashed beyond repair.
20	* ApatheticCitizens: Martin Fierro was this even before all his disgraces happened: At Song II, he says that he didn’t want to vote in the election (In Argentina, to vote for the Civil Judge was required) because ''He is a gaucho redondo'' (dumb) and those things do not interest him. Notice that he never rebels against the authorities, he just runs away from them.
21	* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: He indeed ''became'' a killer, but the first time that he is conscripted, it's for ''laziness''.
22	* {{Arcadia}}: At Song II, Fierro declares his former life as a rancher as this: All the hard work the [[{{Gaucho}} gauchos]] made seemed to be a party, everyone was happy after work, even the poorest gaucho had hope in the future , the CattleBaron respected them, and there was food in abundance for all. At the third song, Fierro implies this is full of NostalgiaFilter because he is now an {{Outlaw}} who only can remember his lost old life.
23	* ArmsDealer: At Song III, Fierro denounces that the Colonel did not gave fire arms to the new recruits, pretexting he will give them when the Indians will attack them. When the Indians attack, the army gave the soldiers spears, because the firearms are useless without ammunition. Then a sergeant tells Fierro that the argentinian army really has ammunition, but they sell it to hunt ostrichs. The natural consequence is that the Indians are free to RapePillageAndBurn the Frontier.
24	* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: Averted. The entire poem is written in an argentine peasant slang, with plenty of intentional "mistakes" to give more local flavor, but [[ShownTheirWork the author did his research,]] working for months in the fields.
25	* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: PlayedForDrama at Song III when the [[{{Conscription}} Conscripted]] {{Gaucho}}s, [[TaughtByExperience without any military training]], chase for the Indians after yet another [[RapePillageAndBurn indian incursion on the Frontier.]] Only this time, the Indians made a TacticalWithdrawal and they pull a DefensiveFeintTrap against the Gauchos. Cue a CurbStompBattle where the Gauchos end literally ChasedByAngryNatives.
26	* ATasteOfTheLash: At Song III Fierro says that when the conscripted soldiers arrived at the Frontier, [[VillainousDemotivator an official told them that anyone who tries to desert will get five hundred strokes]], and so he could count himself as dead.
27	* BadassInANiceSuit: When he is conscripted to the Frontier, Fierro invokes this trope by taking his best clothes, his best horse, and all the instruments that are needed for it. He is not only showing off, all of those clothes and instruments are needed for a Gaucho who is going to fight someone. The page image depicts Fierro at this moment, the last time Fierro looks so elegant, before his PerpetualPoverty.
28	* BadassNative: The Indians. Fierro describes them as ''really'' badass at Song III. See also MajorInjuryUnderreaction.
29	* BadassUnintentional: Fierro didn't wanted in the first time to became a ''malevo''. Then, he turns in a BadassBystander.
30	* BerserkButton: Martín Fierro, when he came back to his house and found... nothing.
31	* BlackAndGrayMorality: Even Hernández says so. He doesn't want to create a idyllic society, but depict the injustices of the society. Again, Fierro commits crimes, even if it is understandable by context. But it turns out the government throws gauchos to the fight with the indians planning a total genocide.
32	** This has proven to be truth, as long as former President Domingo Faustino Sarmiento considered that [[HumansAreWhite only the white population could be civilized]], and had used the mestizos and black population as CannonFodder in the wars against the ''mapuches'' and ''tobas'', and even against Paraguay. Both wars ended with a total genocide of the Paraguayan nation and the colonization of [[http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonia Patagonia]] by killing the natives. He even made a ghetto in Buenos Aires for the black people when a yellow fever epidemic struck.
33	* BlatantLies: The Judge told the Gauchos that they will be recruited to defend the Frontier and they will be relieved after six months. When they get to the Frontier, the first thing they see is a VillainousDemotivator about ResignationsNotAccepted.
34	* BraggingThemeTune: This is a poem where the gaucho is supposed to sing accompanied by guitar music, so Song I of the first book is about how amazing Martin Fierro is as gaucho, warrior, and poet - singer… and the rest of the songs are about his terrible misadventures.
35	* BookDumb: Martin Fierro never went to school, however, he is an excellent poet and musician. A lesser case seems to be Martin Fierro's sons and Picardia.
36	** El Moreno plainly declares he can’t read, but he has learned everything he knows with a friar, and he is a WorthyOpponent as poet and musician to Martin Fierro.
37	* CannonFodder: The gauchos for the government.
38	* TheCaptivityNarrative: At Song III in Book I, Martin Fierro says that the women of ThePioneer and {{DeterminedHomesteader}}s at the Frontier are captured by the Indians attacks.
39	** At Songs VII to X of the Second Book, Martin Fierro narrates how he helped a captive woman to escape the Indians and come back to the Frontier.
40	* CattleBaron: The oligarchy plains to became rich by this, extending the frontier into the SavageSouth. Historically, they succeeded.
41	* CombatPragmatist: Fierro doesn't hesitate to play dirty. He throws dirt to the eyes of [[spoiler: one of the cops to blind him]]
42	* {{Conscription}}: The gauchos (Argentina's miscegenated population) were PressGanged by the civil authorities to fight the Indians in the frontier in the book and in RealLife.
43	* CoolHorse: When he is conscripted, Martin Fierro takes his best clothes and his best horse to the Frontier: The [[http://www.pelajescriollos.com/pelajes/moro/ "Moro" (a horse with gray hair)]] that is a beautiful horse that had won a lot of races and had made a lot of money for Fierro. The "Moro" is so cool that The Commander steals it from [[ButtMonkey Martin Fierro]].
44	* CorruptPolitician: Almost all the government, authority or landowner is dirty, one way or another.
45	* CostumeExaggeration: When Fierro leaves for the Frontier, he wears every piece of the costume of a typical gaucho, trying to invoke the {{Gaucho}} version of BadassInANiceSuit. Creator/JorgeLuisBorges even remarks that when Fierro gets stuck in PerpetualPoverty, he says maybe no one will believe he was once rich enough to do it.
46	* {{Cowboy}}: The gauchos, at some point. But there is a few major differences, for example the distaste of guns, or the ''mestizo'' origin.
47	* CrapsackWorld: Argentinian ''pampas'' under the government of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.
48	* DeadpanSnarker: The protagonist is a Gaucho that has a lot of “picardía criolla” (gauchesque mischief) that is very funny… at least for the people that is not directed at. Fierro deconstructs this trope because people consider him a {{Jerkass}} and they attempt to OffingTheMouth with him.
49	** Fierro describes an Englishman as from “Inca-la perra” that could be translated like “a dog rider”, demeaning the Englishman, who was someone who found a job digging trenches instead of doing something like riding a horse, only work worthy of a Gaucho.
50	** Fierro describes another immigrant as a “Pa-po-litano”, meaning a Napolitan… but ''"Papo"'' means ''"pussy"'' in Argentinian [[JiveTurkey “lunfardo”]], so it’s an insult.
51	* DefensiveFeintTrap: At Song III, Fierro declares that when the {{Gaucho}}s were chasing the Indians after yet another [[RapePillageAndBurn Indian incursion on the Frontier,]] the Indians were hidden behind the hills and when the Gauchos reached them, the Indians chased them. Cue a CurbStompBattle where the Gauchos end literally ChasedByAngryNatives. The irony here is that the Indians applied military tactics better than the Gauchos!
52	* {{Dehumanization}}: Martin Fierro denies various person’s status as "human” comparing them to animals.
53	** At Song III, he compares the Indians to ants, because they are the {{Determinator}} who are TheSleepless; to tortoises, because they are very [[MajorInjuryUnderreaction hard to kill]], to wild mared and to hawks (while the {{Gaucho}}s are the doves that flee of them).
54	** At Song V, he describes a ''"Gringo"'' Napolitan Immigrant as a Non- Christian. [[http://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/nacionalismo-gauchesco-ante-el-inmigrado-italiano-el-anti-italianismo-del-gaucho-martin-fierro-causas-socioculturales-y-modalidades-estilisticas/html/43d20b02-a0f9-11e1-b1fb-00163ebf5e63_2.html This article (in Spanish) explains that for the Catholic]] {{Gaucho}}s, if you are not baptized, you are not a person but an animal. Also, Fierro {{Troll}}s the Gringo calling him "snake" and "lizard".
55	** At Song VI, Fierro calls the War Minister ''"Don Gansa"'' (''"Don Gander"'' or ''"Don Goose"''). His real name was Martin Gainza[[note]]See https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martín_de_Gainza_(militar) (Spanish) [[/note]], but Fierro calls him ''"Gansa"'' because it's an animal with a reputation for stupidity.
56	** At Song VII, he insults a Black woman, calling her ''"cow"''. He later [[{{Troll}} trolls]] her Black husband implying that he was created by the [[{{Demonization}} Devil, and when Fierro later kills him, he says he did it to ''"leave one less devil in the world"'']]. When the Black woman cries about this, Fierro compares her with a wolf howling.
57	** At Song VIII, he calls a BitPartBadGuy ''"El terne"'', (the Calf). At the end of the song, Fierro kills him.
58	** At Song IX, he kills a lot of the soldiers of ''"La Partida"'' ({{Mooks}}) while calling them ''"dogs"'' and ''"sardines"''.
59	* {{Determinator}} At Song III, Fierro describes the indians as this, because even when they are hungry, thirsty and tired, they will keep fighting. He even compares them to ants, who [[TheSleepless never sleep]].
60	* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: Subverted. Hernández was a provinces man, and the slang used is strictly correct. ''El gaucho Martín Fierro'' was a total success partially because the slang, and turned to be the first bestseller in the history of Argentina. Even today, most the country people remembers entire paragraphs of the poem and recite them.
61	* DirtyCop: A ''lot''. Even Cruz, [[spoiler:as he sides with a (partly justified) criminal]].
62	* DrillSergeantNasty: Averted by the Argentinian Army: Every official is very nasty and the conscripts are tortured continuously, but Fierro denounces the instructors the Army assigned did not know how to train soldiers. Justified because the Army does not have any interest in training the conscripts: they are there as mere CannonFodder and to work as [[{{IndenturedServitude}} Indentured Servants]]. The absence of this trope is deconstructed: Because Fierro is a conscript who get tortured but never trained properly, [[spoiler: he had to be TaughtByExperience: ''he learned how to kill in a real battle'', so he learns that ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption and MurderIsTheBestSolution to all his problems. Later on, when Fierro becomes a DangerousDeserter, he commits a lot of murders.]]
63	* DumbIsGood: At Song II, Fierro invokes this trope when he says that he didn’t want to vote in the last election (In Argentina, to vote for the Civil Judge was required) because ''He is a gaucho redondo'' (dumb) and those things do not interest him. If the judge was angry at this, he would have done better [[{{PersecutedIntellectuals}} persecuting the real culprits]] and not him, or in other words, people interested in the election.
64	* EvilColonialist: the plans to extend the agricultural border.
65	* FlayingAlive: At Song III of the first book, Martin Fierro says that TheSavageIndian does this to the feet of [[TheCaptivityNarrative the women they took captives]].
66	* {{Gaucho}}: Fierro is the archetype of this character.
67	%%* GoingNative
68	* GoshDangItToHeck: Fierro deliberately replaces his spanish real world swear words when he uses them (In Spanish, "badajo" (part of a bell) for "carajo", "puchá" for "puta" (meaning bitch), etc.
69	* GratuitousForeignLanguage: Played deliverately straight, and PlayedForLaughs. Used specifically with the ''gringos''[[note]]actually, used in a general sense as a synonim of foreigner, and specifically here for Italians[[/note]]. The trick is that Martín Fierro doesn't know really what the Italian says and understands phonetically. Example "ha garto!" says the "pa-po-litano" (intentionally misspelled by ''napolitano'' -a person from Napoles), and he says "más lagarto serás vos" (You are the lizard), and so on.
70	** In fact, the language speaked by the ''gringo'' is [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoliche ''cocoliche'']]: a mix between Spanish and Italian.
71	* GreaterScopeVillain: All the misfortunes Fierro and all the Gauchos suffer are by design: in RealLife, 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 genocide and the Gauchos will be replaced by the Gringos (immigrants of European descent).
72	* GunsAreWorthless: The recruited {{Gaucho}}s discover that yes, without ammunition they really are. This trope was invoked by the Argentinian Army.
73	* HellholePrison: The barracks in the frontier.
74	* HeelFaceTurn: Cruz.
75	* HeroicBSOD: Fierro, when he sees his house ruined and his family missing
76	* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter:
77	** Fierro seems to be the only Gaucho who doesn't run when The Judge comes to enforce the {{Conscription}}, and he never questions [[GenreSavvy all the others']] motives to RunOrDie.
78	** Fierro believes [[BlatantLies every promise]] The Judge makes.
79	* HumansAreWhite: ValuesDissonance, but there it is. Fierro's first victim is a black guy that he teases and bullyies into being drunk and rabid. Specially vissible when he's talking of the indians.
80	** Somewhat subverted by the fact that Fierro actually regrets killing the ''moreno'', and hopes to give him a proper burial.
81	* HunterTrapper: The gauchos at the military camp, as it is the only way for them to survive.
82	* ImprobableAimingSkills: At Song III, Martin Fierro declares that the Indians can kill any enemy with polearms and the [[SufferTheSlings boleadoras]].
83	* InvadingRefugees: The Italian migrants, who came to Argentina to escape the occupation of their country by Austria, are viewed this way by the Gauchos.
84	* KnifeFight: Almost every fight (except in the Frontier)
85	* LastSecondWordSwap: Used by Martin Fierro when he is not using GoshDangItToHeck.
86	* MajorInjuryUnderreaction: At Song III of the first part, Fierro mentions that when the indians spill his guts, they don't even worry, they will stuff them back in a moment.
87	* MakeAnExampleOfThem:
88	** When the conscripted soldiers arrived at the Frontier, none of the old recruits are relieved. One of them complains, and he is promptly tortured in [[StockPunishment ''La estaca'']].
89	** Fierro dares to ask for his salary to the army officials, and they [[ObstructiveBureaucrat offer to investigate the matter]], but when Fierro mocks a gringo about his incapacity to speak spanish, the Gringo mistakes him for the enemy, shoots and almost kills Fierro. When the officials get word of it, they took the chance to torture Fierro in [[StockPunishment ''La estaca'']].
90	* NarrativePoem: Martin Fierro recounts his life singing thirteen songs in the first part and thirty three improvised songs in the second part of the book ''La Ida''. This format could be a parody or pastiche (José Hernández was a CattleBaron who wanted to imitate the style of the [[{{Gaucho}} gauchos]]), but Creator/JorgeLuisBorges thinks the book could be classified as a novel.
91	%%* NationalWeapon: [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas The "Boleadoras" or “Bolas”]].
92	* NeverBringAKnifeToAGunFight: Averted by the Argentinian Army. The {{Gaucho}}s have guns and the Indians have only polearms. But the Army wants the Gauchos to be CannonFodder, so they invoke GunsAreUseless by [[ArmsDealer selling the bullets]] to ThePioneer.
93	* NeverMyFault: When Fierro reflects that The Judge punished him because Fierro didn't want to vote in his election, Fierro invokes DumbIsGood and blames PersecutedIntellectuals instead.
94	** At Song III, Fierro thinks of one Indian that wanted to kill him ("God forgive him for having tried to kill me"), conveniently forgetting that he was an EvilColonialist who was SettlingTheFrontier.
95	* OneManArmy: Partially straight. Fierro fights alone [[KnifeFight with a 'cuchillo']] against an unnamed number of soldiers, but when he's close to defeat [[spoiler:Cruz makes a HeelFaceTurn]].
96	* PenalColony: Again, the army's quarters.
97	* 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]].
98	* PoliceBrutality: Almost all the poem is about this, and how Fierro reacts to the continuous torture in the barracks.
99	* PressGanged: At the first book, The Judge came into a bar where Martin Fierro and other gauchos were having fun, he arrested them all, and [[{{Conscription}} conscripted them]]. In the Second Book, [[OnlyKnownByTheirNickname Picardia]] (Mischief) reveals that years later, The Commander came to his town, arrested all the men, [[HangingJudge judged all of them guilty of various crimes]] and [[AllCrimesAreEqual then condemned all to]] {{Conscription}}.
100	* {{Rancher}}: Every gaucho (including Fierro) in a minor scale, and every major landowner in a full scale.
101	* 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 {{Cattle Baron}}s until is time to implement the FinalSolution]].
102	* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Fierro believes that all the authority figures are like this, and that becomes his downfall:
103	** Fierro sees some Gauchos and all the Gringos doing a RunOrDie when The Judge tries to [[PressGanged conscript]] them, but he doesn't run because he has not done anything wrong, so there is no motive.
104	** After arriving to the Frontier, Fierro gets a VillainousDemotivator and sees the officials MakeAnExampleOfThem with a solider who wanted to be relieved. Even after that, Fierro complains to The Mayor about not being paid. That doesn't end well for Fierro.
105	* ResignationsNotAccepted: The first thing that happens when the conscripted gauchos arrived at the Frontier was the oldest conscript to ask to leave, so one of them was tortured and the rest shut up.
106	* RunForTheBorder: [[spoiler: the end of of ''El Gaucho Martín Fierro'']]
107	* RunOrDie: All the other Gaucho’s and gringo’s reaction when The Judge caughts them to enforce the {{Conscription}}.
108	* TheRustler:
109	** At Song III of the first part, Fierro denounces the Indians as rustlers of the cattle as part of the [[RapePillageAndBurn Malón]].
110	** At Song XII of the first part, Fierro admits that him and Sergeant Cruz stole some cattle when they decided to go to InjunCountry.
111	** The most archetypical Rustler is found at the Second Part, at Song XIV to Song XVIII, ''el viejo viscacha'' (Old man viscacha, an argentinian rodent), an old man who is a two bit villain, EvilCounterpart of the cowboy.
112	* TheSavageIndian: ''Specially'' in the sequel.
113	* ScarilyCompetentTracker: At Song III of the First Book, Martin Fierro describes the Indians as this. At the Song X of the Second Book, Fierro describes how he and a captive woman flee an Indian town and cross ThePampas until they reach the Frontier. They were terrified of this trope because Fierro had killed one indian and they were after them.
114	* SeparatedByACommonLanguage
115	* SeriousBusiness: Justified because in RealLife: When the book was written, to sing with a guitar was one of the only pleasures [[{{Gaucho}} the gauchos]] could afford, so at the very beginning of his book, Martin Fierro declares that he has come to this life to sing, that he will sing until he dies and that singing will give him glory. In the second Book, there will be more characters who sing about the story of their lifes, and the ending shows us a [[DuelsDecideEverything duel between singers that prefigures a duel to the death]].
116	* SettlingTheFrontier: the ''"official"'' motif for the quarters
117	* TheSleepless: At Song III, Martin Fierro declares that the Indians are like ants that are awake day and night.
118	* StartingANewLife: [[spoiler:Fierro and Cruz in the end]].
119	* StockPunishment: ''El cepo'', also called ''La estaca'', was one of the most dispensed punishments in the Argentinian Army. Song III shows us one of the old soldiers, and later Martin Fierro himself, being tortured there.
120	* SufferTheSlings: Gauchos and Indians used the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolas "Boleadoras" or “Bolas”]], a type of throwing weapon made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, used to capture animals by entangling their legs and to kill enemies. These are Argentina’s NationalWeapon.
121	** At Song III, Martin Fierro declares that the Indians dominate this weapon so well, they have ImprobableAimingSkills.
122	** At the same Song III, Martin Fierro uses his own boleadoras to defeat an Indian in battle and says that without them, the Indian would have killed him.
123	* ThePampas
124	* TacticalWithdrawal: At Song III, Fierro declares that when the {{Gaucho}}s were chasing the Indians after yet another [[RapePillageAndBurn indian incursion on the Frontier,]] the Indians were hidden and when the Gauchos reached them, the Indians pulled a DefensiveFeintTrap against them. The irony here is that the Indians applied military tactics better than the Gauchos!
125	* 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.
126	* TheUnapologetic: At Song III, before describing the Indians as TheSavageIndian and an AlwaysChaoticEvil race, Fierro exaggerates this trope when he asks from his audience: "No one asks them for forgivennes".
127	** The only one Martin Fierro asks for forgiveness is God at Song IX, when Fierro kills a lot of the men of the [[{{Mooks}} partida]] (soldiers who work as policemen) who tried to arrest him for murder. He never apologizes to anyone else.
128	* VillainousDemotivator: When the conscripted soldiers arrived at the Frontier, none of the old recruits are relieved. One of them complains, and he is promptly tortured. Then an official told the new recruits that anyone who tries to desert will get five hundred strokes, and so he could count himself as dead.
129	* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption
130	* WarriorPoet: well, Fierro sings his own story. Also Cruz. And the author, José Hernández, was himself a soldier in the civil wars, siding with the Federals against the Unitarians (that ultimately won in the political field).
131	* WouldHurtAChild:
132	** Fierro mentions at Song III of ''La Ida'' that TheSavageIndian kills the settler's children without a second thought.
133	** Fierro mentions the murder of a gringo kid by TheSavageIndian because they thought he was the cause for the plague that is killing them.

Context Literature / MartinFierro