Hilario Ascasubi


Hilario Ascasubi was an Argentine poet, politician and diplomat.
Ascasubi was born in the back of a horse-drawn cart, in Bell Ville, Córdoba, while his mother was on her way to a wedding in Buenos Aires.
In 1821, he boarded a ship heading to France. The ship was hijacked and diverted to Lisbon. He escaped, went to France, and lived there for two years. In the 1820s, he joined the military and fought Brazil. He then fought in the Argentine Civil War, after which he lived in exile in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he wrote poetry and ran a bakery shop. In 1843, he published El gaucho Jacinto Cielo con doce números, and in 1846 he published Paulino Lucero.
Upon his return to Buenos Aires, in 1868 he was assigned a diplomatic mission to Paris, France, by Presidente Bartolomé Mitre. During his posting, he was encharged of the newly created immigration office responsible for the recruitment of new immigrants and workers for the agriculture fields, unfortunately among this contingent of workers arrived in Argentina a large number of French revolutionaries.
He died in Buenos Aires in 1875, shortly after arriving from his diplomatic posting to France of an intestinal problem; there is a conspiracy theory that he was poisoned by his political enemies.

Publications

Each year links to its corresponding " in poetry" article: