José Mármol (1818 - 1871)

José Mármol was an Argentine journalist, politician, librarian, and writer of the Romantic school. Born in Buenos Aires, at the age of 21 he was arrested for his opposition to Argentina's conservative caudillo, Juan Manuel de Rosas. He fled the country and stayed in Uruguay with other exiles, among them Juan Bautista Alberdi, Florencio Varela, Esteban Echeverría, Juan María Gutiérrez, and Miguel Cané. He spent the next thirteen years as an exile living in Rio de Janeiro and Montevideo, only going back to Argentina after the fall of Rosas. He was then elected a senator and later a national deputy from the province of Buenos Aires. In 1858 he became director of the Biblioteca Nacional de la República Argentina, until blindness forced him to retire. He died in Buenos Aires in 1871.