Esteban Echeverría, despite having a lasting effect on Argentine literature,
politics, and philosophy, is unknown in name outside of Argentina and the field of
Hispanic studies. When I first encountered his poetry, I went looking for English
translations of his work; the only two works of his that have been translated into
English that are widely known are his short story “El matadero” (“The Slaughter
Yard”) and his long narrative poem “La cautiva” (“The Captive”). I found this
surprising, as the poetry I read in Los consuelos – which I have translated as
Consolations— was quite captivating and illustrative of Echeverría’s love of country
and its art. Throughout the poems in Consolations I noticed many themes: the soul of
a nation; the personification of Argentina’s geography; and the leaving of one’s
homeland as a pilgrimage than inevitably results in feelings of loss.