Early life of José de San Martín

José de San Martín was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain.

Juan García del Río, a close friend of San Martín, wrote a brief biography of him in 1823, stating that he was born in 1778.

However, such a date has been rejected, as San Martín joined the Regiment of Murcia on July 21, 1789, and he couldn't have done so being just eight years old, as twelve was the minimum age required to do so.

[1] José Pacífico Otero found the record of the baptism of San Martín's sister, María Elena, dated August 18, 1778.

She took as evidence an issue of the magazine "Ensayos y Rumbos", from 1921, where Fray Reginaldo de la Cruz Saldaña Retamar published a birth record for San Martín.

[2] Despite the lack of a baptism record to give a definitive confirmation, it is agreed by all sources that San Martín was born at Yapeyú, Corrientes.

However, the exact physical location of the house where he lived is uncertain, since Yapeyú had been devastated in 1817 by a Portuguese raid from colonial Brazil.

After Juan was designated governor of Yapeyú in 1774, they relocated there and had their fourth son, Justo Rufino, and finally José Francisco de San Martín.

[7] Alonso Piñeiro points out that San Martín would have learned his first reading skills at the school of Yapeyú, but the chance is unlikely as he left the city being just four years old.

[9] Bartolomé Mitre considers that, during this time, San Martín made studies at the Real seminary of nobles, in Madrid.

The 1934 director of the National Historical Archive of Spain denied to Luis Enrique Azarola Gil that San Martín had attended that school in the time between 1770 and 1799.

[11] Besides, the San Martín family stayed in Madrid for a single year, between 1784 and 1785, while Juan expected an answer to his request of retirement or a new military destiny.