[1][2] Ascasubi was born in the back of a horse-drawn cart during a thunderstorm,[3] in Bell Ville, Córdoba, while his mother was on her way to a wedding in Buenos Aires.

[3] Upon his return to Buenos Aires, in 1868 he was assigned a diplomatic mission to Paris, France, by President Bartolomé Mitre.

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.

[3] Ascasubi was the only poet among the authors belonging to the Unitarians and Colorados who achieved success and reached a large public.

[4] The long form poem Paulino Lucero set in the post-independence Argentina included a criticism of Rosas for his failure to carry out his promise of extermination.

[8] His version was written in verse and was described as gauchesque poem with exceptional lyric elements, featuring many dramatic episodes.