[3] The magazine was founded by Evar Méndez (its director), José B. Cairola, Leónidas Campbell, H. Carambat, Luis L. Franco, Oliverio Girondo, Ernesto Palacio, Pablo Rojas Paz, and Gastón O. Talamón, and reached a circulation of 20,000.
The magazine was named after Martín Fierro, the gaucho outlaw whose story constitutes Argentina's national poem, written by José Hernández.
Martín Fierro showcased Ramón Gómez de la Serna's work and Emilio Pettoruti and Arthur Honegger's avant garde art, attacked writer Leopoldo Lugones as an icon of the past, and also attacked the attempt of Spanish magazine La Gaceta Literaria of "setting in Madrid the intellectual meridian of Hispanoamerica," that is, claiming Spanish hegemony over Latin American intellectual culture.
One of Martín Fierro's distinguishing features was its fake obituaries, making fun of everybody, both Boedo and Florida writers, and Leopoldo Lugones himself.
The end of the publication was apparently decided by Méndez to avoid putting the magazine at the service of Hipólito Yrigoyen's campaign for a second term as president of Argentina, as some of its collaborators demanded.