JOSE DE SAN MARTIN 

José de San Martín was born in Yapeyú on February 25, 1778.  San Martín started his military career in Spain but is best known for his role in the liberation of South American countries from Spain.  First, he offered his help to Argentina and they accepted. He resigned from the Spanish army and arrived in Buenos Aires in August, 1812.  He helped them declare their independence from Spain.  Also that year he married an Argentine woman but soon afterward he took his Argentine army to Chile in 1817 and defeated Spanish forces after the Battle of Chacabuco and Battle of Maipú(1818). He liberated Chile and went next to what is now Lima, Peru to do the same for them. In Peru he was appointed “Protector of Perú.”   In 1822, San Martín met in Guayaquil, Ecuador with Simon Bolivar, another military leader involved in the independence of many South American countries from Spain.  His meeting was private and what was discussed was not revealed to the public.  Within months he resigned from the military and returned to Argentina to live with his family.  His wife died within a year so the two of them never got to live together very long. They did have one daughter, who he brought with him to France within 2 years because he was unhappy with the civil wars in Argentina.  He lived in France until he died on August 17,1950.   

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Updated: 14 August 2007

http://www.museonor.gov.ar/bandera.htm