ACEVEDO DAZ, EDUARDO

born April 20, 1851, Villa de la Unin, Uruguay died June 18, 1924, Buenos Aires writer and politician, considered to be Uruguay's first novelist. Acevedo Daz attended the University of Montevideo, where he first became active in politics. He took part in the Revolucin Blanca (1870-72) and the Revolucin Tricolor (1885), supporting the cause of the Blancos, a nationalist, rurally oriented political party. Often depicted as the founder of gauchismo, a literary movement that emphasized the role of the gaucho in Spanish-American history and often romanticized his personality, Acevedo Daz did most of his writing while in exile in Argentina. The traditionalist sensibilities put forth in his novels reflect his mistrust and resentment of the incomprehension and arrogance of his urban contemporaries in Argentina. His first novel, Brenda, was published in 1886. His best-known works include a trilogy of historical novels concerned with the Uruguayan wars for independence (from about 1808 to the late 1820s): Ismael (1888), Nativa (1890), and Grito de gloria (1893; "The Battle Cry of Glory"). Soledad (1894; "Solitude"), his masterpiece, had a continuing influence on gaucho novelists in Uruguay and Argentina. His son, also named Eduardo Acevedo Daz, was an Argentine novelist.