Famous People
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José de San Martín
(1778–1850)
Argentine soldier, statesman, and national hero José de San Martín helped lead the revolutions against Spanish rule in Argentina, Chile and Peru.
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José de San Martín who helped lead the revolutions against Spanish rule in Argentina (1812), Chile (1818), and Peru (1821). The boldness of his plan to attack the viceroyalty of Lima by crossing the Andes to Chile and going on by sea, as well as the patience and determination with which he executed it, was likely the decisive factor in the defeat of Spanish power in South America.
Domingo Sarmiento
(1811- 1888)
Educator, statesman, and writer who rose from a position as a rural schoolmaster to become president of Argentina (1868–74).
As president, he laid the foundation for later national progress by fostering public education, stimulating the growth of commerce and agriculture, and encouraging the development of rapid transportation and communication. ​
María Eva Duarte
(1919-1952)
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Evita became a powerful though unofficial political leader, revered by the lower economic classes. The law change -1947— was the result of many years of struggle but it is largely attributed to a definitive push that Eva Peron gave to women’s rights. Evita told her audience:
“Here it is, my sisters, summarized in a short letter of cramped handwriting, a long history of struggles, setbacks and hopes, which is why there is frustrated anger and menacing shadows, but also the joyful possibility of a triumphant dawn; the a victory for women over the denial, misunderstanding and vested interests of the hierarchy, cast off by our national awakening.”
Juan Perón
(1895 1974)
Army colonel who became president of Argentina and was founder and leader of the Peronist movement.
Peronism is a political phenomenon that draws support from both the political left and political right. Peronism is not considered a traditional party, but a political movement, because of the wide variety of people who call themselves Peronists, and there is great controversy surrounding his personality.
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Cecilia Grieson
(1859 –1934)
Grierson faced entrenched opposition to her enrollment in medical school in 1883, and was asked to provide written justification for her wish to become a doctor. Women were barred from the School of Medicine at the nation's four universities in operation at the time.
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The harassment Grierson endured as a medical student and afterward helped make her a militant advocate for women's rights in Argentina.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara
(1928-1967)
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Theoretician and tactician of guerrilla warfare, prominent communist figure in the Cuban Revolution (1956–59), and guerrilla leader in South America.
After his execution by the Bolivian army, he was regarded as a martyred hero by generations of leftists worldwide, and his image became an icon of leftist radicalism and anti-imperialism.
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Ramón Carrillo
(1906 –1956)
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Dr. Carrillo was an Argentine neurosurgeon, neurobiologist, physician, academic, public health advocate, and from 1949 to 1954 the nation's first Minister of Health.
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As Health Minister Carrillo prioritized the development of preventive medicine, the hospitals' running organization, and concepts such as regulative centralization and executive decentralization
Carrillo was ultimately recognized as the architect of Argentina's modern national health system.
In the field of health, scientific achievements are only useful when they reach the whole population."
Carlos Saavedra Lamas
(1878-1959)
The Nobel Peace Prize 1936
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Role: Foreign Minister, Mediator in a conflict between Paraguay and Bolivia, President of the Assembly of the League of Nations.
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He also won praise for his work on South America's anti-war pact, which by 1936 had been signed by 31 states altogether.
The pact promoted the principle under international law of condemning all wars of aggression.
René Favaloro
(1923 –2000)
The doctor is best known for inventing heart bypass surgery
Dr. Favaloro began to consider the possibility of using the saphenous vein in coronary surgery.
The basic principle was to bypass a diseased (obstructed) segment in a coronary artery in order to deliver blood flow distally. The standardization of this technique, called coronary artery bypass surgery, was the fundamental work of his career, and ensured that his prestige would transcend the limits of his country, as the procedure radically changed the treatment of coronary disease.
Pérez Esquivel
(1931)
The Nobel Peace Prize 1980
Role: Architect, Human rights leader,
Pérez Esquivel became known as a human rights activist and opponent of all violence. In 1977 he was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Argentina's military rulers. He was only released after 14 months, when the pressure from his friends became too great.
In 1980 the Norwegian Nobel Committee emphasized that Esquivel through his courageous nonviolent struggle had lit a light in the darkness of Argentina's violence. His work was an inspiration to oppressed people all over the world.
Bernardo Alberto Houssay
(1887 –1971)
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Nobel Peace Prize 1936
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Prize motivation: "for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar."
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For the body to obtain energy, it must be able to convert sugar. The hormone insulin, which is formed in the pancreas, plays an important role in this process. This is also true of the pituitary gland in the brain.
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This indicated that a hormone is formed in the front portions of the pituitary gland that counteracts and balances the effects of insulin.
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César Milstein
(1927-2002)
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Nobel Peace Prize 1984
Milstein himself made many major contributions to improvements and developments in monoclonal antibody technology—especially in the use of monoclonal antibodies to provide markers that allow distinction between different cell types
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Even though the Nobel Prize would have made him a wealthy man, Milstein did not patent his enormous discovery since he believed that it was mankind's intellectual property. According to his beliefs, his work did not have any economic interest, only scientific.
Luis Federico Leloir
(1906 –1987)
Nobel Peace Prize 1970
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Leloir received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry from the King of Sweden for his discovery of the metabolic pathways in lactose.
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The $80,000 prize money was spent directly on research, and when asked about the significance of his achievement, Leloir responded:
"This is only one step in a much larger project. I discovered (no, not me: my team) the function of sugar nucleotides in cell metabolism. I want others to understand this, but it is not easy to explain: this is not a very noteworthy deed, and we hardly know even a little."
Salvador Mazza
(1886-1946)
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He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) School of Medicine, graduating in 1903.
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Mazza laboratory undertook studies on trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis, among other diseases.
Publishing regular reports, the mobile lab traveled from village to village to not only inform the then-mostly illiterate population of the nature of their common diseases; but also to help control the known disease vector Triatoma infestans, a true bug (Hemiptera) known locally as the winchuka (vinchuca).
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Alicia Moreau de Justo
(1885 –1986)
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She was an Argentine physician, politician, pacifist and human rights activist. She was a leading figure in feminism and socialism in Argentina.
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In 1914 she graduated from college as a medical doctor, and some years later, she joined the Socialist Party.
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Since the beginning of the 20th century, she got involved in public claims for opening rights for women. In 1902, joined by a fellow activists, she founded the Feminist Socialist Center of Argentina and the Feminine Work Union of Argentina.
Victoria Ocampo
(1890-1979)
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She was an Argentine writer and intellectual, described by Jorge Luis Borges as La mujer más argentina ("The quintessential Argentine woman").
Victoria Ocampo, the Argentine writer, publisher of the international literary magazine Sur and an exponent of cultural bridges between intellectuals in America and Europe she was also a writer and critic in her own right and one of the most prominent South American women of her time.
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María Elena Walsh
(1930 –2011)
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María Elena Walsh was an Argentine poet, novelist, musician, playwright, writer and composer, mainly known for her songs and books for children
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Her work has often contained an underlying political message, as in the song El País del Nomeacuerdo ("I-Don't-Remember Land"), which was later used as the theme song for the film The Official Story, winner of the 1985 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
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During the military dictatorship (1976–83) she was a fierce opponent, her song "Oración a la justicia" (Prayer for Justice) became a civil right anthem.
Lola Mora
(1866 - 1936)
known professionally as Lola Mora, was a sculptress born in San Miguel de Tucumán, in Argentina. She is known today as a rebel and a pioneer of women in her artistic field.
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As her career developed, her sensual style and her status as a female artist made her controversial. In 1903 her Nereids Fountain, created for the city of Buenos Aires, met bureaucratic problems at the city's Deliberative Council, which had the sculpture moved around from place to place.
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Julio Cortázar
(1914–1984)
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He was an Argentine novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an entire generation of Spanish-speaking readers and writers in America and Europe.
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He is considered one of the most innovative and original authors of his time, a master of history, poetic prose and short story in general and a creator of important novels that inaugurated a new way of making literature in the Hispanic world by breaking the classical moulds through narratives that escaped temporal linearity. As the content of his work travels on the border between the real and the fantastic, it is often placed within the genres of magical realism and surrealism.
Adolfo Bioy Casares
(1914 - 1999)
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He was an Argentine fiction writer, journalist, diarist, and translator. He was a friend and frequent collaborator with his fellow countryman Jorge Luis Borges, and is the author of the fantastic fiction novel The Invention of Morel.
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​Bioy won several awards, including the Gran Premio de Honor of SADE (the Argentine Society of Writers, 1975), the French Legion of Honour (1981), the Diamond Konex Award of Literature (1994) the title of Illustrious Citizen of Buenos Aires (1986), and the Miguel de Cervantes Prize (awarded to him in 1991 in Alcalá de Henares).
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Jorge Luis Borges
(1899–1986)
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was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish-language and universal literature. His best-known books, Ficciones (Fictions) and El Aleph (The Aleph), published in the 1940s, are compilations of short stories interconnected by common themes, including dreams, labyrinths, philosophers, libraries, mirrors, fictional writers, and mythology.
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​Writer and essayist J. M. Coetzee said of him: "He, more than anyone, renovated the language of fiction and thus opened the way to a remarkable generation of Spanish-American
Ernesto Sabato
(1911–2011)
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He was an Argentine novelist, essayist, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary world throughout Latin America". Upon his death El País dubbed him the "last classic writer in Argentine literature". He then attended the Sorbonne in Paris and worked at the Curie Institute. After World War II, he lost interest in science and started writing.
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Sabato's oeuvre includes three novels: El Túnel (1948), Sobre héroes y tumbas (1961) and Abaddón el exterminador (1974)
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Diego Maradona
(1960–2020)
Maradona is an Argentinean soccer legend who is widely regarded as one of the best players of all time. Maradona led club teams to championships in Argentina, Italy and Spain, and famously starred for the Argentinean team that won the 1986 World Cup.
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In addition to his creative abilities, he was also possessed an eye for goal and was known to be a free kick specialist. A precocious talent, Maradona was given the nickname "El Pibe de Oro" ("The Golden Boy"), a name that stuck with him throughout his career.
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Lionel Messi
(1987)
Leo Messi holds the records for most goals, he has scored over 700 senior career goals for club and country.
Often considered the best player in the world and widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Messi has won a record six Ballon d'Or awards, and a record six European Golden Shoes.
One of the most famous athletes in the world. He was the world's highest-paid footballer. Messi was among Time's 100 most influential people in the world in 2011 and 2012.
LOS PUMAS
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The Argentina national rugby union team it is organised by the Argentine Rugby Union . Nicknamed the Pumas (Los Pumas in Spanish), they play in sky blue and white jerseys. They are ranked 8th in the world by World Rugby, making them the highest-ranked nation in America.
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The History of the Argentina national team starts with the first international played by an Argentine side v. the British Islands in 1910 when they toured on South America. Argentina gained recognition in 1965, when the team toured South Africa playing a series of friendly matches there.
Las Leonas
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Argentina women's national field hockey team
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Hockey was introduced in Argentina by English immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century, and the first women's teams were officially formed in 1909. In 1997, Sergio Vigil, a former player for the men's national team, was appointed coach. Under his leadership, Las Leonas achieved their first World Hockey Cup title, their first Olympic medals, their first Champions Trophy medals, and many other achievements. The team went from having a rather limited audience to becoming a national sensation
Máxima Zorreguieta
(1971)
She is the spouse of King Willem-Alexander. On 30 April 2013, she became the first queen consort of the Netherlands since Emma of Waldeck and Pyrmont (queen consort from 1879 to 1890) and the first Argentine-born queen consort in the history of the Netherlands.
Máxima addressed the nation in Dutch (which at the time she only spoke to basic conversational extent) during the live televised broadcast. Máxima was granted Dutch citizenship by a royal decree on 17 May 2001 and now has dual citizenship: Argentine and Dutch
Martina 'Tini' Stoessel
(1997)
Tini is an Argentine actress, singer, songwriter, dancer and model, who gained international popularity for her debut role as Violetta Castillo in the Disney Channel Latin America original telenovela, Violetta.
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​In 2011, Stoessel recorded the Spanish version of the Shannon Saunders' song, "The Glow", called "Tu Resplandor"; the song was included on the album, Disney Princess: Fairy Tale Songs.