Early life of José de San Martín

José de San Martín was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from Spain.

Juan García del Río, close friend of San Martín, wrote a brief biography of him in 1823, stating that he was born in 1778. The historian Bartolomé Mitre, author of "Historia de San Martín y de la emancipación sudamericana took the date as correct, and it remained canonical since then. However, later investigations would generate doubts about the accuracy of the year. No record of his baptism have been found so far. In his marriage, in 1812, he declared being 31 years old, meaning he would have been born in 1781. However, such a date has been rejected, because San Martín joined the Regiment of Murcia on July 21, 1789, and he couldn't have done so being just eight years old, as twelve was the minimum. San Martín's age became even more uncertain when his military service records are examined, as they attribute him inconsistent ages. In 1803 he's reported to be 20 years old (i.e. born in 1783), in 1806 with 27 years (i.e. born in 1779) and in 1808 with 26 years (i.e. born in 1782).

José Pacífico Otero found the record of the baptism of San Martín's sister, María Elena, dated August 18, 1778. Clearly, the same woman couldn't have given birth to 2 different babies in the same year. However, Otero considers that the year in the document had been falsified, for unknown reasons. Otero considers instead that the correct date was February 25, 1777. He based his reasoning in a number of documents: his passport of 1824, which states an age of 47 years, a private mailing with Ramón Castilla, in 1848, declaring being 71 years old, and the ship "Santa Balbina" that took him to Spain in 1783 gives him an age of 6 years.

Patricia Pasquali wrote the biography "San Martín" in 1999, and considered the date provided by Mitre to be the correct one. She took as evidence an issue of the magazine "Ensayos y Rumbos", from 1921, where Fray Reginaldo de la Cruz Saldaña Retamar published a birth record for San Martín. However, the same historian acknowledges that the original used by Reginaldo to back his claims is unknown.

Despite the lack of a baptism record to give a definitive confirmation, it is agreed by all sources that San Martín was born at Yapeyú, Corrientes. However, the exact physical location of the house where he lived is uncertain, because Yapeyú had been devastated in 1817 by a Portuguese raid from colonial Brazil. There is a monolith at a location stated to be his home, but the researcher Carlos Zuberbühler thinks that it should have been in Santo Tomé instead.

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