Jose de San Martin Matorras , Liberator and Protector of Peru. He was born in Yapeyú (Argentina) on February 25, 1778. Son of Juan de San Martín and Gregoria Matorras. He learned his first letters at the school in his hometown, and later in Buenos Aires and Madrid, the city to which the family moved when San Martín was eight years old. In the Spanish capital he studied at the seminary for noblemen for two years. At the age of 12 he joined the Murcia regiment as a cadet, stationed in Gibraltar and later transferred to Morocco, so San Martín was present in the campaigns of Melilla and Oran . Before turning 17, he already held the rank of second lieutenant. In 1798 he was taken prisoner by the English and later participated in the campaign in Portugal as a member of the Olivenza light cavalry regiment.
He participated in the invasion of this country after the distribution of the Lusitanian territory and colonies between France and Spain. In the actions of Arjonilla and Bailén, San Martín lived decisive days fighting against the Napoleonic army that invaded Spain. By 1811 he had risen to the rank of commander of the Sagunto dragoon regiment . However, his spirit was already won over by the idea of the independence of the American peoples and he decided to return to his homeland.
San Martín arrived in Buenos Aires on March 9, 1812 and joined the Argentine army, obtaining his first victory against Spanish forces in the combat of San Lorenzo on February 3, 1813. In 1814 he was promoted to general and was appointed intendant governor of Cuyo, beginning the preparation of the army of the Andes. In mid-January 1817 he undertook the crossing of the mountain range and arrived in Chile. He won two victories over the royalist forces in Chacabuco (February 12, 1817) and Mipú (April 5, 1818) restoring the freedom of Chile. A meeting of notables appointed him Governor of Chile, but San Martín declined the offer, appointing Brigadier Bernardo O'Higgins in his place with the title of Supreme Director. He also rejected the ten thousand pesos that the Santiago council gave him , allocating them to the creation of the National Library of Chile. Shortly thereafter he began his campaign to Peru with Argentine and Chilean troops. he landed in the bay of Paracas on September 7, 1820 and he developed a tireless campaign to win the population to the cause of political separation. Then successive declarations favorable to independence made in Lambayeque, Trujillo, Piura and Cajamarca. San Martin arranged an interview with the viceroy José de la Serna at Punchauca on June 2, 1821. Negotiations having failed, he proceeded to occupy Lima on July 10 and proclaimed Peruvian independence on July 28. He received the title of Protector of Peru and in the exercise of his government functions he created the flag and the national anthem , he founded the Normal School and the National Library , he decreed the freedom of blacks born to slave parents after independence and eliminated the payment of tributes by indigenous people.
From Lima he collaborated to consolidate the independence of Quito by sending a division under the command of Andrés de Santa Cruz, who fought in the Battle of Pichincha (May 1822). Meanwhile, his position in favor of the establishment of a monarchy in Peru encountered serious resistance in the liberal circles. He decided to travel to Guayaquil to meet Bolívar and from the conversations he had with the Venezuelan caudillo, he decided to renounce his authority and handed over command to a constituent congress. He disembarked in Valparaiso and stopped in the outskirts of Santiago to cure himself of a serious illness; He arrived in Mendoza in the early days of 1823, soon learning of the death of his wife Remedios, which occurred on August 3 of that year, leaving his daughter Mercedes an orphan, who was then seven years old. While in Buenos Aires absurd projects are attributed to him, creating a climate of hostility around him; so he embarked for Europe in 1824. In 1828 he tried to return to his homeland, but the political chaos that prevailed in those lands at the time discouraged him from such a purpose and without even disembarking he returned to Europe, settling in Brussels. He remained there until 1831, when he went to France and finally to Boulogne-sur-mer, the city in which he died on August 17, 1850 . Thirty years later, in 1880, his remains were transferred to Buenos Aires, and deposited in the mausoleum that was built for that purpose in the cathedral of the capital of the country where he was born.