In spite of the precedent of Bartolome Hidalgo"s "Cielitos y Dialogos patrioticos" -that defined the " cielito" as the tone of voice for the "gauchesca" genre- it is Hilario Ascasubi who should be considered the first of the "gauchi-poetas", as his works opened the roads to Estanislao del Campo"s "Fausto" (1866) and Jose Hernandez"s "Martin Fierro" (1873). Santos Vega o los mellizos de la Flor was started in 1850, and published for the first time in 1851 in Montevideo as two deliveries of just 10 chapters spanning 1,080 verses It is just in 1872 that Ascasubi, during his stay as diplomat in Paris, completes the sixty five chapters and more than 13,000 verses. In the author"s own words: "the canevas of the Mellizos de la Flor, is a favourite subject of the argentine gauchos, it is the story of a maverick capable of every conceivable crime that gave the justice a handful. By referring his deeds and criminal life through Santos Vega, the wandering troubadour and country folk myth I also...