4. Casa de El Viejo Pancho

In order to better understand the Indiano influence, it is helpful to visit the birthplace of writer José Mª Alonso Trelles y Jarén, nicknamed El Viejo Pancho.

Born in 1875, Trelles emigrated to Argentina, and later settled in the Eastern Republic of Uruguay, where he worked as a journalist and became a Gaucho culture enthusiast.

Reading his works, it's easy to imagine a bard singing praises to his fellow neighbours and expressing the spirit of the society that took him in. Such was his identification with them that he is considered one of the most representative authors of Uruguay, and of the spirit of the Gaucho people, who live in the Pampas in Southern tip of America.

His most famous work is “Paja brava,” published in 1916. Currently, El Viejo Pancho's birthplace houses the Centro de Estudios Iberoamericanos.