Everything is history.

• Author: de Gallo, Maria Gowland
• Position: Maria Saenz Quesada's literary works

Maria Saenz Quesada is an Argentine writer whose mission is to popularize history. As a expert in the field of sociological history (or historical sociology), Saenz Quesada teaches and writes incessantly. For more than twenty years she has been the driving force behind the magazine Todo es Historia (Everything is History), founded by the historian Felix Luna. She is widely recognized for her best selling book, Los Estancieros, on Argentina's great ranch owners and is currently co-authoring a book on the ranches themselves.

"I'm interested in literature," Maria confesses by way of explaining her approach to history. "Without overlooking the conceptual framework, I believe that, in historical reconstruction, bringing out social and personal aspects helps to form an image of the past." With respect to the present, Maria asserts, "In general, contemporary history is not well known. In Argentina, because of political upheavals, recent history has come to the fore so strongly that today the great discovery is the twentieth century."

Saenz Quesada's literary output is informative, graceful and vivid. In 1974, the La Bastilla publishing house brought out her La Republica Dividida (The Divided Republic), which focuses on the troubled years between 1852 and 1855. In an gile prose, full of fresh images and insights, Saenz Quesada describes the social, political and economic life of an Argentina divided between the Federal State of Buenos Aires and its "port city." That city was growing apace with but remained segregated from the rest of the Confederated Nation, which had adopted Parana as its capital. It was an age of clashing interests. The city of Buenos Aires controlled customs, while the interior sought to assert its rights with respect to the port. Despite those conflicts, the country had already begun to move toward reconciliation, with the National Constitution as its guiding light.

Editorial Belgrano published the first edition of Los Estancieros in 1980. The book promptly became a bestseller and had seven printings. It covers 400 years of life in the region of the great traditional ranch country south of the Salado River. Minutely documented, Los Estancieros traces the social and economic impact of the ranchers on the formation of the Argentine nation, recounting historic moments such as when the estancieros of Buenos Aires surrounded the House of Representatives in 1829 and conferred absolute power on Juan Manuel de Rosas.

"In the five years...