Juan Bautista Alberdi, an Argentinian law student,…

Juan Bautista Alberdi, an Argentinian law student, had participated in the so-called "Generation of '37,” a group of young and liberal intellectuals like Esteban Echeverría and Domingo Sarmiento, heavily influenced by the Enlightenment and liberal thought traditions.

This connection, together with refusal to swear allegiance to the Federal regime of Juan Manuel de Rosas, leads Alberdi to begin a voluntary exile in 1838, initially in Montevideo.