ne of the great criollo poets of all times, even though he was of Spanish origin the Uruguayans were very proud of him.

In 1874 he arrived in Argentina and settled in Chivilcoy (Buenos Aires Province); years later he moved to Uruguay and was based in the oriental land for the rest of his life, firstly in Río Grande and in Canelones, later, and finally settled in Tala in 1887.

He wrote for amateur groups Crimen de amor, a two-act dramatic play written with end rhymes; Un drama en palacio in the same format; Caída y redención in prose; Colón with rhymed lines; and the sainetes (one-act farces) Los veteranos, Spyonkojo, El falso Otelo, Pepiyo, Idilio fulminante and others which remained unpublished save for the poem Juan el Loco (1887) which was published by the poet Orosmán Moratorio.

From November 1894 to March 1897 he published eighty-three numbers of the El Tala Cómico journal and, from July 1899 to January 1900, twenty-three numbers of another journal: Momentáneas. In this paper his early criollo poems appeared, and with them one of the modalities of his literary temper began: the one which, with the passing of time, would bring him popularity and a lasting consecration.

He contributed to the famous criollo magazine El Fogón of Montevideo, along with Alcides de María, Elías Regules, Moratorio, Leguizamón, Lombardi and other no less renowned poets.

In 1915 he gathered his poems in a volume, Paja Brava, and previously he wrote Guacha (1913), a play which was staged many times in theaters of the Rio de la Plata area.

Carlos Gardel sang and recorded his lyrics “Insomnio”, “Hopa hopa hopa”, “Como todas” and “Misterio [b]”, with music written by Américo Chiriff, in outstanding renditions.

We were unable to know if between the poet and the singer was any personal relationship, but we think that it might have been possible because Gardel was a great admirer of his gaucho poems.

Alonso y Trelles was born in Castropol (Asturias, Spain) according to some of his biographers and, according to others in Rivadeo (Galicia) on May 7, 1857 and passed away in Montevideo on July 28, 1924.