Early life Claudio Mamerto Cuenca was born in
Buenos Aires, the son of Justo Casimiro Cuenca and Lucía Calvo. His baptismal name was Claudio José del Corazón de Jesús Cuenca, and it is not known for what reason he changed it to Claudio Mamerto Cuenca. He did his first letters in the parish house to enter the
Real Colegio de San Carlos at the age of 16, that in those years was merged with the Conciliar Seminary, directed by the
Jesuits and worked next to the
temple of San Ignacio. An excellent student, he graduated from high school with outstanding grades and four years later he entered the
Medical Department of the
University of Buenos Aires. Cuenca's family was marked by the decision of four of the five children, José María, Claudio Mamerto, Salustiano and Amaro, to become doctors. Claudio and Salustiano managed to stand out. The latter, following in the footsteps of the former, became an outstanding surgeon, and upon his death succeeded him in the Chair of Anatomy and Physiology. He died during a
cholera epidemic in 1859. At the University of Buenos Aires he had as professors Diego Alcorta, León Banegas and Miguel García, and in medicine, Ireneo Portela, Gómez de Fonseca, Francisco de Paula Almeyra, Juan José Fontana and Fuentes Arguibel. Mejía, coa faithful friend of Cuenca's, was taken prisoner by Urquiza's forces, but managed to recover Cuenca's corpse – with saber wounds to the head, shoulders and arms, and a stab in the belly – and the inseparable briefcase of his friend with his poetic work. A poem titled
Mi cara was found in a pocket of the military doctor's jacket: No official part reported Cuenca's death. According to Dr. Corbella, "the complicit silence of some characters who were actors in the taking of the Palomar and who could well [...] publicly mourn Cuenca's death but did not do so" is striking. Cuenca was buried on the spot, but eight months later, on 10 September 1852, his friends had him exhumed and transferred his remains to the
Recoleta Cemetery, in the vault of his sister Eulogia's family, the Mugicas. In 1861, the poet Heraclio Fajardo compiled and published his poetry in three volumes. Among these stood out
Visión,
To Córdoba,
El pampero,
El corazón,
To the oath of independence and ' 'Deliriums of the heart'. In 1889, the Garnier publishing house, from
Paris, published his "Selected Poetic Works" in
Spanish, with a biography written by Dr. Teodoro Álvarez. == Tributes ==