Argentine literature is placed among the most important in Spanish language, with world-famous writers such as José Hernández, Jorge Luis Borges, Manuel Puig, Julio Cortázar and Ernesto Sábato. Literature in Argentina has always been subject to heavy European influence, especially from Spain and France.
Argentine literature began around the year 1550, with Matías Rojas de Oquendo and Pedro González de Prado, who wrote both prose and poetry. They were partly inspired, undoubtedly, by the unwritten aboriginal poetry, by the lules, juríes, diaguitas and tonocotés.
A symbiosis emerged slowly between the aboriginal and Spanish traditions, creating a distinct literature, which was geographically limited (well into the 18th century) to the Argentine north and the central region, with the province of Córdoba as its center.