Felipe Pigna
Felipe Pigna is an Argentine historian and writer born on 29 May 1959 in Mercedes, Argentina. He is one of the country’s best-selling authors. He teaches at the Escuela Superior de Comercio Carlos Pellegrini and leads the Ver la Historia project, which produced 13 documentaries about Argentina’s history from 1776 to 2001.
He is a columnist, appears on radio, and contributes to newspapers and magazines such as Noticias, Veintitrés, and Todo es Historia. He directs Caras y Caretas magazine. He has worked as a history adviser for TV networks including HBO, People and Arts, Italy’s RAI, and Spain’s Antena 3. He was a columnist for the TV show Historia Confidencial. Pigna is the CEO and writer for El Historiador, a website focused on history. He often appears in media talking about historical topics.
He hosts Vida y Vuelta, a TV program of historical documentaries and interviews. With Mario Pergolini, he wrote, produced, and hosted Algo habrán hecho por la historia argentina, a TV show that aired in 2005 (and later released on DVD). The program mixed documentary, humor, and reenactments of historical events and earned him a Martín Fierro award; in his acceptance speech he dedicated the prize to national heroes Mariano Moreno, Juan José Castelli, Manuel Belgrano, and Manuel Dorrego.
Pigna’s works are aimed at a broad audience rather than academics. He uses plain language, slang, humor, and reader-friendly references to connect Argentina’s past with its present. He argues that events do not repeat exactly, but their consequences can be similar, such as wealth gaps leading to authoritarian governments. He describes history as a struggle between the people and the powerful classes, who have oppressed the population, though people have achieved some victories.
Some historians, Tulio Halperín Dongui and Luis Alberto Romero, criticized Pigna’s approach, saying his works are not true history due to misquotes, taking sources out of context, and a perceived lack of historiographical depth. Pigna defends his method, saying that foreign writers accept subjective views and his goal is to make Argentine history accessible to everyone, while he argues that elitist approaches are less objective.
Notable works include Los mitos de la historia argentina I, II, III and IV.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 22:49 (CET).