SPAN 312 Facundo 2

Domingo Sarmiento’s book Facundo, Civilization and Barbarism, is about the civil war in his country and it is a description about the gauchos, one of the ancient civilizations of Argentina. Finale, Facundo died, he was killed in the same way that he used to kill others. He was killed by the person who exemplifies better “barbarism”, who was hidden in the figure of Facundo and was behind all the dramatic situations of Argentina; Rosas.

Sarmiento had many goals in this book. In the beginning, perhaps the author’s main objective is to criticize Facundo and Rosas, but then, it seems that this is not the main idea of the book. I’m almost sure that the Sarmiento’s real feeling about Facundo was not the same that we can find at the introduction of the book. Maybe Sarmiento didn’t know the impact that his book would have had in the Argentinean culture, but he established the reference of Facundo as the best example of the gauchos and of the heritage of his country.

It’s very interesting how Sarmiento tells the story of the civil war in Argentina, and at the same time makes the transition that we can find in the last three chapters of the book, where Facundo is mystified. We can find the real impact that the European migration would have in Argentina and in the Latin American civilization. In Buenos Aires, the civilization’s symbol and the Rosas territory, Facundo was a “civilized” man, with modals and without the power that he had in other parts of the country.

Maybe we can realize that Facundo was transformed by the European migration and that will happen to all society; but at the end, in “Barranca-Yako!!!” Facundo was still the same person. Outside, he was a “civilized” man, but inside, he was the same savage who controlled part of the country and the best instrument of the dictatorship: the fear impersonated.

In the history of Latin American civilization, all the dictatorships had the same characteristics; they establish control in the society by the fear. However the fear was also the best enemy of the dictators, the persons who was not controlled by the authority were the ones who established opposition to the government and fought against the power of the dictator. Sarmiento was not controlled by the dictatorship, that’s why he represented by his words the barrier that Rosas had to establish control in the society, but Sarmiento’s power wasn’t enough to fight against Rosas. In the other hand, Facundo was the best alley of Rosas, Facundo established by his “barbarism” the fear in Argentina, but at the same time, he was the only one who had the power to fight against Rosas. Facundo was the fear of the dictator and because of that he was killed.

When Facundo death, the differences between him and Rosas were established, Facundo is not the best example of “barbarism”, he is the best example of the Argentinean heritage, he is the best example of the gauchos, a civilization that had different vision than the European ones, but they were not inferior as Sarmiento established at the beginning of the book. The real “barbarism” was in Rosas, maybe Facundo was a tool of the Rosas power, but he is not a “barbaric”, if “barbarism” denote less freedom, inequality and injustice, Rosas was the “barbaric” but he used Facundo to protect himself.

There are many goals that the author had in this book, to establish the geographical, historical and social context in Argentina, to explain the national reality, to make a proposal about the European immigration as the solution of the problems in his country and to criticize and to attack the Rosas government. In my first post I said that Sarmiento was using in a bad form the word “barbarism” now I can say that I was in a mistake, the word “barbarism” was used to describe Rosas and his government. Facundo is out of this description, the gauchos weren’t “barbaric” people, they are the heritage of the Argentinean culture and Sarmiento, maybe without knowledge, is proud about this principles.