SPAN312 Facundo 1

The history of Latin America is rich in terms of its culture and heritage. In Latin America, most of the countries achieved their freedom in similar way, and the richness of its history shapes its culture and nationalism.

If we talk about nationalism, we must also talk about art; a colorful way of expressing all the roots and culture of the countries. One of the denominated seven arts is the literature. From the Mexican Octavio Paz to the Argentinean Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, this form of expression has collaborated to form a nationalistic feeling and has been used as a reference of the culture and the ideology of these countries. Literature, as a form of art, takes a picture of the country’s context, in a determined period of time, and describes it with feelings, emotions and ideologies finding in words the best way to create a better society and a better nation… That’s what Domingo Faustino Sarmiento is looking for in Facundo.

In the introduction, Sarmiento describes how Facundo is part of Argentina’s culture, no matter if he is death or not, he is an important component of the ideology and the history of his nation both as a brave warrior and as a savage, who has no feelings but, who was the best example of one of the most important periods in the life of Argentina. On the other hand, we can find Rosas as a tyrant who controlled all his country with Facundo as his best ally.

Sarmiento’s book takes all the references of the country to fight against Rosas and not against Facundo. Maybe, in the fist part, he argues that Facundo is a savage and a “barbaric”, but behind these words we can find that Sarmiento is proud of the gauchos. As he writes, “the way of life of country people, which is the influences their character and spirit” (Sarmiento 52)

There is a contradiction here; we know that Sarmiento was looking for an European migration to Argentina as the solution for all the nation’s problems. However, he refers to the gauchos as barbaric people without civilization. Instead of that, we can find that there was one European migration before the civil war in Argentina… the colonialism.

Therefore, if he thought that Europe had the best civilization and the best culture for his country, what was the reason of the war for independence in which he fought?

I think that the word “barbaric” is not the best way to describe the ancient people of the Argentina; I think he is not describing well what he thinks. He is proud of his culture and of the culture formed by these people. As he argues, “Argentine proletarian with no resources but his own cleverness and ability to guard against all the risks that continually surround him” (Sarmiento, pp. 50)

He describes them as organized people with different functions and with different abilities and that is not what the word “barbarism” denotes.

I am very interested in this book because I think that we haven’t read the best part yet, that is why I think that we are in an introductory part and that we are going to begin the best part of the book soon. Now we have the context, soon we will find the history.