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Facundo

Facundo "Facundo or, Civilization and Barbarism," by Domingo F. Sarmiento is a book which talks about the many topics of government and political situations in which Argentina was involved. Mary Mann is the translator of the book and the introduction is by Ilan Stavans. The time period the story takes place in is the nineteenth century, but the book was written in 1845. The geographic areas in which the events take place are Argentina, Chile, and most of the southernmost part of South America, such as Uruguay and Paraguay. To add to the setting, the book talks about the terrain, which includes the Andes Mountains, the plains, and the forest. The principal characters in the book are Domingo F. Sarmiento, Juan Facundo Quiroga, a caudillo, and Argentina's dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas. Sarmiento's main points for writing this book were to discredit the caudillos and Rosas. Also, to show the truth about how things were in Argentina. When taking a look at this book, a person must take a look at the society and politics of the area to see how these things go hand in hand in Argentina. First of all, Rosas was the presidential dictator at the time and had the reputation of a tyrant. The Inhabitants of the land where mostly Spanish, Indian natives. Most of Argentina’s land was filled with deserted areas due to the low population, and the fact that not many people lived in Argentina's vast mountains and plain areas. This vast land was so large, that most governments could not control it, and criminals could basically do, as they wanted. Most of these criminals, gauchos, barbarians, or call them what you will overran these plains and mountains. It was the behavior of the gauchos that mostly upset Sarmiento. Sarmiento felt that Argentina could not progress with the gauchos in their society. To further explain whom the gauchos were, Sarmiento uses Facundo as his example. Facundo and Rosas are the type of people who Sarmiento is describing when he speaks of the gaucho of Argentina. Also, Sarmiento’s view of a better Argentina includes Democracy and freedom of ideas, something that is not being carried out by Rosas. In contrast, Rosas is attempting to keep dictatorship. As far as the religions of Argentina, there is not much mentioned in the book, but what is known is that many of the gauchos of Pampas were Jewish and that Catholicism was still the strongest religion in Argentina, as well as the rest of the New World. Economically speaking, Argentina depended very much on its agricultural richness. Many of Argentina’s people live and worked on pastures through out the land. Taking a look at the Argentina culture you can is that it is diversified with the people from the cities to the people that lived in country. First, the cities were filled with churches, manufactories, shops, schools, and everything thing else that showed a civilized nation. The city people would wear European dresses, had a set form of government, and lived in a civilized manner. Beyond the cities were the people in the country, who had different ways of living than that of the people from the city. Country people would dress more common, in the South American style of dressing. In this country people hated the ways of the city people, and anyone who came from the city to the rural country areas would receive a beating if seen. These country people would reject all the things civilized in a city. In order to compare and contrast the events taking place in Argentina to that of other countries, I have chosen several points from the textbook and from class notes. First, one could compare the way that Mexico was very similar to Argentina at the time. Augustin Iturbide was very much like Rosas being that the both of them were dictators and wanted to rule over all of the land. Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana was very much like Sarmiento in that both of them strive for a democracy. Both Santa Ana and Sarmiento wanted to get rid of these dictators and establish a doctrine or way that the people could be civilized and equal. These are people such that of Sarmiento and Santa Ana wish to go against these dictators in order to get political freedom. The next comparison is the fact that Santa Ana and Facundo were both gauchos. They both went out and battle to take control of the government and to try to change it. The similarity between the two is that Santa Ana after winning over Iturbide tried to take over the government and change it for the better, but in the end caused more harm than good. Just like that of Facundo, when he took over Argentina and implemented his own governing and caused chaos. Both of these gauchos show you that they just strive to do what they want for themselves to make them happy and not the people of nation. The final comparisons is how one can see the liberal ideas of Sarmiento fighting against the more conservative ideas of the gaucho which were going against the civilization in Argentina. For example, Sarmiento wants to end the dictatorship and caudilloism, for these two held down the people’s individual rights and caused obstacles to the advance of civilization. The leaders in the dictatorship and caudilloism try to retain their own ideas and force them on everyone, not allowing for freedom of ideas or rights. In the end Sarmiento wins over the gauchos in Argentina and causes an advance in Argentina’s civilization. Bibliography:

Word Count: 933