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    Domingo F Sarmiento - Facundo

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    atiN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE General Editor Roberto Gonztles Echevarria Sverlng Profesor of Hispanic and Comparative Literatres Yale University «Thy Bvt, That Sh by Manucl Bander, translated by Candace Slater 1 Ta a Duty, by Dicolis Guile wanted by Vera M, Kunzinss 7 Fae Dinan Legacy of Madcon: Lagonts Herrera 3 Reis, and Trop Maern Spanish American Petry, by Gwen Kirkpatrick “gS Odes of Pablo Nera, by Pablo Neruda eanslated by ‘Margaret Sayers Peden 4. Bo the Fgitive, by Rosamel del Ville, ranted by Anna Balakan avrg oft Voyage othe Land of Brasil, Ocberist Caled Ameria, by Jean de Léry, translated by Janet Whatley +. Canta Genera, by Tablo Nerada,tansated by Jack Schmitt F Foundational Fictions: The National Romances of Latin America, by Doris Sommer 19, Reading Columbus, by Margarita Zamora to, Castaways The Narrative of Absar Niiiez Cabeza de Vaca, by Aar Nénez Cabeza de Vaca, edited by Enrique Pupo-Walker, translated by Frances M, Lopez-Morills tn Latin American Vanguard: The Art of Contentions Enconters, by Vieky Unnun 12, Freund: Civilization and Barbarim, by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, translated fiom the Spanish by Kathleen Ross Facundo CIVILIZATION AND BARBARISM ‘The First Complete English Translation Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Translated from the Spanish by Kathleen Ross, swith an Introduction by Roberto Gonséilee Echevarria UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles London cuarven vi social Life (1825) / 6 CHAPTER VIII ‘Tests of Strength / 129 CHAPTER IX Society at War / 142 CHAPTER x Soriety at War / 189 ‘CHAPTER XI Society at War / 161 CHAPTER xt Society at War / 177 CHAPTER XII Barranca-Yaco!!! / 188 ‘CHAPTER XIV Unitarist Government / 20s cHarreR xv Present and Future / 228 Glossary of Historical Names / 251 ‘Translator’s Notes / 263 Index / 273 Facundo: An Introduction ROBERTO GONZALEZ ECHEVARRIA Sarmiento’s Facunde, published in 184s, isthe fst Latin American clas- Sicand the most important book written by a Latin American in any dis. ipline or genre, Fame has granted i the prilege of a one-word title, bur the book was originally called, in Sarmiento's idiosyncratic spelling, Civilizaciomi barbaric: La vida de Juan Facusto Quiryga, i aspect fisic, costumbres, i dbitas de la Repiilica Arjentina (Civilization and barbar- ism; The if of Juan Facundo Quiroga, and the physical aspect, customs, and practices of the Argentine Republic), and in its fist English tran lation, Life in the Argentine Republic in the Days of the Tyrants.' For the ‘ame reason, tradition bypasses its author's unwieldy names—Domingo Faustino—in favor of his sufficient and resonant surname, Sarmiento. Facundo isa work that survives its critics; it seems immune to historical changes, intellectual fashions, and literary movements. It absorbs them into its own discourse and figures. ‘To criticize Sarmiento is easy, even facile, but it is impossible co ignore him. Facundo thrives through its im stylistic flaws, its cavalier deployment of souirees, its erFOrS, an GF improvisation. AI these contribute to the work’s vitality, ro the read ‘er'ssense that the book is alive, making itselFashe or she turns the page 1. Sarmiento aimed at simplifying Spanish speling, clininating the, which represen the same sound 3 the / and has been hep in the language for historia reasons. He did ht acted, but hiseffort reveals his pedagogical vocation and bis wilingness to renovate Tanguage and raion. Notice that Tacundo Quiroga’ whole name i Juan Facundo {Quiroga {wil eer to him as Facundo Quiroga, whichis how he was generally known, and tothe book as Facade ; use in it Sar sna’ sill read because in it Sarmiento cre, pang oT Feet gin American author, Which is also wy oe ih is legacy, rewriting Facundo in 5c for ad 2108 1s sugele eee i mea a0 ntangle themselves OM HS dscoure, works Sa ja’ contributions to Latin American thought a veo “feed? In proposing the dialectic between vein athe central conflict in Latin American cul i chat began in the colonial period fave shape aa sarious guises (the latest being thes se paion). In its account of the origins of Juan pa ee a oe in Argentina, Facundo set the bases for the ang se arrsip in Latin America and created in the dic seamen of tbe most enaring iterary gure to emerge from soot ses of stator nove,” from Miguel Angel As (0946) to Mario Vargas Llosa’s Feas of the tra’ Hair presidente Tr (noo) ates ro is coatinaing vitality. By establishing a deser- soning link berween the Argentine landscape and its culture and polit ialdeclopment, Facundo set the bases for the study of the uniqueness df latin American culture in terms ofits own specific geographical set ting In this epand, Doiia Barbara (1929), the classic regionalist novel bythe Venezvelan Rémulo Gallegos, can be read as an allegory of Fa- ‘ando, By expressing the grandeur of its landscape and the struggle to represent it, Sarmiento created the voice of the modern Latin American author asa response to an exceptional American reality. The Venezue lan Andrés Bello, the Cuban José Marfa Heredia, and a few others had already provided hints ofthis, but they were corseted by neoclassical po~ ‘ics, while Sarmiento, a romantic, wrote, untrammeled by the demands ofform, a majestic work that belongs to many genres and to none at the cae vt es bossy, utobio novel, epic, mem me sore al pape, date, scientific treatise, travelogue: Satis mostly Sarmiento’s powerful voice, infused by the sublimity na of the bounale ut soiee, Jnhued “the houndless Pampas, that rings through and true in Facundo, 2. the est the collective volume S#° nd GS in of Sica is contained inthe col romeo Haein Deng, a Ja Gwen RS te ey Tahenity of Caornia Pes, Tpp4]THE BOK covers Sarmiento’ wri Hahera tings, preceded by an incisive historical précis BY ne FACUNDO: AN INTRODUCTION — 3 voice that will be echoed by the major poetic and fictional works by Latin Americans, from Pablo Neruda’s Canto general (1950) to Gabriel uez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967). Sarmiento i810 ‘an literature what Walt Whitman is to American literatures Se tharinsinging about ieisings Amerisasson ‘Though a reader of Facundo might leave the book thinking that the Pampas comprise all of Argentina, the reality is quite another. Stretch- ing north to south, roughly twenty-three hundred miles and east ro west about eight hundred miles at its widest, Argentina covers more than a million square miles. This is an area equivalent to that of the United States east of the Mississippi, with California and one or more mid: ‘western states added—only Brazil is larger in South America. In the south, Cape Horn reaches down to the frigid waters of the Antarctic, ‘and in the north there are subtropical areas at the foot of the Bolivian ‘Andes—the south is cold and the north warm, in what to the reader from the Northern Hemisphere must seem like a world upside down. In between its northern and southern extremes Argentina displays @ broad range of climate and terrain: the dry wastelands of Patagonia in the south, the desertlke regions to the west, all the way to the impos~ ing Andes, which separate Argentina ftom Chile. In the northwest are forests and sugarcane fields that stretch into Bolivia and Paraguay. But the Pampas, 250,000 square miles encircling the capital of Buenos Aires, are indeed the core of the country both materially and in the myths that ‘make up the Argentine nation —Facundo contributed to this in no small measure. These immense, fertile plains, rich in pastures that give suste- nance to the country" huge cattle population, also produce most of the corn, wheat, and flax. Its optimistic first explorers named the estuary of the River Plate “Rio de la Plata”—river of silver—and the area around it “Argentina,” land of silver (fiom the Latin argentum), yet they found neither that metal nor gold in the area. Quick riches, like those yielded by Mexico and Peru, were notavailable in what became Argentina, soit languished, for most of the colonial period, as a dependency of faraway, tramontane ‘Cima, In fact, the original settlers moved east into the region from Perw ‘and Chile to found the first Argentine cities: Santiago del Estero (1583), Garcia Mi 4. This clementary sketch of Argenting, intended for the nonspecalzed reader, shoud be supplemented with the work of historians ike Halperin Donghi. Facts and staisties— redrawn from conventional reference works. approximations in most cases ao quen ECHEYARRIA ROBERTO cont . ‘Tucumén (1864), and Cordoba (1373), ‘ Mendoza (161) S29 a ion founded Buenos Aires in 180 (the “An expedition fom spot lst lone) Thiet conte, Facade 38,8 or rather than Buenos Aires, wi tion favored te sts IB ETT Feo conduct illegal trade with smug sas neglected bu ME SDATE Ti che rest OF HE SPANISH empire, Buenos ied Bea ae pacnos Ales, grew 0 mistrust those in the nae on “geonected from Spain, sought economic progress provinces ad, GAOT hare Europe, mosly England aia indamental to Freer te interior andthe capil, “Argentine clture, widened 28a result, Epmucin's interpretation of: a eon wage ‘divided against itself. While it was the se of political turbulence, ier “he Republic on May 25, 1810, it was not until in, tat the Real break from 5 ed and the “United Provinces of South America” pro- ‘Pamed, Ths was the second misnomer applied to Argentina, for united these provinces certainly were not. Various groups from the interior refused to accept the leadership of Buenos Aires, and porteiias looked down on the provinces, which seemed backward and out of touch with ‘modern ideas, customs, and fashions. The decades that followed saw the split acquix political shape in the confit between two partes: the Unitarists, who favored a centralized national government with its scat int Buetos Aires, and the Federalsts, who championed the indepen- ‘ence of the Various provinces or regions, The Unitarists were cultured, uropean-oriented, and had a vision of the nation as a cohesive politi (GTunit denved fom the Enlightenment and the founders of US-in: RIS, By The very nature of their convictions, were factional Sen among themselves. They were led by the caudillos, ‘ar local bosses, who had emerged during the Wars of Independence ‘rom Spain. Originally they were gauchos, whose power and appeal lay in their attachment to the land and to their intimate familiarity with the ‘regions and people they commanded. nail fom at apt, nine fx, “ens 2 iMaeani et ag to fan Comins, Diaries tilt Py es it Gres 80), volt 938 Candis, the distaxoni of ncn pass hs ence ea ee Sarees oF FACUNDO: AN INTRODUCTION 5 ‘The reader will find in Facundo the most compelling description of the gaucho ever written Sule it to say here that gauchos were no- ‘madic inhabitants of the Pampas whose culture centered on horseman- ship, self-reliance, stoicism, and contentment. The gauchos did not ‘want to be anything clse, feeling in fact a mixture of pity and scorn for city folk and their ways. Nature provided plentifully for the gauchos’ needs, which were few, and they knew how to defend themselves from its threats—like jaguars and isolation—and from those who would “ci ilize” them (by conscripting them into the army, for instance). They rev- ‘led in their defiant solitude. TThe imitles plains and fabulously abun- ‘dant cattle gave them meat and hides to barter or sell, and to make ropes, saddles, and other tools of thei trade. Very much like the Amer- ican cowboy, the gaucho wanted to be left alone, When the Wars of In- dependence came he fought against the Spanish because he was always spoiling for a fight against any authority, and mostly because he was forcibly conscripted into the army as a vagrant.* After independence he followed his regional leaders in the civil wars that followed, against other caudillos and against centralized government. By 1819 the caudi- lios, with their bands of gauchos, were in control of much oF the cOuntry- side, Estanislao Lopez ruled in Santa Fe, José Santos Ramirez in Entre Rios, Martin Gliemes in Salta, Bernabe Arioz in Tucuman, Facundo “Qiairoga in San Juan and La Rioja, and Rosas in Buenos Aires province. These cauhilos were united in she disdain forthe city of Buenos Aires — and its Unitarists, but were hardly each others’ friends. In February 1820, ies from the provinces of Santa Fe powered the porteio forces, led by José Rondeau, in the Buttle oF Ce eds By 1839 the caudilloshad installed one oftheir own in power: Juan “Baie! de Rosas, bos: ofthe province of Buenos Aires, Became rulecot FRE WHI Country: Lronically, he gained power as a Federalist defends ‘Gf provincal autonomiy bat was toppled in 1832 Because he had forced TPO TN pra RSC MOTE Unbending than the Unitarists id Roped for. His tyranny, based on a personality cult, absolute fealty played ia panoply of icons and symbols to be publicly worshiped, 5. The most compelling and orginal stay of the gaucho in Argentine fierature is Joctna Ladimers El génere pancho, now availble in English: The Gaucho Genre “A Treas onthe Matera, tans. Moly Weigel (Dutham, N.C.= Duke University ress Sa A sammary of the book's arguments can be found in “The Gaucho Genre," in The ‘ed, Roberto Gonziler Echevarria and Cambridge History of Latin American Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge Univerity Press, 1996), vl 1. pp. 608-31 Enrique Pupo Walker vo adier {in El aénery gases) has belianty inked the gaucho's conscription with he appropriation of is "voice” by lteratre to sreate a national cour Saco wire sonar a , perceived dissidents, beca jon of ral a” 5‘ me an the mec Pe Tay dictatorships, including the whole Latin Amen the present, Fidel Castro. One of the ogo cand Quiros Baranca aco, wher ee murder fat Rosts had him Killed to eliminate a he was ambushed a 2 caudillo of caudillos and Sarmiento’s foe in alized him smother irony, Sarmiento immort in fd fil In the pFOCESS \¢ only force dros were by no means the only forces in Ar- ut aul 204 By, particularly thatof Buenos Aires, im- ssi Tao caor the promucs ofthe cate industry, ee, pose TOTEP NE reservation a SPpTE Be Buenos Aes Brew OCT Furopean of Lati Pe resin the New World and the my st European of Latin sos ew geern of iter and utlissruals. cn fo became one of the most impor- Reverican eis. Anew generation 2 Tt as Rosas was assuming POWET. They rebelled Fore in the 1830, jt ny cbell aaa te Sion Liteon ag and ‘wo years later, the “Assoa Pear aTMy a eference to the May 1810 founding of the Republic), ‘oth institutions dedicated to overthrowing the dictator. European- vee ant spbisicated to 2 fut, this group included. Esteban | Caaarer aromantc poct and ftion writer, who wrote (but did not ‘pablish in his short story “ se” one of the most sting ing indictmests of egime, José Marmol, another prose writer and poet, published Amalia (18st), @ widely read nov anda Latin ‘Arsercanelsic, which was also against Rosas. Other prominent mem- ters ofthe up were Bartolomé Mitre historian and a translator of Dante's Divine Comedy, who founded La Nacién, onc of | papers in Latin Amer ishe apersin Latin America, which is Sil Bai ing published. Mitre eventually became present of the Republic. A political analyst and jurist, Juan Bautista Alber, wrote a pamphlet, Bases para ta organizacién politicn een agrees trbe oltel organization oft gentine Federation), which influenced greatly the Constitution that aa to Argent (s social program was to foster European imm- Feary Aietea People the vast expanses of rch, ‘uninhabited igre wager pol” to govern i to populate. rom western San Juan province, hence nota 7-Tinchudec a wandation ofthe, ri (New York: Onord story in my Oxford Book of Larin American Short Si Univeniy oe Pres, 1997), pp. 59-72. FACUNDO: AN INTRODUCTION 7 member of this portetio clite, Sarmiento belongs to the group because of the affinity of his ideas with theirs as well as his untiring campaigns against Rosas. He too rose to the presidency, succeeding Mitre in 1868 Sarmiento was the best writer of them all and the one who left the most enduring Terry works, particularly Facwnd, Born on February 1, ti, he was the fifth child and only son of a formerly comfortable fam- ily, now in economic decline, that encouraged him to read and educate himsclf® This he did with unflinching devotion, first as an unruly but brilliant pupil in the Escuela de la Patria, in his native San Juan. This school, started by a Unitarist governor of Bueros Aires, was directed by two brothers, Ignacio Fermin and José Jenaro Rodriguez. Young Do- mingo Faustino was in the school from its inception in 816 until its closing, because of political upheavals, in 1825. ‘He was then tutored by his uncle, the priest José de Oro, with whom he learned Latin, Spanish grammar, and read the Bible, In his rich 1850 memoir, Recuerdos de pro- pincia (Remembrances of provincial life), Sarmiento recalls fondly this teacher, to whom he owed many things, he said, most relevant for his authorship of Facundo an enduring interest in the country’s customs land traditions. Probably because of his haphazard instruction, the edu- ution of the young became Sarmiento’s most sbiding vocation, and for fil his accomplishments in literature and politics, he is mostly revered today in Argentina as a mode! teacher. initiation into polities was early and painful. At siateem, the provincial militia by force, he joined the Unitarst bands fighting. égainst re indo Qu wured and sentenced to house arrest in San, Joan, Alter four months he managed to escape to Chile his first of Fee forced sojourns in that country, where even though he was a foreigner he was to have enormous influence. Sarmiento returned to San Juan after evo months, when Babting agtnst Fsunsdo Outage at pur the caudilo again prevailed and Sarmiento returned £0 sith Tis father and a substantial group of Unitarists. For the next fiveyearshe Satan clementay stool, vasa “eading at an elementary school, was a clerk ata store in Valparaiso, studied English so he could read Sir Walter Scort, was fore- ‘man at a mine, and fathered an illegitimate child, Emilia Faustina, in’ whan, (His daughter, ised by Sarmiento’s mother, provided much so- te tim in his declining yeas.) Upon learning of Facundo Quiroga’s 1 flow inthe muin Alcon Willams Hunks plaksing aes Bingro amem- & w 4 4 , Iy4e m Sie on ease on D vestry ARIA 4 nonenro GONzATE? ECHEVAR nto tue native San Juan, Where he re es, he Colegio de Santa Rois de Amey founded schoo OTe, Zonda, whose CGUOrA refered icy Fle als Founded 2 02 Association of May. The new Federale the democratic ier or taking Kindly vo these activities, closed the oe ol rin Susie ES under the charge of con. oe gS ean he ey een sae “crossed the Andes back to Chile. maemo cond ele GbE wit ie most posh, and Fa esa which he came into his own asa writer, intellectual, meat rovas gamed editor of EL Mercurio, in Valparaiso, litical figure. Hs i west founded ET Nacional—both of which were important ‘aipupers Sarmiento continued his string and unrelenting atacks ‘on Rosas, who tried unsuccessfully to get him extradited to Argentina, and wrote Facindo, fc seid i oa espana and then ub GFeTa a book in 1845. He aso published Travels shrongh Europe, Af rica and America and wrote Remembrances of Provincial Life. ‘Travels ‘nas the result of his rips through Spain, France, England, Algiers, and the United States, a journey he undertook to study developments in ‘education. It was also a pretext by his Chilean friends to get Sarmiento ‘out of their hair for a while, since his presence attracted protests from the Argentine government for his persistent tirades against the regime. Full of himself, immoderate in his habits, exuding energy, Sarmiento had not endeared himself to many Chileans, who called him Don Yo (“Mr. Me,” or “Mr. Ego”). Having a large head and the neck of a bull and being increasingly corpulent, Sarmiento was a presence to reckon with, so his hosts encouraged his going away. But the journey was in- deed an education in itself, which had a lasting impact on Sarmiento. The United States fascinated him because he saw many parallels be- ‘tween it and Argentina (as is evident in Racundo)—vast territorial ese in Ben in, whose autobiography he loved, and Wrote ‘iggy concer TBy Horace Mann, the Massachuseuts lawyer cca ee Ute Se wo Argent 08 FACUNDO:AN INTRODUCTION 9) tician, and educator whom he befriended, Mrs. Mann (née Mary Pea- Gody) was to paBTsh in 1868 Te fist, and until the present one the only, English translation of Facundo, Many of the ideas he learned in the ‘United States during this trip, and iater during his three-year stint as Ar gentine miniser plertpotentiary to Washington, he tried fo adapt to his mative country. Tn 1848, Sarmiento returned to Chile for his thied exile there, which, ‘was to last until Wr, when Re Reand of Tusto Jost de Urquiza’s rebel Ton against Rosas and hurried to Uruguay to join the insurgents. In the {three years of exile he continued his campaign against the tyrant and ‘wrote extensively about what he had seen in his travels and about Eu- ropean immigration to South Ameria, which he saw as the solution to the ills ofthe new countries. Following Alberdi, Srmiento did not fil to put this plan, which became his hobbyhorse, into practice during his presidency. But that would have to wait, Because once the dictator was toppled and Urquiza assumed power, he sighted Sarmiento, who returned to Chile to ick his wounds, But he eame back in 18 o edit a ewapiper, to serve as senator in the provincial legislature, and to Fuh SERGOT HEA nthe provinces with great success. Once Urquiza was isposed oF in 1802 and Mitre assumed the presidency, Sarmiento’ star tae again, He became governor of his native province of San Juan, ‘Where he improved the schools and fought effective campaigns against the new caudillo, Angel Vicente Pealoza, “El Chacho.” Wary of is ri Siento discovered thar he had beca elected president of Argentina SESE SS Fear PT [TRE 7) was marked by reform andl prog: albeit some of it controversial, He completed Mitre’s campaign t0 Etiam the cauailos and won the Paraguayan war. In 1860 he ona vized and cured cot ded die Flowing niged and cami Ie o.com, nhs. inthe province aoe ee the tapil iy Othe ttl population, Fiazgoow Fivin Spainand italy. Sarmiento accepted ity and its corollary programs of social engineerin ae ‘discredited but long-held ideas, Sarmiento, believed that European. mig the key ro eradicate what he called barbarism he was ‘immigration was the. aris efor of och immigration on the Ue Sie and eae he systematically promoted it during his presidency. During his term, 280,000 Europeans came to setle in Argentina i cenit —_— ro conALeE EE ace cornered wth developments in scien Tanfenntly sucessfully mpeg Fe ipnt of SoM ATOAT TT Re crecto Furope saa ainatlantic cake si Thy UAB eS Fy Agnnuitare was moniernized, an academy exploration of the national territory was fog and a national obSEFVatOrY Was estah, od. FEHR, ser 9 cnet ere set-up for the army and navy, and a na. faved Trane Sg made books available to public libraries, to He uch were founded during SArMIeNLO'S term, Be oe ee cuninued tbe Sarmiento’s passion, school-building eg pograns were igh of his list Of priorities, Fd a ergata non exrliment neatly doubled during his term, Jam Latin American country at the time coreg etre shang nga 4 PC 4 =e cp aniv GRE women teachers from the United Feat wath vee Kea chaen by Mas Horace Mana, to set up teachers schools in Mer tnlanesa, Semaento's youthful frail, but effective minister ed cdacsten, foixracd tum in the presidency, having defeated Mitre fe wetewed and dovweve elections. Mitre revolted, and then was jailed and cach executed The transier of power was a harbinger of evils that ine politics in the future. Sarmiento served as sena rennin Rena, the newt pecsaieat be an the country’s “hols and wiv. The state published his complete works, jumesin al. dang the lst years of his life, Sarmiento died, st seveety sven ear fag n 1888 ‘Few men have had a greater impact on their country’s founding, both fmatenalh and intellectual. With Facwndo in particular, Sarmiento had seven Acgestna a national dasuurse, a set of sdeas and figures through ite ut cal hak sea phenomenollgy of is spit 3 ter Pens among many ther things, a modem national ei tnceated canis rose: Sarmiento s invocation Of Facundo Qu! Tee sham te sso help .m explain the internal convulsions SesGt ie ofthe motherland, iy Homeric in its grandeur UW Facunde began , Cqntit esata sees of articles against Rosas published in Sense ata poutial pumphiet, the book 'sintended fo" ACUNDO AN INTRODUCTION g hike the This what determines sty easter Fo SARE Ra ewription of the land, whah Teak up ta deSTI™ pccmen ta Be anabelFacurnke Quang, Tron peut, Tomi Ha Broader Aceriining Histor to the art bar result the tyrant, the analysts of whowe fe wall diumunate Renass life and will facitate his elimination. Science isat the serge of peice to change the course of history. — This cient approach s aot yst che outer shell ot acum ts very core. Th wwhone works icntufc tavelersto whom Sarmiento pays homage and whee tus Were mote bteraty ia their approash than we afe allowed to thank Wom the perpectng ufvontempeats wasane- Ue (Guest Tor Knowledge took the form of journey, which sn the best amples 1 reflected in theie texts as the mun’ moxement trom concrete observation of phenomena fo the formulation of gencral principles and truth. Scientific method and literary form converge in this material and spuntual pilgrimage, a fusion often expressed in the rhetoric of the subs lime. These travelers, Humboldt above al were romantics, and shared with the poets of their age, especially with Goethe. a ne of nature, be ike OFT Keaaty and because n ‘secrets verse. In Facundo because Sariuento is obsersing hus halle BAS, BOT 3 Foreign country as in the ease of the European travelers, and is attempting to disconer its essence —the process is even more dramatic, Sarmiento 18 looking tor and at himself as he gazes upon Argentina, Rinas, and ltt mately upon Facundo Quiroga. As Enngue Anderson Imbert has writ ten eloquently: “Sarniento’s originality ics in that the romantic phe am ats fuses with feeling that fu (own lite was an historical ite. He fete that hs staat the J were one and the same being, engaged in an historical ting of auuizatign""" This i the book's deep drama, the Seals the secre losophy of histo the unt source of its somber beauty and shocking honesty the fatherland, but a probe of is innermost essence, inhuding sts most disturbing components. to Thane eypouned upon the relitain of ene wet to Facwnde i ny Mech and Arivie. A Tasry of Lam American Narrative (Cambreige Cambvaige Unwersty Fc tas) oom watable paperback fom Die Civeruty Pest iol) he chapter fon Sarr hay aso teen tepeaied i Sarmucnte Ath ofa Nation wr Phajue Andrus Imire, Hosora deka evecare hupancamencana (Mors Fone de Cultura Exon, 191), 90L 1p 228, 408 mine op ooszALez ECHEYARE! ronenro 6 ais beset by the strugate be. that Argentina is bese armiento™ Ss en ad hat Rosas and his regime tacae, Fain and bab gHence hbo, ewcen 4 Rs Fa for Sarmiento means modern European sere of spn: COSTE ed ine ties, paRTICUTAAY BUCHOS Aes, ieasand pacts a the bachwandness ofthe Countryaige~ ele ackyardnesis the product oF BUNeTC Bes phn an se by applying tis dichotomy. Clarity ig Tas goed cst bythe dramatic effect ofthe clash of thei pene ich gives the whole strugale and its herocs an epic cast at ebb sory aout the fight between good and evil, with aa eens cha Facundo Quiroga and Rosas. The di- Feb propaganda bua weakness a tllectual construct. Rosas was Forsenemnne i Fcundo Quiroga, and Facundo Quiroxa himself war Fae ip ine jer Sarmiento came to realize his etror, and i Facando there ae contradictions al ations and inner doubss. Fortunately for the book's energy but not for the logic of its princi pal argument, Sarmiento is more fascinated by barbarism than by civi- bation; he has Mitonian pasion for evil and its minions. The loving descriptions ofthe Pampas and its gauchos are among the most endur-” ig pags in Faeunda eis a science of the concrete, of the minute, whose emblem perhaps cou ‘or “track finder,” and the imgueano or “scout.” The rastrendor is ca able of folowing a fugive's tall no matter how faint and in spite of adept she fugitive takes to erase it, The dagueano can tell ere he is—even in the dark, when all else fails, by the flavor of the Se Knowledge at is highest ona par with chilized” tion rhe ted pbs. Sarmiento cannot hide his admi- Tid 36 cea eo hho profound wisdom, self assurance, tse inden Bene ws that make up his science, which is dhanreinis he and unique, as is their knowledge of that mci we es their environment, In their description and vm tte method Toe 3” talogous kind of learning, with is ‘rBitng is most gong eo iction is a the heart of Facundo, €F Sumi eigenen Quiros, bat sip oat '5 original in the Pampas and in Facundo (rer into comparisons with types and eve? FACUNDO. AN INTRODUCTION 3 archetypes drawn from the literary tradition, particularly the classics and, the Bible. Ifthe gauchos are an origin, mankind reduced to the begin- ring of time, they are so only because they repeat previous origins. The Pampas are like a blank page, an infinite, unfathomable void at the be- ginning of time and recorded history; but to be identified as such there has to be, as in a palimpsest, a series of previous beginnings that have been inscribed on it before: Thebes, Mesopotamia, Babylon, and bibli- cal or Homeric stories. Sarmiento struggles with this contradiction in_ hhis quest to prove the originality of his subject, but the whole story is ast in an ancient gente, tragedy, where science and literature mect £0 “Shape the telling of Facundo’s life. “Life” is precisely the concept that informs Sarmiento’s vision of Facundo Quiroga, Itis atypically nineteenth-century scientific concept that subtends science and philosophy and is at the core of some of the century's most influential intellectual enterprises. Darwin's Origin of Speciesis based on the “struggle for life,” as are, in different terms, philo- sophical systems like Schopenhauer’s and Nietasche’s. Life is the instinct or volition to be, which often depends on the annihilation of others. Sarmiento studies Facundo Quiroga’s life, he writes his biography, to search for his “life” in this sense —the spark of his will-to-be in his will- to-power, “Biography” here has the emphasis on bia, on the biological, ‘material aspect. Hence the detailed description of Facundo Quiroga’s facial and other physical features, which are expressions of his fierceness. What is unique about this life is its excess, which is Facundo Quiroga’s tragic flaw, He is endowed with a surfeit of life that leads him inexorably ‘to death—life leads to death, or death itsefis lodged in the life instinct, as Freud was to theorize but a few decades later. This contrary force is stronger than Facundo Quiroga’s conscious will; it drives him inexor- ably to meet his death at Barranca-Yaco in spite of the warnings and ‘omens. Barbarism has the grandeur of tragedy, sharing its inevitability, which preempts Sarmiento’s program to eradicate it with the aid of civ- ilization. If, as he asserts, there isa gaucho hiding beneath the frock coat of every Argentine, where does that leave Sarmiento himself, if not fon the side of the tragic? The life of Facundo Quiroga, both its unre- strained vital thrust and its originality, is also the life of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. The book is both biography and autobiography, collective and individual analysis. Life is also the deep design of history in Facudo, Like his European models, Sarmiento’s conception of the unfolding of history follows a pattern of birth, infancy, maturity, decay, and death, with each period caro consAve BORENARRIN sonst , he features oF an individual’ ite ag an by fancy” The pattern is repeated sata are repeated from species to species, but at qi a ll a en isin its infancy (Latin America) whe Europe). While this analogy seeng dm ematzed by thinkers as diversas Hoge onan nor been abandoned totaly in pote e od Ts got young” nations. In Latin Ameria — ve a en wih postive CONNOTATION, 0 Propo tae log ior. Tn decay while the New Wor, by via axsticaly at EPs eherefore could avoid the errors of the Oy is eS Ht pndoneriom, Rourshed Between the two org aera. While Sarmiento did not view Ange a hopefal way, it was he who most forcelly any phor of history as life. In Facundo bis a pattern deeply embedded in the very wars of the event tease" tetingly aciulated the me tri ke tha Fis protagonist Srp makeup ofthe Human 8 undo’ literary character is. what makes it-such an enduring work wit esining ofa rend in Latin American social sciences, pari Berean, Since chen, centre and ther dsipinesa ithe Taenry canon, In Braz Tram he Bacland: (1900), a book that owes mu “Frsocilogied study ofa religious rebellion in Canudos, The sertéesin “Fe Portguese tte (Os Sertes) is the Brazilian equivalent to the Ar sgentine Pampa, Then thete is the work of Gilberto Ereyre about the sve plantation world in the sugar-producing northeast of Brazil, Cast grande csenala (1933), translated as The Masters and the Slaves alte ary mastepiece ints own right. In Cuba, Fernando Ortiz, a pioneer in the study of Afro-Cuban culture, essentially an anthropologist, wrote bois ike Cuban Comnerpotak: Tabacco ad Siigar that area part of the Latin American literary tradition, as did his disciples Lyclia Cabrera and Barnet. Historian and economist Manuel Moreno Fraginals’s The Sugarmilis a casi of Cuban literature. In Peru, tragic Jose Mara Arguedas alternated between writing literature and writing anthropol- ony From the fteraure side, writers like Octavio Paz, in is Labsrinth af Salitnd (190), have practiced a kind of poetic anthropology that bas SS ongin in Facundo, as did much of the work of Alfonso Reyes and restvss interested in the topic of nation: aieural iden it Meno nde st of Latin Ameri a se FACUNDO: AN INTRODUCTION 1S Literature and the quest for self and collective xc have ‘gone hand in hand in Latin America since Sarmiento: books like Fa: ‘uid fepFEREAC atin America's form of thought, ts poctic philosophy. socal, political metaphysical —is sought sthetic, in novel, esays, and poems—an approach that in novels like Alcjo Carpentier'y The Last Steps (1953) and 3. Canta general The ening, romani Tegacyin Latin American cultre foster this apprauieas dace ue sl ie weaknes of academic dacplins aa cult of sconomic under political, and historical though is Gabriel Garcia Mirquea’s One Hun- dred Tears of Solitude. All those Buendias founding Macondo in the midst ofthe jungle, becoming caucillos in interminable civil wars, re- ceiving with astonishment the developments of modern science and 3t- tempting to apply them to their ives, are heirs to Sarmiento’s formula tions about civilization and barbarism, "The reading of such works alongside Facundo enhances and deepens the reader’s comprehension of them. Sarmiento's classic isin all of them as in a filigree, with its east of characters and figures and its defining landscape, the sublime and overwhelming beauty of the land that is both friend and foe, and with the tragic nature of ie itself in all ofits ‘manifestations, from the most elementary tothe cosmic. Sometimes au: thors pay direct homage to Facundo. For instance, in Carpentier’ dic- tator novel, El recurso del método (1976), translated as Reasons of State the counterpoint between the provincial city, called Nueva Cordoba, and the capital isa direct allusion to Sarmiento, as is the whole char- acterization of the tyrant—a barbarian who aspires pathetically to be- come civilized. And in Carlos Fuentes’s novel The Campaign, Argen- tina’s struggles for independence are portrayed in terms that could not bbe more indebted to Facundo. Carpentier was a Cuban and Fuentes is a Mexican. Sarmiento’s legacy in Argentine literature is immense, both in the essay gence and in fiction. In trying to eradicate the gaucho, Sarmiento turned him intoa national symbol. By the time José Hernin- ddez wrote his epic poem Martin Fierro (1872), the gaucho had become an object of nostalgia, a los origin around which to build a national ‘mythology. Facundo Quiroga endures, as all mythical figures do, be- cause his contradictions represent our unresolved struggle between good and evil and our lives” inexorable drive toward death. —————___--snmnke—e—_— Lic Jounslat, ism Translator’s Introduction A Foundational Text Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was living in exile in Chile in 1845 when ie wrote Facundo: Civilisation and Barbarism. ‘Today recognized as ‘one of the foundational works of Spanish American iterary history, Fa Gindo marks a defining point in the evolution of a literature that was at- tempting to establish a cultural identity for the new, post-Independence atin nations. A text controversial from its inception, this Book remains required reading for any student of Latin American history and culture. Its liberal ideology and prescriptions for modernization, combined with a prose style of tremendous beauty and passion, make it reverberate powerfully even for the twenty-first century, as rapid change overtakes ‘Argentina and the rest of the continent and region. ‘As.a narrative, Facundo is hard to clasify, Written in the expansive a! spirit of romantic, nineteenth-century historiography, it combines bi- | psa" ography, sociology, geography, poetic description, and political propa; (gurida in onder to denounce the tyranny of the Argentine dictator Juan ‘Manuel de Rosas, who held power from 1835 to 1852, Sarmiento’s attack ‘on Rosas in Facundo was carried out in several ways. The Argentine national character, the effects of land configuration on personality, the “barbaric” nature of the countryside versus the “civilizing” influence of the city, and the great future awaiting Argentina when it opened its doors wide to European immigration are all themes treated extensively in this text. ‘The political conflict between Buenos Aires and the provinces, which y aTHLEEs ROSS featier civil wat th, Cinilzation a” cep that cy pad been 2 ca0se ‘The book's subi raat : hough: ome trsp¥idish a provincial caudillo loyal to Ros, anne oy of th count SEE ADIN Ts Dogaphy ere Penonins —

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