facundo analysis

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Domingo Sarmiento was a writer and educator who later went on to preside Argentina from 1868 to 1874. He wrote “Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism in 1845. Where he presented a subtle criticism of the gauchos (a southern American cowboy who resided on the plains of Argentina) and their contributions to Latin American progress or lack thereof.
The image that is presented of Argentina in the 1880`s is not just critical one, the author is presenting a clear distinction between the countryman and the city man, two classes in one society. One being the city man of Buenos Aires, Cordoba and other towns and the other being the countryman or “gauchos” who lives in the surrounding plains or “Pampas”. Both a part of argentine culture but not participating equally in the progression of argentine society.
What society you may ask? The society presented on the text is an Argentine society in the middle of the 19th century with cities whose physiognomy is quite similar to all American cities. Sarmiento mentions that they are similar because the population is “disseminated across a broad area”. In contrast to American cities however, the city of Cordoba is more similar to a European city. Sarmiento claims it is the “center Argentine, Spanish, European civilization” because it where stores, schools, courthouses are and therefore it is where cultured people are.
Sarmiento claims in the text (Facundo, 1845) that cities like Cordoba and Buenos Aires are surrounded by desert and in this faction they are “hemmed in “ and “oppressed” by the desert. As to say that these cities are the one cultural salvation buried in miles of desert because they posses those characteristics of what Sarmiento believes to be culture. He mentions also that these cities a...

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...s presented in “Facundo” not just in a critical sense but also as a form of admiration. Sarmiento is trying to say that although the gaucho does not have the academic or cultural advances that the city men have, he almost makes up for them in courage, in valor, he lives in way that assures his next generations will live in the same conformity. They will also posses the same strength. They will have the same lack of education yet they same unyielding attitude towards the challenges of country life. Sarmiento holds a certain admiration for the gaucho because of this. Yet he implies it that it will not attribute to the progression of Argentina or South America like the city men will because the gaucho lives for the gaucho, he is disconnected from the needs of South America he is to committed to his current way of life to contribute to the advancement of South America.

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