I have to say that I was hoping to find the second half of “Facundo” a bit easier to read but I instead have found it hard to get through. I really have had to make myself sit to read it. It is chock full of fact, details, and statistics that become tedious for me as a reader.

One thing I find very interesting though is the way in which the narrator continues to be caught up in comparing barbarism and civilization while he tells Facundo’s story. This obsession with the civilized Europe is really interesting. One thing I find interesting is Sarmiento’s view that Spain is not as civilized as the rest of Europe. I can see it in the sense that he looks negatively on Spain as the Spanish conquered his country, but I haven’t thought of them as close to ‘barbaric Africa’ and disconnected from the rest of Europe.

Sarmiento idealizes the rest of Europe especially France. Mostly he marks Argentina as completely oppsite of Europe. Although he seems quite proud of Buenos Aires and this pride can be seen in the way in which he speaks about it as cultured and ‘civilized’. He boasts of the abundance of English, French, German, and Italian last names, never mentioning the Spanish names that are most likely equally if not more, prolific. His pride for Buenos Aires is also notable. He writes just 3 pages about Cordoba and 8 pages about Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, he praises, was as advanced if not more as the rest of Europe. He notes, “Buenos Aires professed and believed everything that the learned European believed and professed” (123). This battle for Sarmiento to connect his country is never ending.


tag: span312