Week Two

        One main focus during class this week was in regards to Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism. In this document, Sarmiento writes about his “ideal” view of Argentina. He wants a unique nation modeled off of the United States and wants to unite the people of Argentina. He contradicts himself, however, because while he speaks about unity among the Argentinians, he clearly distinguishes between the civilized city people and the barbaric country folk. He looks down upon the gauchos and the uneducated people who live in the country, and even speaks about wanting to get rid of them. I found this separation of city folk and country folk similar to the conflict between the elites and working class/indigenous that we talked about last week. One of the main reasons there were conflicts between both groups was because the educated looked down upon the uneducated, and viewed them as inferior. 

        One thing I found hard to understand this week was what Sarmiento wanted in terms of the new nation. His contradictions made it confusing especially in regards to what he wanted to do with the uneducated and whether he wanted to incorporate them into society or not. He wrote about wanting to unite the nation, but also wanted to get rid of the dangerous barbarians. Personally, I felt like this hurt his credibility because it made it seem as if he was using the concept of unity to gain support even though I was unsure of who he wanted to unite—the whole nation or just the “civilized?”