What is striking in the first half of Fecundo is the author’s equation of civilization with a subversiveness, a sole bastion of civilized resistance in the face of dictatorship and barbarism. The civilized Buenos Aires resident holds up a pen in the face of the Gaucho’s knife. Yet this distinction between men of violence and men of the pen, which is a rallying cry for the future President of the Republic of Argentina, is immediately blurred in Fecundo. It is blurred in the contrast between Cordoba and Argentina, both places of learning and literature, both cities, but somehow on opposite ends of the battle. Sarmiento attributes this to old styles of learning and old texts, Bentham versus the Bible, however he credits the introduction of math and physics as having a revolutionary effect on the young people of Cordoba. The line is further blurred by the “hero” of his novel, who is literate and the son of a well-educated man; Quiroga is no average Gaucho.
The Gaucho is seemingly the embodiment of barbarism with his refusal to bow before authority and his penchant for solving disputes with a knife, and enjoying it. The Gaucho is a man of the country and what the cities must contend with as the Republic tries to reorganize Argentina in the wake of the 1810 revolution. He is illiterate, idle, and anti-authoritarian to the point that he will acknowledge no civil justice and no public. Yet the Gaucho is also a survivor and a Restreador, and at his best a Baqueano. Sarmiento unequivocally admires these expert trackers who know every bush, every tree, where they are night or day. In fact they are essential to all who want to make war in Argentina, including the revolutionaries. Why does Sarmiento admire such bastions of barbarism? I think it is because they are so intimate with the land that Sarmiento holds so dear, close to it in a way he can never be. They are also part of a landscape that is a source of much inspiration for the Argentinean writers of his day, which holds an irony in and of itself. If civilization exists in literature and literacy in cities, why is it the country – a place of barbarism - that inspires people to write?
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2 comments:
It is not a place of barbarism where you can be inspired to create literature as Sarmiento refers to the land of Gauchos. Is in itself an irony to analyse the Western barbarism that Sarmiento wants to demonstrate.
¿Isn´t it ironic that in his European definition of barbarism he describes all the abilities of a Gaucho as a civilized men, or isnt it a civilized person the one who has the abilities of write and read as the ancient cultures. Or are we trying to pursue a definition of civilization such as the occident culture wants us to have. "The cantor, naively, is doing the same work of chronicle, customs, history, bigraphy as the bard of Middle Ages, and his verses would be collected later as the documents and data on which future historians woyld base their evidence" (Sarmiento, p.71)
Miriam Carreno
Nathan, just a technical point... A reminder that you should tag or "label" your blog span312. That way it will show up at http://www.technorati.com/tag/span312.
Jon
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