Civilization versus Barbarism

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

Sarmientos classic Facundo, or Civilization and Barbarism (1845) constitutes an early expression of the dilemma with which elite Latin American nation builders rappled in the nineteenth century! Sarmientos famous formula" #ci$ili%ation and barbarism&" directly implied" in sli htly expander terms" #imported 'uropean ci$ili%ation $ersus nati$e American barbarism&! (ndirectly" howe$er" it also expressed a racial dichotomy! )or Sarmiento" Ar entine ci$ili%ation was defined by the cities" where people of 'uropean descent predominated! *arbarism" which supposedly had to be eliminated for Ar entina to reali%e its national potential" was defined by the countryside" where most people were not of purely 'uropean descent! +he excerpted passa e exemplifies this aspect of Sarmientos thou ht and also foreshadows the #solution& that Ar entine elites pursued more successfully (be innin rou hly with Sarmientos own presidency in 18,8-18.4) than any other rulin roup in Latin America!

The question is to be or not be savage.

One illness which afflicts the Argentine e!ublic is its vast e"!anse. #he desert surrounds it. Solitude and wilderness without human habitation isolate its !rovinces from one another. #here is immensit$ ever$where% immense !lains, woods, and rivers, the horizon alwa$s uncertain, alwa$s blended with the earth among varicolored clouds and tenuous va!ors which !revent us from determining that distant !oint at which the world ends and the s&$ begins. #he agglomeration of navigable rivers is a notable trait of the countr$. But these immense canals e"cavated b$ 'ature(s solicitous hand have left no mar& on the customs of the Argentine !eo!le. An Argentine countr$man considers himself im!risoned in the narrow confines of a boat. )hen a great river cuts off his !assage, he calml$ undresses, !re!ares his horse and guides it swimming to an islet made out from afar. #here the horse and rider rest, and from islet to islet the crossing is finished at last. #hus, the Argentine countr$man disdains to navigate these river roads, the greatest favor *rovidence has su!!lied to the countr$, seeing them onl$ as an obstacle to his movements.
1 Excerpt from James Wood and John Charles Chasteen (eds.). Problems in Modern Latin American Histor . !o"rces and #nterpretations . $o"lder% &o'man and Littlefield% ())*. +rd edition.

As for the cit$ man of Argentina, he wears +uro!ean suit and lives a civilized life. ,n the cities there are laws, ideas of !rogress, means of instruction, munici!al organization, and regular government. Outside the cities, the loo& of ever$thing changes. #he countr$man wears different clothing, not +uro!ean but American. -is wa$ of life is different, his necessities !eculiar and limited. Argentina is therefore com!osed of two entirel$ different societies, two !eo!les unconnected with each other. )hat is more, the countr$man, far from as!iring to resemble his urban counter!art, disdainfull$ re.ects urban lu"uries and cultivated manners. All as!ects of urban civilization are banned in the countr$side. An$one who dared a!!ear in a froc& coat, mounted on an +nglish saddle, would bring u!on him the .eers and brutal aggression of the barbarous countr$ !eo!le. #he trium!h of the +uro!ean civilization encounters !racticall$ insu!erable barriers in the Argentine countr$side. ,t cannot, on the other hand, be denied that this situation has is !oetic side, worth$ of a novelist(s !en. ,f a s!ar&le of national literature can shine momentaril$ in the new American societies, it will arise from the descri!tion of gran natural scenes, and, above all, from the struggle between +uro!ean civilization and indigenous barbarit$. /reat difficulties for an$ !olitical organization are born from the conditions of countr$ life. )ould +ngland li&e to find consumers for its !roducts in Argentina, irres!ective of its government0 Fine, but what can si" hundred thousand !oor Argentine countr$ !eo!le, without industr$, almost without necessities, consume, under a government which, b$ e"tinguishing +uro!ean customs and tastes, necessaril$ diminishes the consum!tion of +uro!ean !roducts0 )hen there is a cultured government that cares about the national interest, then what business, what industrial movement there will be1 #he !rinci!al element of order, and the main ho!e for the future that Argentina !ossesses toda$ is +uro!ean immigration, which b$ itself, and in s!ite of the lac& of securit$ offered it, rushes in dail$ to the *late region. ,f there were a government ca!able of directing this immigration, it would b$ itself be enough to cure in no more than ten $ears all the wounds which the bandits who have dominated the countr$ 2from Facundo to osas3have inflicted u!on Argentina.