First Part of The President

I'm torn about this book so far. On the one hand, its different from Facundo, and that certainly can't be a bad thing, right? On the other hand, the bizarre language (the repetition of made-up syllables) and the theatrical quality to the dialogue makes it seem, well, a bit like a play, at points anyways. And to be honest ive never been one for plays, watching or reading. Which is why, strangely, i actually wish id spent the last few hours reading a more factual book like Facundo, which, while drier and more technical, always left me feeling as though id learned something. For whatever reason thats always been my issue with fiction: it didn't happen. My dad used to avidly read the Ann Rule true crime novels, and when i asked him why, he basically told me that its so much more involving and, well, upsetting, given that it actually happened. Might be why i tend to prefer non-fiction historical type books. Nevertheless, after i got into it a bit more, The President started to get better.

At the beginning, and possibly due to the mood i was in when i started, i found it hard to keep track of exactly what was going on... I imagine the author intended for the scheme to reveal itself as the book went on, and to his credit, after about 100-120 pages it started to become clearer to me, which has since made reading this book much more enjoyable. 

I found the description of the street people at the beginning to be interesting, since for some reason i imagined Latin American dictatorships to have immaculate cities, with the destitute forced out. Im not sure why i made this assumption, knowing as i do little to nothing about the topic, but I suppose it might have something to do with the pomp and circumstance of the military displays that always feature prominently in any (fictional) movie on the subject. 

Once again, Ill digress and just mention a favorite quote... 

I've just spent 15 minutes looking for it and i can't seem to remember where is was. It was something along the lines of someone being "full of wind from the drink"... I need to use my time more wisely i feel... and yes, i have the sense of humor of a 10 year old. 

Second Half of Facundo

Again I ran into a minor hiccup when i tried to read the second half of the book. I'd left it til today for a number of football-playoff related reasons, and i wanted to get through the last 150pages or so at a decent pace. But i just couldn't do it. Personally i have a great interest in history, especially of the military variety, and Sarmiento's style of writing the "Society at War" chapters was just too detailed and involving to gloss over. I found myself reading every word carefully, and trying to keep track of the different generals and names, even re-reading some passages and flipping back at times to remember what had gone on. The only real downside i can see of this style is that these chapters lack, at times, the clear message that Facundo is a brutal Gaucho. That element is certainly there, but the discussion of the firing squads and the ransoming of civilians for war-chest funds exists in the framework of a long story about a convoluted civil war. Which brings me to the next thing I noticed...

Facundo is a coward! We discussed in class the fact that he had needed his friends to overpower the tiger that had him up a tree, and only then could he delight in taking his vengeance. I thought this might come up later in the book and it has. Facundo doesn't kill his own enemies, at least not in the majority of cases. When he suffers some affront, he usually calls for a firing squad... which makes no sense in the case of most of these issues. I would have expected the Gaucho to continue to delight in settling his difference mano a mano with his knife, but it seems that he's moved to a more... efficient type of violence. Similarly, whereas earlier in the story Facundo cuts off a woman's ear for some minor offense, as he gains power it seems he uses his aides to assault women. The part where he has them try to hold her down just doesn't ring true, this guy is a true force to be reckoned with... but needs his buddies to overpower a princess? Finally, even on the battlefield he is described on page. 131 as absent when his men win the big victory (in fact, things weren't going well when Facundo was there... and the tide turned after he ran away... only to return to kill some defenseless enemy and claim the victory (the tiger story:redux, anyone?)). 

In another way, Facundo can be seen as brutal, but not noble or brave. He repeatedly disregards the European, gentlemanly way that wars should be fought. Or more specifically, he doesnt adhere to the rules of war, for example when he kills someone under the flag of truce. 

Ive taken a whole page of various snippets i found interesting in this second half, including some about Facundo's manufacture of support through a sort of domino effect started by fear; his focus on monetary gain that never came from out-and-out theft; and when Sarmiento says that it isnt really Facundo's fault... he's just a gaucho who cant control himself and doesnt know any better (p.175 at the bottom). Given the need for brevity, Ill just mention two small items that stuck with me. The first was on p. 164 when Sarmiento describes how Rosas, Pavon, and Lopez would "[get] on their horses every morning and [ride] out to be gauchos on the pampas." I thought this was a great contrast in that it made brutal men sound like children again, playing at being cowboys. And finally, on a less serious note i loved the quote about the nature of some women on page 156: "A beautiful woman will often trade a bit of her own dishonor for a bit of the glory surrounding a celebrated man." - brilliant, and still true today, i feel.

First 5 of Facundo

Not being entirely sure of how to write this i made the mistake of trying to remember details from the very beginning. Big mistake! The geography information, while interesting, makes the first chapter read much more like a non-fiction history book than what is, I suppose, a fictional (but based on real life...?) story. One thing that did really strike me was the romanticism that went along with Sarmiento's description of the life of the gauchos. Although it isnt obvious at first, the repeated discussion about gauchos, and their flaws, turns out to be important in trying to understand Facundo. Also, the fact that he (the author) describes in great detail a number of different types of gaucho serves to explain Facundo better. The Rastreador (the tracker) is especially impressive. Of all the sorts of gaucho, he seems to be the only purely "good", or at least "neutral", type. The Baqueano seems more warlike, although the fact that Sarmiento discusses a particular Baqueano fighting Rosas leads me to believe that Baqueanos cant be all bad. Back to the romanticism though... 

In the first chapter the author mentions the life of the wagoneers "traversing the Pampas." He writes of the constant state of privation that they, and all the rural people, live in. I suppose romanticism is the wrong word. My mind drifted at times to images of cowboys in the American (North- interesting that the author uses "America" to describe South America") West. Although, i suppose also the images I came up with are considerably more romanticized than was actually the case. And, that even the reality of the American West was...nicer?... than what Sarmiento describes as the state of the Argentine lands. 

That i kept drifting mentally thousands of miles North can be blamed on a few things. First, the writing is elaborate and flowery. This could be the result of translation from Spanish to English. I know that if you type in something like "I like to eat bread" into a translator from english to spanish, and then you do the result back to english... you get "i have taste to eat the bread." Now im in no way suggesting that professional translators don't have the sense to translate meanings as best they can, but obviously anytime you go from one language to another there is going to be interpretational decisions made. The more likely culprit, however, is the writer. When the class brainstormed the image of the writer, I wasn't the only one who thought he seemed a bit self-important. He wasnt forced to leave by the government... he was "pitifully exiled", and in his exile he wasn't going to write about what he thought, but rather intended "to make the rays of light of [Chile's] press project over to the other side of the Andes." 

The last thing i'll mention was the description of the violent life of Facundo. Now, i cant help but feel the stories are embellished. Surely he didnt cut off his lovers ears over a wedding gift? Or kill a judge because he lost a bet? For some reason a book i read called "Killing Pablo"by Mark Bowden came to mind, which is basically about the attempts to capture, and finally kill, Pablo Escobar. The descriptions of the killings done by Escobar's men over seemingly tiny disagreements or infractions strike me as similar to the life of the bad gaucho (Facundo.) 

Test Post

Just a test post. Thoughts on the first 5 to follow.