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.)
5 comments:
I’m not really sure how this commenting on other blogs is supposed to work, so here goes... I agree that the first chapter, though interesting, made the beginning seem more like a geography lesson than the beginning of the “first Latin American classic and the most important book written by a Latin American in any discipline or genre” (p. 1). I also was felt that the stories were exaggerated, e.g. it does seem a little much to cut off his lover’s ears!
I like your observation of how the gauchos he describes, aside from the retreador, are all somewhat bad. I didn't think of it like that. It could also play into his distaste for the common by only portratying the violent and negative aspects of the countryside. He does however, dress up the images quite well.
I agree with Erica. The first chapter was a Geography lecture. However, the only reason why it seemed like that was due to the language of the book. It is fluent and highly descriptive which allows the readers to imagine the whole setting.
Yes, the chapter on the different gauchos was really interesting, although it did have me wondering how much, if any of it, was myth. Although, I suppose that if you don't understand the logic or science behind something (i.e. how planes can fly) it could seem like magic or myth. I also was wondering if Sarmiento was exaggerating some of Facundo's more extreme actions. Considering though what humanity has proved itself capable of in the past, it is quite possible that these instances are accurate. However, it would seem to me that given Sarmiento's agenda in writing this that it might be in his interest to embelish certain stories.
hey Mike,
Ya I definitely agree with you that it seems that Sarmiento does romanticize the idea of the Gaucho. I think that the horror-stories about Facundo might be somewhat embellished due to this romanticism.
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