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.