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“Paper on the nation building in Latin American 19th-century literature by comparing the image of Gaucho in the writings of Hernández and Sarmiento. The different approaches to the image of gaucho represents different approaches to the gaucho and Indians for the purpose of nation building.
Begin your paper with a definition of the nation building in 19th-century Latin American art and literature. The definition should be drawn from the introduction to Nineteenth-Century Nation Building and the Latin American Intellectual Tradition. Then move on to a comparison of the image of gaucho in the writings of Hernández and Sarmiento. Who is a gaucho? Why or for what purpose did they represent gaucho in different ways? What can you find from the comparison? How can you relate the nation building agenda to these two writings. Conclude your paper by indicating how the gaucho prototype is invented in Argentine literature for nation building purpose. Use concrete quotes or citations from the readings above.
- Please read the Introduction of Nineteenth-Century Nation Building and the Latin American Intellectual Tradition.
- Please read the first half of the poem El Gaucho Martín Fierro by José Hernández, which depicted the epic life of a gaucho in the Pampas.
- Please read the descriiption of Gaucho in Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism by Domingdo Faustino Sarmiento. Sarmiento begins with several chapters on the geography and demographics of Argentina. His sentiments are immediately clear: “Civilization” is represented by urban life and European ideas. “Barbarism” is found in the countryside among the ignorant and brutal gauchos (cowboys) and the savage Indians. The goal of the Federales, as he saw it, was to keep Argentina divided and undeveloped so these “gaucho-outlaws” can pursue their careers of dissolution and banditry unmolested by any civil authority. Sarmiento’s understanding of the gauchos and Indigenous was representative as we have seen from the European immigration wave and the Campaign of the Desert.”