Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

Domingo F. Sarmiento
7th President of Argentina
In office October 12, 1868 – October 12, 1874
Vice President	Adolfo Alsina
Preceded by	Bartolomé Mitre
Succeeded by	Nicolás Avellaneda
Personal details
Born	February 15, 1811 San Juan
Died	September 11, 1888 Asunción, Paraguay
Nationality	Argentinean
Political party	Liberal
Profession	Journalist

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Albarracín (February 15, 1811 – September 11, 1888) was an Argentinian writer and the seventh President of Argentina. Now considered "The Teacher" of Latin America, and an important influence on the region's literature, he grew up in a poor but politically active family that paved the way for much of his future accomplishments. Between 1843 and 1850 he wrote in both Chile and in Argentina. His great literary achievement was Facundo, a critique of the Dictator Manuel de Rosas, that Sarmiento wrote while in exile in Chile. The book brought him far more than just literary recognition; he expended his efforts and energy on the war against dictatorships, specifically that of Manuel de Rosas, and contrasted enlightened Europe—a world where democracy, social services, and intelligent thought were desirable—against the barbarism of the gaucho and especially the caudillo, the ruthless strongmen of Latin America during the nineteenth century.

While president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874, Sarmiento championed intelligent thought—including education for children and women alike—and democracy for Latin America. He also took advantage of the opportunity to modernize and develop train systems, a postal system, and a comprehensive education system. He spent many years in ministerial roles on the federal and state levels where he travelled abroad and examined other education systems. From these experiences, Sarmiento developed a great adoration for the United States, a country that in his eyes was a model for Argentina.

Sarmiento died in Asunción at the age of 77 from a heart attack. He was buried in Buenos Aires. Today, Latin America respects him still as a political innovator and a great writer.

Youth and influences

A map of Argentina, showing some of the key locations in Sarmiento's life such as San Juan (to the West) and Buenos Aires (in the East)

Sarmiento was born in Carrascal, a poor suburb of San Juan, Argentina on February 15, 1811. His father, José Clemente Quiroga Sarmiento y Funes, had served in the military during the wars of independence, returning prisoners of war to San Juan. His mother was Doña Paula Zoila de Albarracín e Irrázabal and a very pious woman. Paula Albarracín lost her father at a young age and was left with very little to support herself. As a result, she took to selling her weaving in order to afford to build a house of her own. On September 21 1801, José and Paula were married. They had 15 children, 9 of whom died; Domingo was the only son to survive to adulthood. In Sarmiento's own words:

"I was born in a family that lived long years in mediocrity bordering on destitution, and which is to this day poor in every sense of the word. My father is a good man whose life has nothing remarkable except [for his] having served in subordinate positions in the War of Independence... My mother is the true figure of Christianity in its purest sense; with her, trust in Providence was always the solution to all difficulties in life."

At the age of four, Sarmiento was taught to read by his father and his uncle, José Eufrasio Quiroga Sarmiento, who later became Bishop of Cuyo. Another uncle who influenced him in his youth was Domingo de Oro, a notable figure in the young Argentine Republic who was influential in bringing Don Juan Manuel Rosas to power. Though Sarmiento did not follow de Oro's political leanings, he learned the value of intellectual integrity and honesty. He developed scholarly and oratorical skills, qualities which de Oro was famous for.

In 1816, at the age of five, Sarmiento began attending the primary school La Escuela de la Patria. He was a good student, and earned the title of First Citizen (Primer Ciudadno) of the school. After completing primary school, his mother wanted him to go to Córdoba to become a priest. He had spent a year reading the Bible and often spent time as a child helping his uncle with church services, but Sarmiento soon become bored with religion and school, and became involved with a group of aggressive children. Sarmiento's father took him to the Loreto Seminary in 1821, but for reasons unknown, Sarmiento did not enter the seminary, returning instead to San Juan with his father. In 1823, the Minister of State, Bernardino Rivadavia, announced that the six top pupils of each state would be selected to receive higher education in Buenos Aires. Sarmiento was at the top of the list in San Juan, but it was then announced that only ten pupils would receive the scholarship. The selection was made by lot, and Sarmiento was not one of the scholars whose name was drawn.

Political background and exiles

Daguerrotipo de Domingo Faustino Sarmiento de 1852, luego de la batalla de Caseros.Autor desconocido, el original se encuentra en el Museo Histórico Sarmiento (Argentina).Tomado de "La Fotografía en la Historia Argentina", Tomo I, Clarin, 2005.

The first time Sarmiento went into exile was with his uncle, José de Oro, in 1827. José de Oro was a priest who had fought in the Battle of Chacabuco under General San Martin. Together, Sarmiento and de Oro went to San Francisco del Monte. He spent much of his time with his uncle learning and began to teach at a small school in the Andes. Later that year his mother wrote to him asking him to come home. Sarmiento refused, only to receive a response from his father that he was coming to collect him. His father had persuaded the governor of San Juan to send Sarmiento to Buenos Aires to study at the College of Moral Sciences (Colegio de Ciencias Morales).

Upon Sarmiento's return, the province of San Juan broke out into civil war. Facundo Quiroga invaded Sarmiento's town and Sarmiento was unable to attend school in Buenos Aires. He then began managing his aunt's store. Choosing to fight against Quiroga, Sarmiento joined and fought in the army of General Paz, only to be placed under house arrest when San Juan was eventually taken over by Quiroga.

Due to his innovative style of teaching, he found himself in conflict with the governor of the province. In response, he founded his own school in Pocura. During this time, Sarmiento fell in love and had an illegitimate daughter named Ana Faustina, who Sarmiento did not acknowledge until she married. Ana and her husband, Julio Belín, had a child named Augusto Belín Sarmiento, who stayed with Sarmiento until his death.

Fighting and war soon again resumed, and in 1831 Sarmiento fled to Chile, in exile for the second time. He did not return to Argentina for five years. At the time, Chile was noted for its good public administration, its constitutional organization, and the rare freedom to criticize the regime. Sarmiento described Chile as such: "Security of property, the continuation of order, and with both of these, the love of work and the spirit of enterprise that causes the development of wealth and prosperity."

Sarmiento entered Chile with certain ideas that he had developed from his extensive reading. In Chile he fine-tuned his personal philosophy, and many of his political ideologies were manifested during this second exile. As his ideas became increasingly clarified and his writing began to have a clear message of enlightenment, he began to prove himself as a great political force. Within four years time, Sarmiento became known as one of Chile's outstanding journalists.

In 1836, Sarmiento returned to San Juan, seriously ill with typhoid fever; his family and friends thought he would die upon his return, but he recovered fully and established an anti-federalist periodical called El Zonda. The government of San Juan did not like Sarmiento's criticisms and censored the magazine by imposing an unaffordable tax upon each purchase. Sarmiento was forced to cease publication of the magazine in 1840. He also founded a school for girls during this time.

At the end of 1845, Sarmiento met with General Esteban Echeverría in Montevideo, who was in exile against the government of Rosas. Between the years of 1845 and 1847, Sarmiento travelled to Uruguay, Brazil, France, Spain, Algeria, Italy, Armenia, Switzerland, England, Canada, Cuba, and the United States on behalf of the Peruvian government in order to examine different education systems and the levels of education and communication. Based on his travels, he wrote the book Viajes por Europa, África, y América in 1849.

In 1848 Sarmiento became an educational advisor to governors. It was during this period that he voluntarily left to Chile once again. During the same year, he met widow Benita Martínez Pastoriza and adopted his son, Domingo Fidel, or Dominguito. It was when he wrote his best known work, Facundo. Sarmiento continued to exercise the idea of freedom of press and began two new periodicals entitled La Tribuna and La Crónica respectively, which strongly attacked Don Juan Manuel. During this stay in Chile, Sarmiento strengthened his efforts against Rosas. The Argentinean government tried to have Sarmiento extradited from Chile to Argentina, but the Chilean government refused to hand him over.

Sarmiento returned to Argentina, where he wrote Argiropolis and Recuerdos de provincia (Recollections of a Province). However, in 1852 he returned again to Chile where he was appointed to be the Director of Education. In 1854, he briefly visited Argentina, but he was arrested and sent back to Chile.

Four years later, Sarmiento returned to San Juan and became the governor of the province. It was then that he passed the Statutory Law of Public Education, making it mandatory for children to attend primary school. It allowed for a number of institutions to be opened including secondary schools, military schools and an all-girls school. While governor, he developed roads and infrastructure, built public buildings and hospitals, encouraged agriculture and allowed for mineral mining. He resumed his post as editor of La Zonda. In 1863, Sarmiento fought against the power of the caudillo of La Rioja and found himself in conflict with the Interior Minister of General Mitre's government, Guillermo Rawson. Sarmiento stepped down as government of San Juan, but ran unsuccessfully for president of the Argentinean Republic in 1864 against General Mitre. He did, however, become the Plenipotentiary Minister to the United States where he was sent to in 1865, soon after the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Moved by the story of Lincoln, Sarmiento ended up writing his book Vida de Lincoln. It was on this trip that Sarmiento received an honorary degree from the University of Michigan. A bust of him still stands in the Modern Languages Building, as well as a statue at Brown University. While on this trip, he was asked to run for President again. He won, taking office on October 12, 1868.

President of Argentina

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was President of the Republic of Argentina from 1868–1874. A long time opponent of the dictator Juan Manuel de Rosas (who inspired the writing of Facundo), Sarmiento helped Justo Jose de Urquiza, an Argentine general and politician; overthrow Rosas' government in 1852. This was when he began to be active in politics, after years in exile as a political prisoner in Chile.

Sarmiento fought hard against dictatorship and sought to create basic freedoms, and wanted to ensure civil safety and progress for everyone, as he presented at the end of Facundo. This was supposed to take place as soon as the Rosas regime had concluded. Sarmiento's tour of the United States opened up many new ideas about politics and democracy, especially when he was the Argentine ambassador to the United States from 1865-1868. He found New England, specifically the Boston-Cambridge area to be the source of much of his influence, writing in an Argentine newspaper that "[New England is] the cradle of the modern republic, the school for all of America." He described Boston as "The pioneer city of the modern world, the Zion of the ancient Puritans... Europe contemplates in New England the power which in the future will supplant her."

During his presidency, Argentina went to war with Paraguay where Domingo, Sarmiento's adopted son, was killed. Sarmiento suffered from immense grief and was thought to never have been the same again. Sarmiento accomplished much during his presidency, including the establishment of 800 educational and military institutions; the improvement of the educational system, which enabled 100,000 children to attend school; the installment of 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi) of telegraph line across the country for improved communications; modernizing the post and train systems which he believed to be integral for interregional and national economies, as well as building the Red Line, a train line that would bring goods to Buenos Aires in order to better facilitate trade with England. By the end of his presidency, the Red Line extended 1,331 kilometres (827 mi). In 1869, he conducted Argentina's first national census.

On August 22, 1873, Sarmiento was the target of an unsuccessful bombing. A year later in 1874, he completed his term as President and stepped down, but became the General Director of Schools for the Province of Buenos Aires in 1875. Soon after, he became the Senator for San Juan. In 1879, Sarmiento took the position of Interior Minister but had problems with the Governor of Buenos Aires, Carlos Tejedor, and resigned. He then assumed the post of Superintendent General of Schools for the National Education Ministry under President Roca and published El Monitor de la Educación Común, which is a fundamental reference for Argentinean education. In 1882, Sarmiento was successful in passing the sanction of Free Education allowing schools to be free, mandatory, and separate from that of religion.

In 1888, Sarmiento left Argentina for the warmer climate of Paraguay. He was accompanied by his daughter, Ana, and his companion Aurelia Vélez . He died in Asunción on September 11, 1888 from a heart attack and was buried in Buenos Aires.

Philosophy

Sarmiento considered himself to have been born at the same time as the Argentine Republic. He was most famous for modernization and for education. He most firmly believed in democracy and European liberalism, but was most often seen as a romantic. Sarmiento was well versed in Western philosophy including the works of Karl Marx and John Stuart Mill. He was particularly fascinated with the liberty given to those living in the United States, which he witnessed as a representative of the Peruvian government. He did, however, see pitfalls to liberty, pointing for example to the aftermath of the French Revolution, which he compared to Argentina's own May Revolution. He believed that liberty could turn into anarchy and thus civil war, which is what happened in France and in Argentina. Therefore, his use of the term "liberty" was more in reference to a laissez-faire approach to the economy, and religious liberty. Though a Catholic himself, he began to adopt the ideas of separation of church and state modeled after the US. He believed that there should be more religious freedom, and less religious affiliation in schools. This was one of many ways in which Sarmiento tried to connect South America to North America.

Sarmiento believed in a social system. He believed that the material and social needs of people had to be satisfied but not at the cost of order and decorum. He put great importance on law and citizen participation. These ideas he most equated to Rome and to the United States, a society which he viewed as exhibiting similar qualities. In order to civilize the Argentine society and make it equal to that of Rome or the United States, Sarmiento believed in eliminating the caudillos, or the larger landholdings and establishing multiple agricultural colonies run by European immigrants.

Coming from a family of writers, orators, and clerics, Domingo Sarmiento placed a great value on education and learning. He opened a number of schools including the first school in Latin America for teachers in Santiago in 1842: La Escuela Normal Preceptores de Chile. He proceeded to open 18 more schools and had mostly female teachers from the USA come to Argentina to instruct graduates how to be effective when teaching. Sarmiento's belief was that education was the key to happiness and success, and that a nation could not be democratic if it was not educated. "We must educate our rulers," he said. "An ignorant people will always choose Rosas."

Publications

Major works

• Facundo - Civilización y Barbarie - Vida de Juan Facundo Quiroga, 1845. Written during a long exile in Chile. Originally published in Chile as a sequential work in a Chilean newspaper, Facundo is Sarmiento's most famous work. It has since been compiled into complete versions, translated from its original Spanish into the most modern edition in English by Kathleen Ross. Facundo promotes further civilization and European influence to Argentine culture through the use of anecdotes and references to Don Juan Facundo Quiroga, Argentine caudillo general and dictator. As well as being a call to progress, Sarmiento discusses the nature of Argentine peoples as well as including his thoughts and objections to Juan Manuel de Rosas, succeeding dictator of Argentina after Facundo's death. As literary critic Sylvia Molloy observes, Sarmiento claimed that this book helped explain Argentine struggles to European readers, and was cited in European publications. Written with extensive assistance from others, Sarmiento adds to his own memory the quotes, accounts, and dossiers from other historians and companions of Facundo Quiroga. Facundo maintains its relevance in modern day as well, bringing attention to the contrast of lifestyles in Latin America, the conflict and struggle for progress while maintaining tradition, as well as the moral and ethical treatment of the public by government officials and regimes.

• Recuerdos de Provincia (Recollections of a Provincial Past), 1850. In this second autobiography, Sarmiento displays a stronger effort to include familial links and ties to his past, in contrast to Mi defensa, choosing to relate himself to San Juan and his Argentine heritage. Sarmiento discusses growing up in rural Argentina with basic ideologies and simple livings. Recuerdos discusses his Similar to Facundo, Sarmiento uses previous dossiers filed against himself by enemies to assist in writing Recuerdos and therefore fabricating an autobiography based on these files and from his own memory. Sarmiento's persuasion in this book is substantial. The accounts, whether all true or false against him, are a source of information to write Recuerdos as he is then able to object and rectify into what he creates as a 'true account' of autobiography with a documentary style.

Other works

Sarmiento was a prolific author. The following are but a selection of his other works:

• Mi defensa, 1843. This was Sarmiento's first autobiography in a pamphlet form, which omits any substantial information or recognition of his illegitimate daughter Ana. This would have discredited Sarmiento as a respected father of Argentina, as Sarmiento portrays himself as a sole individual, disregarding or denouncing important ties to other people and groups in his life.
• Viajes por Europa, Africa, América 1849. A description and observations while travelling as a representative of the Peruvian government to learn more about educational systems around the world.
• Argirópolis 1850. A description of a future utopian city in the River Plate States.
• Commentarios sobre la constitución 1852. This is Sarmiento's official account of his ideologies promoting civilization and the "Europeanization" and "Americanization" of Argentina. This account includes dossiers, articles, speeches and information regarding the pending constitution.
• Informes sobre educación, 1856. This report was the first official statistic report on education in Latin America includes information on gender and location distribution of pupils, salaries and wages, and comparative achievement. Informes sobre educación proposes new theories, plannings, and methods of education as well as quality controls on schools and learning systems.
• Las Escuelas, base de la prosperidad y de la republica en los Estados Unidos 1864. The latter three function as a promotion to Latin America and Argentines regarding the school systems, economies and politics in the United States, which Sarmiento supported.
• Confictos y armonias de las razas en America 1883, deals with race issues in Latin America in the late 1800's. While situations in the book remain particular to the time period and location, dealings with race issues and conflicts of races are still prevalent and enable the book to be relevant in modern day.
• Vida de Dominguito, 1886. A memoir description of Dominguito, Sarmiento's adopted son who was the only child Sarmiento had always accepted. Many of the notes used to compile Vida de Dominguito had been written 20 years prior during one of Sarmiento's stays in Washington.

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• Educar al soberano, date??, a compilation of letters written from 1870 to 1886 on the topic of improved education, promoting and suggesting new reforms such as secondary schools, parks, sporting fields and specialty schools. This compilation was met with far greater success than Ortografía, Instrucción Publica and received greater public support.
• El camino de Lacio, date??, which impacted Argentina by influencing many Italians to immigrate by relating Argentinas history to that of Latium of the Roman empire.
• Inmigración y colonización, date??, a publication which led to mass immigrations of Europeans to mostly urban Argentina, which Sarmiento believed would assist in 'civilizing' the country over the more barbaric gauchos and rural provinces. This had a large impact on Argentine politics, especially as much of the civil tension in the country was divided between the rural provinces and the cities. In addition to increased urban population, these European immigrants had a cultural effect upon Argentina, providing what Sarmiento believed to be more civilized culture similar to North America's.
• On the Condition of Foreigners, date??, which helped to assist political changes for immigrants in 1860.
• Ortografía, Instrucción Publica, date??, which was based upon Sarmiento's passion for improved education. Among this, Sarmiento focused on illiteracy of the youth, to which he suggested to simplify readings and spellings for the public education system, a method which was never implemented.
• Practica Consitucional, date??, a three volume work, describing current political methods as well as propositions for new methodologies.
• Presidential Papers, date??, a history of his presidency, formed of many personal and external documents.
• Travels in the United States in 1847, date?? (Edited and translated into English by Michael Aaron Rockland.)

Legacy

The impact of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento is most obviously seen in the establishment of Latin American Teacher's Day which was done in his honor at the 1943 Interamerican Conference on Education, which was held in Panama. Today, he is still considered to be Latin America's teacher. In his time, he opened countless schools, created free public libraries, openned immigration, and worked towards a Union of Plate States.

His impact was not only on the world of education, but on Argentinan political and social structure. His ideas are now revered as innovative, though at the time they were not widely accepted. He was a self-made man and believed in sociological and economic growth for Latin America, something that the Argentinian people could not recognize at the time with the soaring standard of living which came with high prices, high wages, and an increased national debt.

Today, there is a statue in honor of Sarmiento in Boston on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall, between Gloucester and Hereford streets, erected in 1973. There is Plaza Sarmiento in Rosario, Argentina. One of Rodin's last sculptures was that of Sarmiento which is now in Buenos Aires.

References

• Bunkley, Allison Williams (1969) [1952], The Life of Sarmiento, New York: Greenwood Press, ISBN 0837123925

• Crowley, Francis G. (1972), Sarmiento, New York: Twayne, ISBN ?? {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
• Crowley, Frances C. "Domingo Faustino Sarmiento". New York: Twayne Publishers, 1972.
• Halperin Donghi, Tulio (1994), "Sarmiento's Place in Postrevolutionary Argentina", in Halperin Donghi, Tulio; Jaksic, Ivan; Kirkpatrick, Gwen; Masiello, Francine (eds.), Sarmiento: Author of a Nation, ??: University of California Press, pp. 19–30.

• Katra, William H. (1994), "Reading Viajes", in Halperin Donghi, Tulio; Jaksic, Ivan; Kirkpatrick, Gwen; Masiello, Francine (eds.), Sarmiento: Author of a Nation, ??: University of California Press, pp. 73–100.

• Kirkpatrick, Gwen; Masiello, Francine (1994), "Introduction: Sarmiento between History and Fiction", in Halperin Donghi, Tulio; Jaksic, Ivan; Kirkpatrick, Gwen; Masiello, Francine (eds.), Sarmiento: Author of a Nation, ??: University of California Press, pp. 1–18.

• Mann, Mary Tyler Peabody (2001), My Dear Sir: Mary Mann's Letters to Sarmiento, 1865–1881, ??: Instituto Cultural Argentino Norteamericano, ISBN 987-98659-0-1. Editor ??.
• Molloy, Sylvia (1991), At Face Value: Autobiographical Writing in Spanish America, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0521331951
• Patton, Elda Clayon (1976), Sarmiento in the United States, Evansville Indiana: The University of Evansville Press, ISBN ?? {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help).
• Penn, Dorothy (Aug, 1946), "Sarmiento--"School Master President" of Argentina", Hispania, 29 (3): 386–389, retrieved 2008-03-26 {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Rosa, José María (??), Historia Argentina, ??: ??, ISBN ?? {{citation}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help); Check date values in: |year= (help).
• Ross, Kathleen (2003), "Translator's Introduction", in Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (ed.), Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism, trans. Kathleen Ross, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp. 17–26.
• Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino (2005), Recollections of a Provincial Past, ??: Library of Latin America, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-511369-1. Trans. by Elizabeth Garrels and Asa Zatz.
• Sarmiento, Domingo Faustino (2003), Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press (published 1845), ISBN 0520239806 The first complete English translation. Trans. Kathleen Ross.