Facundo

            There are many ideas and conflicts brought to light by Sarmiento in Facundo. It offers a study of Argentinean character and offers a suggestion to the modernization of Latin America. Foremost, however, it is a protest against the tyranny of the government of Juan Manuel de Rosas. Facundo also brings up several important questions regarding Argentina's history, many of which are still talked about today. The most important of these is the question of the "civilized" city versus the "barbaric" countryside.
             Primarily, Facundo is propaganda against Rosas, the Argentine dictator or caudillo. Sarmiento writes in Facundo, "Rosas invented nothing; his talent was only to copy his predecessors and turn the brutal instinct of the ignorant masses into a cold and calculated system." Sarmiento is criticizing not only Rosas, but the people of Argentina. Sarmiento believes that all of what Rosas had done in the country was copying other caudillos that came before him. He believes that Rosas, Facundo Quiroga, and Urquiza are all caudillos from the same mold. Sarmiento also expresses this view in the use of the population of Argentina. All of the caudillos used terror to get the fickle public behind them in everything they did. Sarmiento shows that Rosas was not what the people of Argentina wanted, but he was merely what they were afraid to oppose.
             Writing from exile gave Sarmiento the distance he needed from Rosas and his tyranny to speak his mind. He said of Rosas and his political system, "Cows dictate Argentine policy! What are Rosas, Facundo Quiroga, and Urquiza? Cowboys, nothing more." Sarmiento is saying that the military background of all of these men is not sufficient experience to run a government. He believed that an education in politics was necessary for the government of Argentina to thrive. These caudillos knowing nothing about politics and only about violence will only scare the people of Argentina and will not work with them.