Facundo, el fin.

Like a few others had said, I didn’t find the novel all that intriguing. My first impressions prior to reading it were that the first half would consist of dull details and geography; and the remainder would be fast-paced, exciting but gruesome stories of Juan Facundo Quiroga and Don Juan Manuel Rosas. However, the novel (can I even call it a novel? Biography? History textbook?) turned out to be quite the opposite. I found the beginning to contain hidden little stories like that of the tiger story; whereas the remainder was simply a recollection of invasions and conquests. There were simply too many names of generals and cities and I began to skip over the names immediately upon seeing it, knowing I would not be able to follow unless I drew out a map and traced their paths. Though I can understand why Sarmiento would want to explain in such great detail the many battles for territory so as to give the reader the full picture of how the society was at war; which was strongly emphasized by the identical titling of three consecutive chapters.

The two most interesting aspects of the last half was first, the short story of Facundo and one of his officers on page 175. This story was about how Facundo attempted to attack the officer with his lance but the officer grabbed the lance from him, and then returned it back to him. This repeated three times, and each time the officer “respectfully” returned the lance back to Facundo. After the third time though, Facundo calls for assistance and six men held the officer down while he repeatedly stabbed the officer. Anyone else see some similarities with the tiger story? It seems strangely similar to when Facundo waited for his friends to help rope the tiger, after which he avenges on the tiger by repeatedly stabbing him, except that time, with a knife.

Secondly, I couldn’t help but notice the number of times Sarmiento used the word “red.” Page 132 – red flags, red cloth, red blankets and clothing, red cape, red robe, red ribbon; page 134 – red bow; page 187 – red marker, red rag. That was simply a small sample but I’m sure there were more references to the colour red. I’m starting to think Sarmiento is trying to suggest the bloodshed that characterizes Facundo, Rosas, and society during that period of time. (That was my attempt to express thoughts with a note of sarcasm in case you didn’t catch it.) Sarmiento even writes about this on page 133, “Is not red the symbol expressing violence, blood, and barbarism? And if not, why this antagonism?”

Oh and lastly, I found this quote extremely intriguing. Page 135...
“What happens is that terror is a disease of the mind that attacks a people like cholera, smallpox, or scarlet fever. No one, finally, escapes the contagion. And when work is done for ten straight years to inoculate it, even though already vaccinated cannot resist in the end.”
Could the reason why Facundo/Rosas were so “successful” lie in the fact that they understand fear so well?