Facundo: Or,Civilization And Barbarism (Penguin Classics)

Now considered the most important Latin American essay of the nineteenth century, Facundo first appeared in 1845, when Sarmiento was living in political exile from Argentina. Ostensibly a biography of the gaucho "barbarian" Juan Facundo Quiroga, it is also a complex and passionate work of history, sociology and political commentary. Sarmiento explores the impact of Argentinian geography on the life of the gaucho; chronicles the upbringing and the often bloody political and military adventures of Facundo; and examines the reign of Juan Manuel de Rosas, the tyrannical ruler of Argentina at the time of Sarmiento's writing.