Algunos apuntes sobre los primeros capítulos de FACUNDO

THESE NOTES ON CHAPTERS 1-3 ARE UNDER CONSTANT CONSTRUCTION. FEEL FREE TO ADD TO THEM IN COMMENTS.

Cap. 1

- The size of the continent
- The propensity of the plains to encourage the growth of Oriental despotism!
- The placement of Buenos Aires at the mouth of the Río de la Plata
- The poverty of the towns of the interior, compared to those built by Scotsmen and Scandinavians near Buenos Aires
- City people have city clothes; country people dress and act like members of nomadic (Asiatic) tribes
- Noble people in the country are still primitives, like people in Homer or in the Bible
- These lands have given rise to the gaucho, who is disorderly, does not work, is all too free and uncivilized…

Cap. 2

- This all too impressive Nature is still poetic. And the gauchos have many skills, and they can sing – it is as though they were medieval bards.
- Implication: all of this is primitive and inferior to us, but still interesting as raw material, and there are European parallels to it.

Cap. 3 [I did not assign this but I strongly suggest looking at it - especially the end]

- The gauchos get together and drink and fight, but they are admirable horsemen.
- There has always been in Argentina a struggle between European civilization and American barbarism, and with the Unitarios, civilization can win.