Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

Sarmiento began his teaching career at age 15 in makeshift schools in San Juan. During his exiles in Chile (1831-1836 and 1840-1852), he worked as a teacher, school inspector, and education journalist. He later traveled to Europe, Africa, and the United States to tour educational systems, publishing his findings in Viajes and gaining admiration for the "common school" model. He wrote foundational pedagogical texts like Facundo: Civilización y Barbarie (1845) and De la educacion popular (1849). In 1870, he founded the Escuela Normal de Paraná, Latin America’s first common school, and recruited American teachers. He also founded a girls’ school and, after his presidency, served as Director General of Schools until his death in 1888.

Sarmiento began his political career as a journalist, writing and distributing pamphlets that led to his exile under the Rosas dictatorship. From 1862 to 1864, he served as the Governor of San Juan Province. He also served as the Argentine diplomatic envoy to the United States, Chile, and Peru. From 1868, he served as president of Argentina. After his presidency, he served as a National Senator.

Sarmiento's teaching and political careers were intertwined through his intellectual framework of "civilización o barbarie." He viewed education as the crucial tool for a young and fractured nation to overcome caudillo rule and rural isolation, enabling modernization. As president, he tripled the number of primary schools and founded normal schools nationwide, also establishing the National Observatory and Military College. His mission of modernization extended to encouraging immigration, increasing railway and telegraph lines, roads, and bridges, and accepting British investment capital.

Some of Sarmiento's ideas of modernization were contradictory, as he intertwined the process with Europeanization. He treated gauchos, indigenous people, and rural caudillos as obstacles, which he used to justify military campaigns into the pampas and Patagonia, laying the groundwork for the Conquest of the Desert after his presidency. He also preached liberal and republican values while employing an almost authoritarian hand, suppressing provincial uprisings with force and not tolerating dissent from rivals.

Riedinger, Edward A. 2023. “Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.” EBSCO. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/domingo-faustino-sarmiento.

Sarmiento, Domingo F. 2010. Viajes en Europa, África i América. Buenos Aires, Argentina: Alicante : Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes ; Buenos Aires : Biblioteca Quiroga Sarmiento. https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/viajes-en-europa-africa-i-america-1851--0/.