Children Of Facundo: Caudillo And Gaucho Insurgency During The Argentine Stateformation Process (La Rioja, 18531870),New

In Children Of Facundo Ariel De La Fuente Examines Postindependence Argentinian Instability And Political Struggle From The Perspective Of The Rural Lower Classes. As The First Comprehensive Regional Study To Explore Nineteenthcentury Society, Culture, And Politics In The Argentine Interiorwhere More Than 50 Percent Of The Population Lived At The Timethe Book Departs From The Predominant Buenos Airescentered Historiography To Analyze This Crucial Period In The Processes Of State And Nationbuilding.La Rioja, A Province In The Northwest Section Of The Country, Was The Land Of The Caudillos Immortalized By Domingo F. Sarmiento, Particularly In His Foundational And Controversial Book Facundo. De La Fuente Focuses On The Repeated Rebellions In This District During The 1860S, When Federalist Caudillos And Their Followers, The Gauchos, Rose Up Against The New Unitarian Government. In This Social And Cultural Analysis, De La Fuente Argues That The Conflict Was Not A Factional Struggle Between Two Ideologically Identical Sectors Of The Elite, As Commonly Depicted. Instead, He Believes, The Struggle Should Be Seen From The Perspective Of The Lowerclass Gauchos, For Whom Unitarianism And Federalism Were Highly Differentiated Party Identities That Represented Different Experiences During The Nineteenth Century. To Reconstruct This Rural Political Culture De La Fuente Relies On Sources That Heretofore Have Been Little Used In The Study Of Nineteenthcentury Latin American Politics, Most Notably A Rich Folklore Collection Of Popular Political Songs, Folktales, Testimonies, And Superstitions Passed Down By Old Gauchos Who Had Been Witnesses Or Protagonists Of The Rebellions. Criminal Trial Records, Private Diaries, And Land Censuses Add To The Originality Of De La Fuentes Study, While Also Providing A New Perspective On Sarmientos Works, Including The Classic Facundo.This Book Will Interest Those Specializing In Latin American History, Literature, Politics, And Rural Issues.