Domingo Faustino Sarmiento
From Freepedia
| Term of Office: | October 12 1868— October 12 1874 |
|---|---|
| Predecessor: | Bartolomé Mitre |
| Successor: | Nicolás Avellaneda |
| Vice-president: | Adolfo Alsina |
| Date of Birth: | February 15 1811 |
| Place of Birth: | San Juan |
| Date of Death: | September 11 1888 |
| Place of Death: | Asunción, Paraguay |
| Profession: | Journalist |
| Political Party: | Liberal |
Domingo Faustino Sarmiento Albarracín (February 15 1811 – September 11 1888) was an Argentine statesman, educator, and author. He was president of Argentina from 1868 to 1874.
Sarmiento was born in San Juan, Argentina.
During the 1830s and 1840s, he lived in exile in Chile, where he wrote his best known work Facundo (1845), an in-depth study of caudillismo and personalism in politics. He became very interested in the Chilean public school system, and traveled to places such as the United States and Europe to improve his teaching ability.
In Chile he entered into an intense debate with the neoclassicist theorist Andrés Bello over the nature of literature, Sarmiento coming down firmly on the side of Romanticism. His Facundo is considered the first important Latin American essay and is also regarded as some as an important precursor to the novel, a literary genre that got off to a late start in that region of the world. The novel is important for many reasons, narrative style, political philosophy, and the codification of heterogeneous cultures, the gaucho, the black, the indigenous peoples.
In 1868, Sarmiento was elected to become the new president in place of the Argentine liberal Bartolomé Mitre. During Sarmiento's presidency, the amount of students enrolled in school doubled and about a hundred public libraries were built. Sarmiento was also able to increase the amount of immigration from Europe.
He died in Asunción (Paraguay) and was buried in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires.
Latin American's Teacher's Day was established after Sarmiento's date of death in 1943's Interamerican Conference on Education, held in Panama.
Selected works
- Mi defensa
- Facundo- Civilización y Barbarie - Vida de Juan Facundo Quiroga
- Viajes, Argirópolis
- Recuerdos de Provincia
- Campaña del Ejército Grande
- Conflictos y armonías de las razas de América
- De la educación popular
| Preceded by: Bartolomé Mitre | President of Argentina 1868–1874 | Succeeded by: Nicolás Avellaneda |
Categories: Argentine people stubs | Politician stubs | 1811 births | 1888 deaths | Presidents of Argentina | Argentine writers | Argentine historians
