Sketches and Portraits of Spain in Sarmiento’s "Viaje"

Abstract

This article explores one of the most representative titles in Domingo Faustino Sarmiento’s oeuvre: the narrative of his journey to Spain (Viaje), undertaken in 1846. The Argentinean writer and politician articulates, with extraordinary stylistic flair, a critical view of Spain founded on his aesthetic perceptions. Sarmiento puts together a mosaic of sketches, etchings, portraits, and painterly allusions to the history of Spanish art as well as descriptions of Spanish cities, people, customs, and habits. It adds up to a museum of ignorance and underdevelopment: the panorama of a country reluctant to open itself up to the progressive currents of the nineteenth century. In this way, Sarmiento conveys the perspective of a genteel intellectual who never failed to feel a literary fascination towards the faces of barbarism.