Sarmiento and Rosas, facing off forever

Tatiana Kaler, spanish teacher extraordinaire (if you come to Buenos Aires and want to learn, see http://www.espanol4d.blogspot.com/), pointed out this wonderful example of the politics of memorials. At one corner of Sarmiento and Liberator stands a monument of the old school -- military man on horse on tall foundation that lays out his exploits -- dedicated to Juan Manuel de Rosas, head of Buenos Aires province, uniter of the disparate states, and also authoritarian leader and violent killer of the indigenous peoples of the south. He also earned himself the absolutely enmity of Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, exile and later president of Argentina, who wrote the classic work, Facundo, in large measure an indictment of Rosas and the world of the gaucho that he felt Rosas embodied (to Sarmiento that meant rural, anti-urban, violent, anti-European, anti-education). It just happens that catty corner from the Rosas monument stands Sarmiento's statue, looking straight across at his nemesis. But Sarmiento may have the last laugh -- his monument stands atop the archaeological remains of Rosas early 19th century mansion. Either way, the two will stare at each other (or peer around the massive statue in the middle of the intersection which Spain gave to Argentina for its centennial in 1910) for a long time.