LA BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL AS ANTI-CUADILLISTA ORGAN, PART DEUX

If Sarmiento was a nationalist at heart and thought that being a Unitario was going to centralize and stabilize the foal-on-shaky-legs country of Argentina then can we not say that establishing a National Library was not only a matter of intellectual nationalistic propriety but also a means to baptize as many citizens as possible in the waters of democratic education and prosperity. According to Hector Felix Bravo, "To civilize in Sarmiento's view, was to make provision for things that would lead to the prosperity of the county and to progress in all the provinces" (1994, pg.3)

There might not be a direct correlation between Sarmiento's instigation to civilize and the birth of the Biblioteca Nacional but without Sarmiento's actions I am pretty sure the Biblio Nac would have remained a pipe dream. And what does a National Library do anyways? Maybe by examining the function of a National Library we can arrive at the ways in which Sarmiento's advocacy exerted its influence. A National Library is the Library, funded by national funds, that repositories all the materials published by that country and provides access (free hopefully!)for its citizens to examine it's catalogs, collections, and codexes. A National Library is also responsible for materials published exclusively by the government. Therefore, I think that the National Library was just an extension of Sarmiento's plan to educate the masses, especially because the Bibl. Nac. of Argentina used to be the Public Library of Buenos Aires, the seat of the Unitarian movement.

The Biblio Nac. was and is an anti-caudillista organ because it was created and remains a trove of national pride and a source of national intellectual propriety. It's not that the provinces were uneducated, with the exception of Cordoba and Mendoza, they just weren't as educated as Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires, with its well established port, was the seat of the country: the financial, intellectual, and legislative throne. Also, it was an anti-caudillista organ because Sarmiento was a huge proponent of European ideals and concepts and the birth of National Libraries happened in two places: Europe and the U.S. before they were adopted by most countries. More importantly, a National Library is responsible for producing a National Bibliography, or a thorough as shit list of all the materials published in one year in one country. Aside from the logistical prowess a list of this nature could provide, a bibliography represents the body of knowledge produced in one country in one year and is like a snapshot of the prevalent ideas, notions, and assertions.