"Facundo" Versus "Martin Fierro"
After Buenos Aires joined the union, porteños maintained hopes of dominating the nation from their port city. However, political figures from the interior provinces who were acquainted with liberal, European, secular, and cosmopolitan mores had started to infiltrate the exclusive politics of Buenos Aires. This new generation of liberal politicians rejected the authority of the caudillos and the Spanish Catholic cultural and political heritage associated with the uneducated masses of the interior. Domingo Faustino Sarmiento from San Juan and Nicolas de Avellaneda from Tucumán were two such political figures.
The porteño leadership remained divided over the question of permanent federalization of Buenos Aires. The elections of 1868, in which Sarmiento was elected to the presidency, highlighted this schism. Sarmiento had written Facundo: Civilization and Barbarismin 1845. In it, he had presented an analysis of the caudillo as a historical force in the social formation of the country whose domination had to be uprooted from modern Argentina through the education of the people. He also advocated constitutional government, European immigration, and laissez-faire economics to ensure the victory of "civilization over barbarism."
The defense of the old sociopolitical structure had its strongest advocate in José Hernández, author of the epic poem Martin Fierro, which was published in the 1870s. Hernández presented the gaucho as the authentic Argentine, the symbol of the interior that had been defeated by porteño and foreign political and economic interests.
Sarmiento's administration saw the realization of the doctrines he defended in his writings. Firmly believing that criollo ignorance had nurtured the evils of the past, he devoted himself to education and founded the first five teacher training schools in the country. Communications and immigration also received the attention of the enlightened government. Railroad lines were built from Córdoba to Tucumán, the first streetcar line began operations in the province of Corrientes, and telegraphic communications reached Rosario.
New waves of immigration and the establishment of immigrant colonies were promoted through effective propaganda and government financial guarantees. The increase in available labor produced higher agricultural outputs and led to the subdivision of the estancias into smaller holdings. The newcomers settled in and around the port of Buenos Aires and, in sharp contrast with the stagnant interior provinces, completely changed the outlook of the city during the subsequent decade.
In September 1874, during the transition from Sarmiento's administration to Avellaneda's, Mitre led a revolt against the central government. The rebellious politician claimed that Sarmiento's support of Avellaneda had tainted the electoral process, but in reality Mitre's revolt represented the resentment of Buenos Aires at losing its preeminence. Upon Mitre's defeat a period of relative calm was introduced in Argentina.
President Avellaneda's inauguration in October 1874 marked the integration of the provinces into the mainstream of the Argentine political process. Avellaneda was backed by his own National Party; by Adolfo Alsina, son of the former governor of Buenos Aires and leader of the Autonomist Party of Buenos Aires; and by Julio Argentino Roca from Tucumán, a member of the local political elite. The fusion of Avellaneda's and Alsina's parties resulted in the formation of the National Autonomist Party.
During his six-year tenure in office, Avellaneda promoted economic growth, welcomed 250,000 immigrants, and furthered Sarmiento's educational policies by establishing schools all over the country. As minister of war, Roca led the "conquest of the desert," which brought army occupation of Patagonia by May 1879. After the extermination of the warrior tribes, the "threat" of miscegenation was ended, and safe conditions encouraged the settlement of Patagonia by European colonists and Argentines from the north.
Although the two previous presidents had disproved the belief that liberal ideals could only be found among porteño politicians, the old rivalries came to a head as the 1880 elections approached. Provincial politicians organized the Cordoba League (Liga de Côrdoba) to campaign for Roca, who also had the support of Avellaneda, and to federalize the city of Buenos Aires in order to transform it into the national capital. The portenos supported Carlos Tejedor, the governor of Buenos Aires, in order to regain their preeminence and defend the territorial basis of their political power.
Roca won at the polls, and shortly thereafter a brief civil war broke out in which Tejedor was again defeated. Elections for new provincial and national legislatures followed, and Congress then approved the separation and federalization of the city of Buenos Aires on September 21, 1880.
The city of Buenos Aires was the heart of the province whence foreign ideas, capital, labor, the railroad lines, and most foreign trade emanated. The province of Buenos Aires had historically derived its strength from its sole access to, and revenues from, the port. The loss of these advantages placed the province in a position of equality with the other provinces.
Rivalries between porteños and the provinces ceased once Buenos Aires became the seat of national authority. The entire nation then benefited from the wealth and prestige of the port city, and the dangers of a future breakup of the country were eliminated. The integration of Argentina was further promoted by the railroads, which soon penetrated the nation. The federalization of the city of Buenos Aires signaled the end of the period of national consolidation and the beginning of a new era for Argentina
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