Sarmiento's Vida de Horacio Mann : Translation, Importation, and Entanglement

Abstract

This article focuses on the broad sociopolitical implications of Sarmiento's translations of Northern Hemispheric texts and ideas into the South American context in Las escuelas and the author's correspondence with Mary Mann. Exploring the relationship between the two reformers—both of whom were interested in using education to prepare nonwhites for the duties of citizenship in a broadly defined "South"—in order to examine the entangled history of Argentina during the War of the Triple Alliance and the early Reconstruction-era United States, this article shows how Sarmiento puts his relationship with Mann to creative use in his effort to incorporate Argentina's popular classes into the national project through public education. Ultimately, the relationship between the two writers points to how the interplay between transnational conversations and local histories gives rise to the entanglement of imperialism and neocolonialism in the Americas during the second half of the nineteenth century.