(San Juan, Argentina, 1811- Asunción, Paraguay,1888)

Messianic, extravagant, brilliant, intensely loved or hated, Sarmiento spearheaded the creation of Argentina’s public education system. Despite his disparaging remarks about the gaucho and indigenous masses, who he called barbaric, he zealously fought to bring about the modernization of education to the missions in the jungle, the Andes mountain range and the coastal marshes.

As president of Argentina he was a pioneer in many areas. However, he was barely aware of Horace Mann’s writings. While in London in 1845, with limited resources and barely scraping by, he traveled to New England. During this first trip throughout the United States, he became an earnest admirer of the young nation. "Twenty million inhabitants, all educated, reading, writing and enjoying political rights" he wrote in a hallucinating travel narrative.

Horace Mann received Sarmiento at his home in Boston, where they spent two days full of lively conversations, ending with a visit to the Lexington Teachers School founded by Mann, which later served as a model and inspiration for Sarmiento in all of his pedagogical work.

Mann died in 1859 and Sarmiento would never see him again. When he returned to the United States in May 1865, he contacted his widow. Mrs. Mann was a very enthusiastic and effective promoter of Sarmiento's project to send 2000 teachers from the United States to Argentina to establish teacher-training schools: ultimately, only 61 female teachers and four male teachers made this trip.

As president, Sarmiento received these teachers in the port of Buenos Aires, sent them to Paraná to study Spanish, and built schools for them using some of his funds, plus some he did not have. However, he also quarreled with them when they refused to go to provinces where uprisings were taking place, or into the deep and dangerous hinterland. One of his greatest dreams was to establish a U.S. colony in Argentina. This passion for
the United States led to the creation of nearly 800 schools inspired by what he learned from Horace Mann and his revolutionary preaching.

Text by Laura Ramos, author of "The young ladies, History of the American teachers that Sarmiento brought to Argentina in the 19th Century", Feria del Libro Critics First Prize 2021-2022. Publisher Lumen-Penguin Random House 2021.