Facundo and Chaco in Songs and Stories: Oral Culture and the Representations of Caudillos in the Nineteenth-Century Argentine Interior

"There must be some truly great quality in the character of that old gaucho," Domingo F. Sarmiento admitted in his ambiguous reflections on Chacho Peñaloza, a caudillo whose assassination he allegedly ordered. ¹ Sarmiento's commentary in 1866 suggested that there was something unique and mysterious about caudillos because of their sentimental appeal and ability to mobilize gauchos through a personalistic rapport; ² in fact, the unique personality traits of these rural leaders was an essential component of the first explanation of Latin American caudillismo proposed by Sarmiento himself in his book, Facundo, and documents and contemporary accounts are replete with references to this phenomenon. ³ Yet this question has been largely neglected by modern historiography, which preferred to focus on the broad social, economic, and cultural factors that created the conditions for the emergence and development of this type of political leadership, authority, and mass mobilization in post-independence Latin America. ⁴

This article reexamines the nature of the appeal of caudillos by focusing on Facundo Quiroga and Chacho Peñaloza, two Federalist caudillos from the northwestern province of La Rioja. ⁵ The study of these legendary leaders is significant for, at least, two reasons: first, they played an important role in the foundation of Argentine and Latin American literature, thanks to Sarmiento's writings and obsession with Riojan caudillos; second, these caudillos were among the most powerful leaders in the Argentine interior, with a capacity to shape national politics. Scholars' reluctance to consider this aspect of caudillista leadership could be attributed to common understandings of the phenomenon of personal magnetism, which social scientists often refer to as charisma. In its most common use, the concept of charisma carries a sense of emotional involvement and manipulation and is often associated with irrationality and political incapacity on the part of the followers. The phenomenon of charisma has, in fact, been considered to be exceptional and idiosyncratic to allow valid generalizations. Given the explanatory limitations of this concept, historians merely acknowledged that the phenomenon was at work, but failed to systematically explore its workings. ⁶

Some social scientists have, however, called into question the idea that charisma irradiates from the persona of the leader; in fact, it should be viewed as a reciprocal relationship between leaders and followers. "One has charisma," James C. Scott says, "to the extent that others confer it upon one; in other words, it is the attribution of charisma that establishes the relationship." ⁷ By this definition, followers are a fundamental part of the equation mainly because it is their "cultural and social expectations that exercise a controlling or, at least, limiting influence over the would-be charismatic figure." ⁸ In a creative study of the Saravia brothers--strongmen of the Uruguayan-Brazilian borderlands--John Charles Chasteen has recently proposed a revision of caudillista leadership and charisma along these lines. According to Chasteen, charismatic leadership must be analyzed less in terms of leaders' personal qualities than as a relationship between leaders and followers: "The charisma of the Saravia brothers was in the eyes of the beholders who projected their own values onto the strongman." ⁹

If charisma is conferred upon and if charisma lies in the eyes of the beholder, then the historian should try to reconstruct the beholder's gaze. In other words, the charismatic appeal of the caudillos should be explained in terms of the followers' perceptions and representations of their leaders. My principal argument is that the charisma of the caudillos derived from their followers' expectations, and it is possible to make sense of its workings by focusing on their representations of the leaders.

This approach requires close attention to the culture and expectations of the followers. According to Scott, charisma is culturally specific: "what is charismatic for an audience...