The Critical Aesthetics of Disorder: A Porteña Crisis of Size

was invented as a nation in constant flux between “civilization and barbarism. ” This mannequin vision of identity is extensively detailed within Domingo Sarmiento’s historical novel Facundo: Civilization and Barbarism. In it Sarmiento presents the dilemma of Argentine identity as one that wrestles with barbaric tendencies, to be or not to be savages. He explains that the natural despotism and ignorance of the natives is directly responsible for Argentina’s economically and culturally deprived state. He goes on to attribute these circumstances to the “mixing of the races”, Spanish miscegenation with indigenous peoples (Sarmiento 2009). Sarmiento’s legacy continues to shape Argentine culture in a way that equates “civilization ” with European-ness and “barbarism ” with its “other. ” As Argentina matured, European-ness became tantamount with porteño1 identity, which looks white, thin, and urban. This aesthetic represents the epitome of civilization. To this day, barbarism is visually juxtaposed as rural, dark, and fat