Domingo Faustino Sarmiento

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento was born in 1811 in the province of San Juan, in the Andean foothills of western Argentina, to a poor family; he never went to university and taught himself French, English and other languages. At fifteen he was already running a school in the mountains. Opposing the rule of the caudillos, he was several times driven into exile in Chile, where he worked as a teacher and journalist. In exile in 1845 he wrote Facundo, a fierce attack on the dictator Rosas. The Chilean government sent him to Europe and the United States to study their school systems, and he was deeply impressed by American public education. After Rosas fell he returned to politics at home and in 1868 was elected President of Argentina; in office he founded schools, libraries and an observatory, encouraged immigration and drove modernisation, and he is honoured as the father of Argentine education. He died in Asunción, Paraguay.