throughout the text, sarmiento explores the dichotomy between civilization and barbarism. as kimberly ball observes, "civilization is identified with northern europe, north america, cities, unitarians, paz, and rivadavia", while "barbarism is identified with latin america, spain, asia, the middle east, the countryside, federalists, facundo, and rosas". it is in the way that "facundo" articulates this opposition that sarmiento's book has had such a profound influence. in the words of gonzález echevarría: "in proposing the dialectic between civilization and barbarism as the central conflict in latin american culture "facundo" gave shape to a polemic that began in the colonial period and continues to the present day".