Which historical figure did Sarmiento use as a model for the rural strongman in Civilization and Barbarism?

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Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo, Francisco Javier — Latin American literature Francisco Javier Eugenio de Santa Cruz y Espejo, statue at Central Station, Sydney, Austl.

In his seminal work Civilization and Barbarism (often referred to as Facundo), Domingo Faustino Sarmiento used the Argentine caudillo Juan Facundo Quiroga as the model for the rural strongman.12

Sarmiento presented Quiroga, known as the "Tiger of the Plains," as the prototype of the rural leader whose rise to power embodied the conflict between "civilization" (urban, European-influenced culture) and "barbarism" (rural, native gaucho culture). By depicting Quiroga’s life, Sarmiento aimed to denounce the dictatorship of Juan Manuel de Rosas, whom he viewed as the ultimate evolution of the tyrannical rural strongman.132