El matadero

El matadero traces a characteristic scene from the terrible period in Argentina before its institutionalization as a democratic republic. Transporting us to the slaughterhouse on the outskirts of Buenos Aires under Rosas, Esteban Echeverría makes us witness a climate of oppression, fanaticism, and mob violence against which he and his generation struggled—and which would eventually be overthrown to make room for the project envisioned by Alberdi, Mitre, Sarmiento, and others.

Conceived as a political pamphlet, this “long short story” has far outlived its immediate polemical purpose. Its unvarnished realism, speed, and rawness—once seen as defects—now make it a key text for understanding the emergence of Argentine realism, the moral debate over “civilization and barbarism,” and the social cost of dictatorship. The slaughterhouse becomes an allegory of the nation itself, where religious ritual, popular customs, and political hatred converge in a single violent spectacle.

This edition also includes the witty “Apología del matambre,” a costumbrista sketch that humorously defends the humble matambre as a proudly porteño dish. Together, these texts offer students a vivid entry point into 19th‑century Argentine politics, everyday culture, and the literary origins of the great national debate later developed by Sarmiento and answered by Hernández’s Martín Fierro.