Echeverria's 'The Slaughterhouse' is a fascinating portrayal of the clash between the civilized ways of the Europeans and the violent and barbaric ways of the Americans. It constructs the idea of the butcher being a symbolic representation of a dictator and the bloody, gruesome slaughter of animals to be a physical representation of the suffering, anguish and destruction experienced by the Argentinian people during the Rosa dictatorship. It is clear from the beginning that Echeverria sides with the Unitarians, those who held strong christian beliefs whilst he rebelled against the Order of Rosa and the federal party who he describes as wild animals. The constant use of gruesome descriptions such as the '49 steers were stretched out on their skins' and 'nearly two hundred people trudged around in the sloughy ground the was drenched in the blood from the animals' arteries' further creates the symbolic imagery of mass killing and gross violations of human decency. This piece of literature has gone down in history as an important part of Latin American history; the long history of oppression and death has and I would argue, formed a key part of modern Latin American culture.
The chapter itself provides an interesting anecdote into the role the Church and the Emperor played the in the politics and lives of Latin Americans. Furthermore it describes the great difficulties that faced Latin America. Firstly, compared to the relatively United States who's population mostly resided in Easter cities with land that was relatively flat and easily traversable and greater Europe with established trading routes by both land and sea, Latin American colonies were isolated and difficult to get to. Most cities and ports were located around resources centres such as gold mines or nitrate deposits. Isolation most likely contributed to the ease and ability of foreign powers to oppress and rule freely the oppressed people of Latin America.
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