 Both Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 's Facundo and José Marmol 's Amalia , published in the nineteenth century , were precursors to the twentieth century dictator novel ; however , " all fictional depictions of the Latin American ' strong @-@ man ' , have an important antecedent in Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 's Facundo , a work written as a sociolodical treatise " . Facundo is an indirect critique of Juan Manuel de Rosas 's dictatorship , directed against the actual historical figure , Juan Facundo Quiroga , but is also a broader investigation into Argentine history and culture . Sarmiento 's Facundo has remained a fundamental fixture because of the breadth of its literary exploration of the Latin American environment . In Facundo , Sarmiento criticizes the historical figure Facundo Quiroga , a provincial caudillo , who like Rosas ( dictator of Argentina from 1829 to 1853 ) was opposed to the enlightened ideas of progress . After returning from exile , Sarmiento worked to reinvent Argentina , eventually becoming president himself from 1868 to 1874 . Sarmiento 's analysis of Facundo Quiroga was the first time that an author questioned how figures like Facundo and Rosas could have maintained such absolute power , and in answering this question , Facundo established its place as an inspirational text to later authors . Sarmiento perceived his own power in writing Facundo as " within the text of the novel , it is the novelist , through the voice of omniscience , who has replaced God " , thereby creating the bridge between writing and power that is characteristic of the dictator novel . 
