Esteban Echeverria was an Argentine poet, writer and political activist and also one of Latin America’s most important literature figures, as he said to have written the first romantic ‘Castilian’ (castellano) novels. A man with strong political ideals and social opinion, and an Unitarian leader, Echeverría wrote “El Matadero”, a short story, considered throughout not only Argentina but also all of Latin America as a cornerstone of national literature and remains one of the most studied texts in Latin America. The text is an outspoken and aggressive criticism to Juan Manuel Rosas’ Federalist regime in Argentina at the time, filled with sarcasm, irony and a certain degree of sardonic humour.

Echeverria starts the short story by questioning The Church; he makes use of religious allusions and metaphors. He remarks on the ability of the Church to control the law, for example when talking about lent, on how the Church would not only decided when people could and could not eat meat, but also who is and isn’t exempt from these rules. This can be said to be a metaphor to Rosas governance, to demonstrate, how De Rosas did not only make the laws, but also decided when and how to enforce them. He then goes on to introduce the Unitarian vs. Federalist. Depriving the Unitarians of personal identity, and comparing the Unitarian to a bull (with balls). Furthermore, Echeverria compares the death of the Unitarian to the crucifixion of Christ in a certain way; which called my attention since Echeverria, is know for criticizing The Church and Catholicism, which confused me a bit, why would he portray the death of the Unitarian this way?

Another remarkable thing about the text is how Echeverria doesn’t refrain himself from using very evocative words when describing “El Matadero” The Slaughterhouse – as if his intention is to disgust the reader, in order so, that once you are done reading, you are aware of how truly barbaric were the events that took place in the story. A few years back I had to analyze this story for a Spanish literature class, and the original spanish version manages to be even more explicit and grotesque. “From a distance the view of the slaughterhouse was now grotesque, full of animation.  Forty-nine steers were stretched out upon their skins and about two hundred people walked about the muddy, blood-drenched floor” (lovely imagery).

In conclusion, the whole reading can be seen as a big metaphor, the story is there to demonstrate how Esteban Echeverria believed the Argentinian people were being treated under the governance of Rosas. The slaughterhouse was Argentina and the cattle were the people.