“Soy nadie”: Juana Manso y la Biblioteca popular de Chivilcoy (1866-1868)

During its first stage, the Annals of Common Education (1858-1875) made known the bases of the Sarmiento educational project with a view to its implementation. Among them, the multiple initiatives of its founder and Juana Manso stand out to implement public reading policies designed to spread this practice among the common population. One of the main strategies was the founding of popular libraries in the interior of the country. After promoting the first one in San Juan, Sarmiento entrusted her friend to continue in Chivilcoy. For this, she launched a series of actions, from requesting donations to organizing conferences as shows to raise funds, to the transfer of her personal library to provide for that of this town. Everything was published and commented on in the Annals, also strategically. In this work we follow the itinerary of those publications that allow us to know the achievements and vicissitudes experienced by Juana at the dawn of the foundation of this well-known popular library.