This work presents a study of El Recopilador, a Buenos Aires journal published in 1836. Theanalysis is thus focused on the discursive topics of literary romanticism and the formation of a literary national tradition during the fi rst half of 19th- Century in Argentina. The reading of El Recopilador permits to recognize with more precision some rhetorical fi gures -for example, the parallelism between the gaucho and the Arabian worlds- that will be largely utilized for creoles lettered, mainly by Sarmiento's Facundo. Civilización o Barbarie.