Los Gauchos

One of Argentina's most well-known groups is the gauchos [gow-chose]. Gauchos are in a lot of ways like the cowboys of the old West in that they rode horses, had a specific style of dress, and lived off of the land. Yet the gauchos are also different and distinctly Argentine. While some still exist, more were around during the nineteenth century. They opposed progress and instead liked to live in isolated settings where they could work and live for themselves. For this reason, they were part of the people that Julio Roca and others tried to defeat in the "Conquest of the Desert" (see below). See the paintings of Molina Campos below to see how he depicted the gauchos of the Argentine plains. Their lives were generally carefree as they lived for themselves.

The gauchos lived on the plains; that was where their specialty was: cattle. They mostly made their living off of cattle and sustained themselves on the plains. Thanks to them in part, Argentina has a great tradition of amazing beef (see above). The gauchos are now more of a tradition than a group as they were in the nineteenth century. They are mostly a tourist attraction now. For this reason, much of the gauchos' attire is what the tourists love when they come to Argentina. The gaucho handkerchiefs, knifes, and other things are favorites of visitors.

Here are a few items of gaucho attire.

1) bombachas [bome-bach-ahs]; these are pants that are wide in the middle and slim at the bottom.


2) facón [fah-cone]; this is a long knife the gauchos could use for many purposes.


3) rebenque [reh-ben-kay]; this is a piece of leather attached to a wooden handle that the gauchos could use to slap a horse to make it go faster.

The gauchos are an important part of Argentine history and folklore. They represent a mixture of the old and the new in today's Argentina. They are not just a tourist attraction, but a representation of an Argentina full of many different peoples and customs.