Cowboys of the Pampas: A Brief History of the Gaucho

Argentine culture has long been defined by the blend of European and indigenous American influences that arose from the region’s long history of immigration. From architecture to visual arts, from literature to film, this diverse blend of aesthetic and social norms has created a stunning and uniquely Argentine artistic canon. But sometimes, the question of what it means to be Argentinian also leads to conflict; such is the legacy of the gauchos, the nomadic horsemen who once wandered the Pampas.

The Pampas are a region of low grasslands that span much of South America’s southeast, from vast swathes of Argentina and Uruguay to the southernmost regions of Brazil. They were once populated by the Tehuelche people, nomadic hunter-gatherers who followed in the footsteps of guanaco herds.

The Pampas’ fertile soil and temperate climate made them an ideal target for early Spanish colonizers, who needed grassland to graze their livestock. By the 17th century, Spanish cattle herds, all the way from southern Mexico to Argentina, had multiplied. The actual breeding and raising of livestock took a backseat to simply hunting them.

Many different names evolved for the men who herded and hunted cattle on horseback: vaqueros, llaneros, charros, and, of course, gauchos.

The Criminal Evolution of Gauchos

At first, there was very little regulation over the ownership of Pampan land or livestock. The cattle were so prolific, and their grazing ranges so vast, that strictly enforcing borders between estancias (Spanish ranches) seemed an impossible task.

The word “gaucho” itself was likely adapted from an indigenous language, perhaps the Araucanian cauchu, “wanderer,” and seems to have developed in response to the abundance of the Pampas in the 18th and early 19th centuries—and the vaguely defined, loosely enforced property rights that arose as a result. The first gauchos were typically mestizos (of mixed Spanish and Amerindian ancestry). They hunted wild cattle to sell meat and hides, but unlike vaqueros, gauchos lived nomadic lifestyles, unaffiliated with any particular ranch or territory.

Unfortunately for gauchos, as time passed, both land and rural labor became increasingly regulated by the Argentine state. From the 18th century onward, labor shortages on estancias led the government to create laws that limited the mobility of rural laborers, essentially forcing them into peonage on established ranches. By 1865, the migratory gaucho had become a bona-fide criminal.

There was still great natural abundance on the Pampas—in addition to cattle, one could find a plethora of horses, ostrich, and other wild game. It was more than enough for skilled hunters and horsemen, such as the gauchos, to make a good living. However, government regulation and the increasingly strictly defined borders of ranchland placed the nomadic and independent gaucho culture in direct conflict with the law.

By the late 1800s, gauchos were largely seen as social parasites, living off the backs of the more respectable, landowning ranchers. Foreigners also helped to contribute to the negative image of gauchos, both in Argentina and abroad. Many European travelers, struck by the unfamiliar lifestyles of these nomadic horsemen, described the quintessential gaucho as “lazy, dirty, bellicose, and unwilling to do even the minimum of work necessary to make his life more comfortable.”

So, how and when did they become the cultural icons they are today?

At the beginning of the 20th century, Argentina experienced a period of rapid economic growth and mass immigration from Europe. Antimodern sentiments were becoming increasingly popular around the world at this time. In Argentina, many of the problems with modernity—fears of a rapidly expanding (and militarizing) world, the pressures of industrialization, and changing ideas about morality—were specifically associated with European immigration.

By this point, gauchos as they had existed prior to the 19th century’s land reforms had all but vanished from the Pampas. In addition to legal pressures, the arrival of modern technologies like the railroad and the barbed wire fence made the gaucho lifestyle of old all but impossible.

But the gaucho didn’t fade away entirely; instead, he moved to the realm of literature.

Gauchos in Argentine Literature: From Prejudice to Romance

The gaucho had been a popular literary figure for some time, most significantly in Martín Fierro, an 1872 verse novel by José Hernández, commonly regarded as Argentina’s national epic. The titular character, an impoverished gaucho who has been drafted to defend Argentina’s borders, is doomed from the poem’s start. His way of life and his very nature are, through no fault of his own, incompatible with the demands of modern life.

Fierro was a tragic figure, not a charming or romantic one. But later writers began to build on the sense of injustice expressed by Hernández, using the gaucho as a romanticized ideal of the Argentinian spirit. The literary gaucho was patriotic, anti-materialistic, and deeply tied to his country’s traditions and folklore.

For example, in the play “Una Visita de Ultratumba” (“A Visit from Beyond the Grave”), first published in 1911 in the literary magazine Nosotros, the ghost of one particularly infamous gaucho appears before a wealthy Italian immigrant to berate him for his lack of passion for his adoptive country.

The Italian protests, at first, that he loves Argentina and points to all the benefits Europeans have brought to the country—technological innovation, economic progress, and Western art—as proof.

But the gaucho’s ghost objects to the notion that the Italian’s examples are true progress or beneficial for the Argentinian soul: “You do not love and cannot love this country. You use your land as a way of making a fortune, nothing more. For you, land is simply land, for me, it is my homeland.”

The old gaucho lifestyle was no longer sustainable, but by the turn of the century, the gaucho had become such an iconic emblem of Argentine cultural identity that it was impossible for him to fade away entirely.

While perhaps not as influential as cowboys and vaqueros, the Argentine gaucho still left his mark on pop culture, both within and outside the country, from songs by Steely Dan and the Dave Matthews Band to the works of famed magical realist Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina’s most influential writer.

They have also become an undeniable icon of Argentine cultural identity. For example, when Argentina hosted the FIFA World Cup in 1978, their mascot, Gauchito, was a young boy wearing Argentina’s football kit and a gaucho-style whip.

The gaucho has received some foreign attention, too, in Westerns and films like Saludos Amigos, a 1942 Disney film intended to create feelings of goodwill between the US and certain Nazi-aligned Latin American states (like Argentina). One segment features the popular Disney character Goofy being transported from Texas to the Argentinean Pampas, where he becomes a gaucho.

But the gaucho’s continued impact is not only in art and literature; many modern-day Argentians continue to preserve the gaucho lifestyle, despite contemporary challenges. For some, this means adapting the old ways—horsemanship, cattle-herding, and rugged lifestyles—to the modern landscape.

Many of these modern-day gauchos now work on estancias. They make their living off a combination of sheep and cattle farming and hospitality by offering tourists the opportunity to experience life on a traditional Argentine ranch. In addition to tours of the pampas, many of them harken back to their outlaw roots by offering lessons in horsemanship. Some even teach gaucho games like the corrida de sortija, where riders compete to hook a ring off a bar.

The gaucho tradition in Argentina has evolved to be seen in much the same way that rural residents in the United States see cowboys: as a weekend pastime and a way of showing pride in their Argentine identity.

Many traditional gaucho diversions have been banned or simply faded from popularity, some due to their danger and others because they were, in retrospect, cruel to the horses.

Such is the case with games like pialar, in which a horseman rode at a gallop down a gauntlet of lasso-twirling gauchos. The lassoers would attempt to rope his horse by the legs, throwing it to the ground, while the rider’s goal was to land on his feet, horse’s reins still in hand. These games were incredible shows of the horsemanship skill necessary to make a living as a gaucho—but they no longer align with modern tastes or ethics.

Equestrianism remains incredibly popular, though, in the form of more organized sports like polo, pato, and rodeo. Today, Argentina is the world’s fourth-largest producer of Thoroughbreds, and many winning racehorses around the world find their roots in the wild Pampas that were once home to the iconic gaucho.