Gauchos of Argentina

Wherever you have cattle, and cattle ranches, you have people on horseback tending to them. They're called by many names: cowboy in the US gaucho in Argentina , Uruguay and southern Brazil ; vaqueiro in northern Brazil huaso in Chile and llanero in Colombia and Venezuela .

In the great wide plains areas, called pampas , of Argentina , cattle raising is a primary way of life. The men who work the cattle are called gauchos , from the Quechua huachu , which means orphan or vagabond. Spanish settlers distinguished the two by calling orphans gauchos and vagabonds gauchos , but over time the usage melded into gaucho . Much has been written, fact and fiction, about the legendary Gauchos, the wanderers of the Pampas . The early horsemen were skilled horsemen, loners, scrabbling out a life on the sun-baked pampas , living off the land and tracking down lost cattle for ranchers, their patrons for whom they also provided protection, and in times of battle, military service.

They've been called the wanderers of the Pampas .Gauchos have been known to wander the countryside as early as the 1600's, time in which the 'flatlands' were overpopulated by 'Cimarron' cattle, brought to South America by Pedro de Mendoza in 1538.

At that time and through many centuries, cow leather was one of most traded goods between the old world and the colonies. The main importance of cattle was not the meat but the leather obtained from it.
Since the commercial value of a cow was narrowed to such item, once slaughtered cows posed no interest, except for gauchos who would use as much of it as possible, feeding them-selves. They would quickly cook the meat in an open fire before it turned bad. This habit of gauchos was considered rather unwelcome and un-healthy and added a further negative note to their already low reputation.

Eventually, after many decades the habit of grilling meat 'the gaucho way, in an open fire, turn into a national pastime: cooking asado .
Gauchos belonged to the countryside. They would be the ones who were familiar with all intricacies of the land and their animals, as well as the life of the natives they would fight. Gauchos would gather together in ''vaquero's'' for hunting purposes.

In hunting trips they would be armed with ' boleadoras ' , a 3 hard rock leather balls tied to a rope, that they would use to stop animals from running away. Then, Gauchos would cut the tendons of their legs with a sharp half-moon shaped iron device. And thus, they would constantly struggle to survive.

The word 'gaucho' came into existence for the first time in 1790 to describe a very rough individual, with heavy manners, that would travel alone, sometimes with a woman, having as his only baggage, a knife called 'falcon', Boleadoras and a 'lazo' to hunt. The term in the beginning was so derogatory that it wouldn't be part of public statements from the Federal Government, even when gauchos were fighting arm-to-arm with Criollos against the domination of the Spanish Crown. By then, Gauchos' reputation seemed to have hit bottom...

Very slowly, their image started a transformation. By joining the resistance movement against Spain they started to gain some respect. In particular in provinces like Salta , were their services were strongly needed. Gauchos would gather under a charismatic figure, a 'caudillo' , that would organize them in a military unit. A later development in the economy was of great help to further their image. With the discovery of the salt and the development of 'saladeros' it was now possible to make better economic use of cattle in general. Meat had become now as valuable as leather. Gauchos were in a good position to put to work all they had learned by themselves in those lonely moments living in close contact with animals. Soon, commercial ranches developed that needed managers to control cattle production . Noone could do a better job than the gauchos. Thus, they were now being seen as a valuable element of the whole domestic sce