19th Century Gauchos

The countrymen, better known as “gaucho”, were born and raised on the Pampa plains of Argentina, and lived off of wild cattle, horses and by selling hides. This was due to the fact that in the colonial times, there was an abundant amount of horses and cattle throughout the grassy, fertile lowlands of Pampas (Notes). The gaucho was a poor rural mestizo who used knives, lassos and bolas to sell hides, tallow and meat. Although they were merely ingoing a traditional life on the pampa, they were portrayed as wild cattle hunters, vagrants and thieves during the eighteenth century by the Spanish. The gauchos developed a unique set of values and developed a culture that did not sit well with the officials and elite rulers. During the eighteenth century …show more content…
At this time through contraband activities they were assimilated with the names, evil-doer, thief, and or bandit. The gauchos were merely trying to survive in a place and time were many things did not come easy to them. Their self-reliance control over the land and their fierce fighting attitudes during this primitive time, gave them their name (Fierro). In the early nineteenth century, the hunting outlaw name which the gauchos were known for diminished as a decree was passed for the sale of meat establishments. This once deemed wild bandit now began to establish legitimate work do to the fact that law and order was growing exponentially around them. As a result to the Fierro name, During the Republican era and the fight for independence, the gaucho was militarized to terminate Indians and was looked at as barbarians. Later after the war and its win for independence, the gaucho’s power of adversity led them to gain social commendation and became the mythical gaucho in the early 20th century. Do to the fact that literature and the advertisement of the story of the gaucho, much attention was placed on the regeneration of their name from social outcast to a hero of