The Guachos, Who Da Guy?

The Guachos

The pictured portrait was not what you expected of a Gaucho? These were the originals, (mostly Indian) the great great grandfathers. No money, little education, and they danced the old fashion Milonga by themselves (solo) in the Great Cat style.

The great great grandsons were more European by blood, had money, were more educated, wore the Spanish hat, tailor made clothes, polished boots, no spurs and were the “Partner” Milonga dancers. They had come a long way.

Las Pampas, in Argentina, from the Quechua Indian word meaning “plains” is a big stretch of grasslands, over six hundred miles wide from the ocean and over 700 miles long. Bigger than the state of Texas.

The Indians had never seen horses or cattle. They were ignorant but not stupid. During the 1500s a very few Spaniards who happened to be good horsemen came to live with the Indians of the Pampas and that was all that was needed. Their commonality became in being Mestizo. The word Gaucho comes from the Guarani indian, a derogatory word meaning without a known father. (hijo ‘e puta.) Over half were fathered by Europeans, the rest may have been grandfathered by Europeans but were still 3/4 indian.

"La Comparsita" by Carlos Gardel

During the 1600s, the Spanish brought many horses and cattle but cattle ranches south of the Buenos Aires extended no farther than a hundred miles into the Pampas. And due to laxity and cattle rustlers (the Gauchos) many became strays. Wild cattle and horses were soon in abundance and seemed limitless.

For the Gaucho, nomadic life meant little time spent at home, which they might have shared with a common-law wife who raised their children. Sons followed their father's traditions. Their clothing reflected their life on horseback: a hat, a woolen poncho, loose baggy pants called bombachas and knee-high leather boots. They made their boots by wrapping the hide of a freshly killed calf around their legs and feet. As the hide dried, it took on the form of the foot and leg.

"The simple - but difficult - key to contentment is to realize
that life in its entirety is a gift, - not a right."

They owned nothing of value but their horse and the long knife, “the facon,” that they kept sharp, and handy. And the boleadora, stones bound in leather strips and used by throwing it to trip cattle or other animals when it looped around their legs.

They had no way of preserving meat, and after butchering a cow, would cook the best parts immediately over an open fire. This was the beginning of the asado, still popular today. You like the taste of burnt meat? That’s it. Meat and maté, were the mainstays of their diets and the consumption of this tea called yerba maté was a several times a day ritual.

By the 1700s, this pasture and wild animals had produced a race of mounted nomads and hunters that resembled the Mongols of Asia or the Plains Indians of North America. This abundance of grass plains created the existence of a free and undesciplined people. And they danced the Milonga.

 

"Mi Buenos Aires Querido" by Carlos Gardel