The Gaucho ... where does one begin?  Some people may have visited UCSB as part of their university search, others may have been to "DP" in "IV" just off of campus for your very own ... "search of some sort..."  Well ... just so you know, the "Gaucho" is a much more important thing than just a dope mascot for a tight school ... yeah' that is right, the Gaucho actually has historical significance ... especially when discussing the area once referred to as Rio de la Plata, but you may just call it Argentina. 

In addition to taking two to Tango; Argentina is where the Gaucho is from.  The Gauchos lived on the interior portion of historic Argentina, in an area known as the Pampas.  The Pampas was this massive track of fertile land which the Gaucho made his life on.  The life of the gaucho is a romantic epic of un-styled grace and barbaric strength.  The Gaucho was a loner, and came to be used as the backbone of many bands of fighters in struggles which will sweep this land.  They were heroic and lonely, and as silly as this all may seem ("you mean we are not in 4th grade anymore???) ~ your understanding of Argentina is imperative upon you understanding the GAUCHO!  You gotta get into the head of the Gaucho to understand the relationships and dynamics of things to come ... the bitterness, the sacrifice ... ahhhh, I love it!!!! :)

The Gaucho is a remembered silhouette on the cultural heritage of Argentine history.  By about the 1880's, the Gaucho as a formidable class was almost entirely gone.  Gauchos were indeed a class, there was no set race for them and race was a technicality which did not matter.  The majority of Gauchos were Mestizos themselves, but there were also Afro-Gauchos and full blood Spanish gauchos.  They were approx. 42 million wild steer and horses roaming the Pampas and the gaucho lived a subsistent life where fishing was as natural to him as slaughtering one of these gone-wild animals.  The Gauchos made good use of these animals, using the hides of the steers for literally everything.  The Gauchos also "broke" the horses, and a man's horse was his life.  There is an old saying from Gaucho land ... it is: "Mi caballo era mi vida, Mi bien, Mi unico tesoro."  No, you do not need to go to translator.com ... because I care greatly about your time ... what the translation is = "My horse was my  life, my love, my only treasure." 

The Gauchos were men who were not like the American Cowboy.  To the less informed person, this would be a commonly made mistake.  In fact, this is a commonly made mistake -- but you now know better (I am of course assuming you care).  The American cowboy was a result of capitalism and a growing society.  The Argentine Gaucho was an anti-capitalist.  No, not a Communist, but a subsistent person.  The Gaucho was more like the old trappers and pioneers of North America.  They survived.  Everyday, they woke up, and they survived.  It is a very basic lifestyle if you think about it.  Consider the daily life of a deer, or bear.  They wake up not to buy a new CD by Britney Chagala, and not to make tons of cash as a high school teacher.  Deer and bears, like the Gaucho ... woke to survive.  And they lived their everyday until the day of death came to call.  Discussions of life, I find, can always be turned into discussions of religion, faith, etc.  So ... it begs the question, 'was the Grouchy Gaucho religious.'  GREAT QUESTION!  You are so smart, thank you! :)  By blood and name the Gauchos were Catholic.  But there were no churches on the Pampas and religion as we regard it in history and modern times was not what the gauchos experienced.  Throw in some superstition to lots of cursing and kidnapping future wives (because it is cheaper than dating), and you got Gaucho customs!

"The Gaucho was, therefore, a sort of in-between type who lived in a no man's land between urban civilization and the complete savagery of the Indian territory.  He was the Argentine frontier both in flesh and in spirit.  What the missions had done for the frontiers of other regions the gaucho accomplished for Argentina; that is, the slow expansion of territory and peoples included in the new orbit of life.  The farther the Gaucho moved away from the cities, the more able was urban and country life to extend itself behind him with some degree of safety."

The author said this last part because as the Gaucho went further into the Pampas, the more natives he fought and killed which opened a safe"r"-area of sorts for further expansion from the cities.

Regarding Independence in Argentina and the Gaucho ... *Listen up now, this gets really important!!!!

"When Argentine independence came, the Gaucho was perfect clay for caudillo rule.  He glorified strength, courage, stoicism.  He was a savage fighter with only a regional horizon.  He was one of the greatest stoics in history ....  There were really two kinds of civilization on a single soil.  One was just being born, or had just been born, on the open plains.  It was unconscious of what was hanging over its head and imitated the popular effects of the Middle Ages.  The other (civilization), which was found in the cities, was attempting to realize the consolidation of European civilization.  It did not, or failed to notice what was lying at its feet.  'The one was Spanish, European, truly civilized; the other was barbarous, American, almost indigenous.  The revolution was only going to force these two remotely akin ways of life into each other's presence; it would make them attack each other.'-(Sarmiento, 1840's).  At that time, it seemed as if one current might absorb the other, but in reality a mutual absorption was what took place.  Out of the clash emerged a new Argentina."