The idea of the Gaucho – the tough as nails Argentine cowboy out riding the plains with his saddle, his knife, his horses, and little else – is one of the foundational archetypes of the Argentine character. Self reliant, taciturn, loyal, and incorruptible, the image of the classic gaucho still infuses the modern Argentine imagination. Like the cowboys of the American west, the gauchos inform our sense of ourselves and recall for us a purer time, over the horizon, in the past we just left behind.
Life for the gauchos of the 21st century is a little more complicated. Global commodity trading and increasing soybean production have contributed to a shrinking industry. Many of the old estancias, or grand estates, have been broken up as land increases in value, and many families move away from the countryside for the relative comforts of the city. The populist government that has been in power for the last few years and domestic policies that keep Argentine beef prices artificially low haven’t helped much either. From a 55 million head herd in 2003, the overall Argentine herd slumped to 48 million in 2011 as farmers started to cull young animals due to low prices, with numbers recovering to 51.6 million at the end of 2014. This month the United States will lift a 14 year ban on the import of Argentine beef, and it remains to be seen what kind of boost it will give the industry. But what’s for certain is that as there are fewer and fewer cattle to run, the lone horseman finds himself increasingly out of demand.
Photographs and text: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg
