Cattle buyers bid for lots during an early-morning winter auction at the Mercado de Liniers. The market was upgraded in the 1970s, around the same time that stockyards in Chicago were closing.
Photographer: Anita Pouchard Serra/BloombergArgentina’s 120-Year-Old Cattle Auction Is Leaving Buenos Aires
The iconic market is moving to windswept pampas outside the city.
Argentina’s ranchers, cattle traders and gauchos, iconic figures in a country where grilling beef has long been a sacred ritual, are getting kicked out of Buenos Aires.
In late December, the Mercado de Liniers, a sprawling open-air cattle market built in 1901, is slated to hold its final auction in front of what is certain to be a teary-eyed crowd. A brand-new facility, erected on the windswept pampas southwest of the city, will replace it, marking the end of an era. “It’s all very emotional,” says Ismael Frechero, a livestock buyer who’s been roaming the corrals at Liniers for five decades.