From Literary Gaucho to “Real” Gaucho: A Contribution to Its Construction in Argentina (1845-1913)

Abstract

This article analyzes the construction of the Gaucho-figure by the Argentine elites between 1845 and 1913, when it was finally proclaimed as a symbol of “national identity”, and how this construction gave birth to “real” specimens of the traditional dweller of the Argentine pampas. To this end, Ian Hacking’s theses on “interactive kinds of people” are used. By the study of literary sources of the Argentine elites and foreign travelers, it is found that in 1845, the “Gaucho” was not a way of being a type of person; but in 1913, it did mean a composite of experiences and modes of self-understanding and of life in society that some persons, mainly dwellers of the rural areas, attributed to themselves. Two aspects are studied: the trajectory of the term “Gaucho”, which positive connotation allowed its “redemption”; and its extinction as a discursive strategy of travelers and elites, which would allow a group of people to consider themselves as the last examples of the gaucho, thus opening for them new possibilities of action.