The word gaucho means “an orphan without a reason.” This name derived from a certain class of people in Argentine history. When immigrants came to Argentina when the country was being colonized, the immigrants married the natives. Their children were a mix of either dark hair and blue eyes, or blonde hair and dark eyes; either way, the children did not look exactly like one parent or the other, so they would become orphans. These orphans were the gauchos.
The gauchos were a very free people. They would ride their horses around the country, and kill an animal when they needed food or leather. They started to disappear between 1880 and 1910 because they were used in Argentina war for their knowledge of the land. In addition, many of the immigrants that came to Argentina started to fence off areas of land, so the gauchos lost their freedom.
Their clothing told a lot about the gauchos. Their hats and boots were always made of leather, and they would wear a handkerchief around their necks, a leather belt with coins on it, and a knife in the belt in the back. Their blouse color depended on their responsibilities; if their blouse was a light color, they were in charge of horses, and dark colored shirts were in charge of food. If their belts had a lot of coins on them, that meant that they were a very important leader. The more coins that you had, the more important you were. Their poncho colors also held a specific meaning. A poncho is a blanket with a hole in the center. If the poncho is red and black, the gaucho is from the north. They were red for all of the blood that was shed in the area. The light blue ponchos are from around the Buenos Aires area, and the brown or black ponchos are from the Patagonia area in the south. Many gauchos would also carry boleadoras, which are heavy balls on string, to lasso animals.
No comments:
Post a Comment