The Argentine pampa is a sea of ​​steppes. What is a pampa? Terrain features Description of the pampas

"Pampa" means "plain, steppe". In the mythology of the Indians, the pampa was associated with the infinity of life, they perceived the pampa as almost the universe. In the northern part of the South American continent, the word "pampa" is used in a broader sense, meaning any, even a small plain, not only steppe, but also wooded.

In the west, the pampas are limited by the Andes, in the east by the Atlantic Ocean. To the north of the pampas extends the savannah (Spanish: Sabana Gran Chaco), to the south -.

In the area of ​​the low pampas, two high-water rivers flow, (Spanish Río Parana) and (Spanish Río Uruguay), which merge at the common mouth of La Plata. Moreover, Parana is the second river in South America in terms of length (4.7 thousand km) and basin area.

When in the 16th century the Spaniards discovered the area of ​​the pampas, they were amazed by the vast open spaces that stretched out. The development of the pampas and adjacent territories proceeded with varying success, as the natives stubbornly restrained the expansion of the Spaniards, more than once driving away those of the settlements they founded.

Over the centuries of human exploration of the pampas, the local flora has changed beyond recognition. These lands were famous for their extreme fertility, which was actively used by local residents - vast areas were set aside for sown pastures and arable land. As a result, today the natural vegetation of the pampas is almost completely replaced by crops of cultivated plants - wheat, etc. Even the usual treeless landscape of the pampas was unrecognizably changed by a man who planted the steppe with maple and poplar that have taken root well here.

Climate

The climate in the pampas is subtropical, humid and warm, with mild, almost snowless winters.

Most of the time the wind blows here. In the east, the differences in winter and summer temperatures are less significant; in the west, the climate has a more pronounced continental character.

The average winter temperature (July) in the pampas is about + 8 ° С, summer (January) - about + 23 ° С. Since the moisture in the region is mainly due to cyclonic rainfall, the amount of rainfall in the pampas varies greatly from year to year. Dry periods here usually occur during the summer.

Due to the absence of massive mountain ranges, the territory from north to south is open to both cold southerly winds and northern, tropical ones - this leads to unexpected weather changes. Cold southern winds "pamperos" sometimes spread to the Gran Chaco, causing significant cooling - flying with unusual speed, they lead to rapid temperature drops and cause 2-3 monthly frosts, and sometimes snowfall. Dry diapers bring with them a huge amount of dust, wet diapers - torrential downpours and even snowfalls; north winds ("nortes") bring heat.

From a perfectly flat plain, the relief of the pampas smoothly passes to chains of hills, breaking off into a lowland with lifeless salt marshes, interspersed with rocky areas covered with thorny bushes, reaching up to 3 m in height. The vast monotonous plains of the pampas are broken by several low mountain ranges, which are significant "suppliers" of building stone: Sierra del Tandil, Sierras de Cordoba And Sierra de la Ventana. The highest point of the pampas (1300 m) is located in a mountainous area Sierra de la Ventana(Spanish Sierra de la Ventana).

Pampa is part of the territories of Argentina, and. Moreover, in Argentina, the pampa is still the most important agricultural region and the main economic region of the country: over 85% of wheat and corn crops are located here, about 60% of cattle are grazing.

By the nature of the landscapes, the type of vegetation, representatives of the animal world and the nature of the use of the territory for economic purposes, the pampas are similar to the steppes of Eurasia and the North American prairies. The pampas differ from the Eurasian steppes, perhaps, only in the absence of negative winter temperatures.

Despite the fact that most of the pampas have long been mastered by man, in places that are hard to reach, “islands” of virgin nature have been preserved in some places. Small areas of wild vegetation also remained in the right-of-way of roads, railways and along river banks.

Population

In the 17th century in the pampas, a special type of local population was formed: shepherds-gauchos (descendants from mixed marriages of Europeans with Indians, with a significant predominance of Indian blood). They were primitive shepherds, grazing semi-wild cattle and spending their whole lives on horseback. Constantly living in nature, Gauchos (Gaucho) are distinguished by incredible strength and endurance, they also have a pride that borders on arrogance.

In our time, the pampas are quite densely populated: almost ¾ of the population of Argentina is concentrated here. The largest city located in the middle of the Argentine pampas is (Spanish: Rosario; 3rd largest city in Argentina) - an important railway junction and seaport. Even throughout the world, Rosario is known as the city where he was born (Spanish: Ernesto Che Guevara; 1928-1967) - the famous commander of the Cuban revolution.

The next largest is Argentinean (Spanish: La Plata), the metropolitan center of the province of Buenos Aires. In the city of Lujan (Spanish Lujan), which is popularly called the "Capital of Faith", up to 6 million pilgrims from all over South America annually visit, because the Basilica of the Virgin Mary of Lujan, the heavenly patroness of Argentina, is located here.

The third largest city in the pampas is Santa Fe (Spanish: Santa Fe). It is the financial, transportation and trade center of a rich agricultural region that specializes in the production of beef, grain and vegetable oil.

Flora and fauna

Many varieties of animals and plants living in the pampas had to adapt to the peculiar conditions of this region.

The natural vegetation of the pampas is a subtropical forb steppe, in the west turning into dry grass-shrub steppes. In the pampa, there is a well-defined longitudinal zonality: the eastern (wetter) "low pampa" and the western, "high pampa" (dry) are distinguished. With the forests of the Brazilian Highlands, the pampas are connected by a forest-steppe zone, where grasses alternate with thickets of evergreen shrubs.

The vegetation of the pampas is mainly represented by rare plant species that are characteristic exclusively of South America. Mainly, these are unique species of grasses and South American varieties of cereals, widespread in the temperate zones of the European steppes, such as fescue, feather grass, bearded vulture. The habitat of pampas vegetation is mainly humid areas of meadow zones in Argentina. An amazing feature of pampas plants is that they have adapted to live in almost any environment. Steppe grasses are extremely tenacious, these amazing plants can be found everywhere here: in the sun of dry, rocky areas, along the beds of streams and in wet, swampy ravines.

Among the most common plants in the pampas are the water lily and the reeds, which are usually found in ponds or wetlands, but they have also adapted remarkably to dry meadows. Trees in these places are not very common, because due to the heat and lack of water in the pampas, fires often occur. A happy exception is the American Lakonos (lat. Phytolacca americana), who managed to adapt and protect himself from fires.

Fires do not cause much harm to the grass cover of the pampas - plants that have adapted to such climate behavior quickly recover.

All animals living in the pampas can be divided into 3 main groups:

• those that can move quickly in search of moisture and food: pampas deer, pampas cat and ostrich rhea (a kind of flightless bird);
• those that can live by burrowing into the turf and the ground (rodents of nutria, viscacha and armadillo);
• horses and cattle brought by the Spaniards, which became completely wild and multiplied enormously.

Because of the constantly blowing winds, many animals hide in tall grass or burrow into the ground. Even owls live in the pampas, which arrange their nests by digging underground burrows. Many birds (several species of finches and finches) and pampas animals feed on plant seeds. The Pampas are also home to the common rhea, the closest relative of the African ostrich and the Australian emu. Along with rare birds, no less remarkable mammals are found in the pampas, a prominent representative of which is the wild cat Geoffroy (lat. Leopardus geoffroyi). The animal is distinguished by a characteristic gray color of the back with dark stripes and black legs, almost devoid of hair. This "camouflage" allows the South American cat to remain almost invisible among the steppe grasses.

Among the endless expanses of the pampas, Geoffroy's cat is one of the few predators, its only competitor is the Chilean cat. Although, in the full sense of the word, it is only difficult to call them competitors, since Geoffroy's cat loves to live in dense thickets of grass, and the Chilean cat prefers open areas, that is, there are no reasons pushing these animals to fight for territory. The main source of danger for the Geoffroy cat, unfortunately, is a person who mercilessly exterminates these animals because of their valuable fur (about 150 thousand animal skins are sold annually). Environmental organizations are concerned about this fact; in 1992, the sale of Geoffrey's cat skins was banned in Europe.

Another representative of the pampas mammals is the maned wolf. In the process of evolution, the animal acquired long, strong legs that help it track prey in tall grasses.

Lama Guanaco (lat. Lama guanicoe; rev. "Wanaku") is found near rare reservoirs. This animal belongs to the camelid family and is well adapted to the dry climatic periods of the South American pampas. Among other things, more than 15 species of mammals, about 20 species of birds and 15 species of plants that are on the verge of extinction live here.

The wet pampas are some of the best pastures on the planet. Thanks to the temperate climate and generous, rich soil, most of the pampas have been converted to agricultural land. Unfortunately, overgrazing and the active development of agriculture with the use of fertilizers have had a detrimental effect on the pampas ecosystem, becoming a serious threat to the region. To date, only a few islands of the legendary “ocean of grasses” that once existed in the pampas have remained untouched.

Agriculture today remains the main economic destiny of the Pampas.

Livestock is still bred here, wheat, corn and other grain crops are grown, and butter is grown.

Cattle were first brought to the South American pampas by the Portuguese in the middle of the 16th century. Numerous herds roamed freely during the colonial period, and gauchos dominated the region throughout the 18th century. A new era of economic development began in the middle of the 19th century, when growing European agricultural markets attracted immigrant farmers (mainly Spanish, Italian, French and German) who moved deep into the western regions in the wake of a railway built specifically to connect pastures with the coast. Active cultivation of land began, unfriendly Indians were forced out of the region, and gauchos were transformed into farmers. Today the region has an extensive transport network.

The unofficial historical capital of the Gaucho is the city (Spanish: Porto Alegre)

Curious facts

In the center of Argentina is the province of La Pampa. It occupies the southwestern outskirts of the pampas and part of the Precordillera region in the west with mountains about a kilometer high.
The surface of La Pampa - generally flat - rises from east to west, but the amount of precipitation decreases: moist air masses from the Atlantic, as they move towards the mountains, leave most of the moisture in the steppe.
In those areas where there is little rainfall, droughts are frequent, the vegetation is predominantly shrubby, characteristic of semi-deserts, called caldenal - after the name of the caldenia plant. In more humid areas - vegetation characteristic of the dry pampas. A phenomenon called “natural weights” is characteristic of La Pampa: in dry years, the caldenal advances on the pampa, and in wet years, the pampa cereals prevail, and therefore the caldenal does not extend far beyond the dry regions.
The fauna of La Pampa is typical for the Argentine steppes: puma, rhea, guanaco, Argentine gray fox, Patagonian hare, armadillo, vis-porridge. There are many large birds of prey, especially scavengers: there are many dead animals in the steppe.
The first Europeans to reach the present La Pampa were the Spanish conquistadors at the beginning of the 17th century. But the local climate and the small number of rivers forced them to abandon the immediate colonization of the pampas, and therefore permanent Spanish settlements appeared here only at the end of the 18th century.
The Indians put up fierce resistance to the colonialists, which was broken only by the end of the 19th century. during the famous military campaign of the Argentine government, called the Conquest of the Desert 1871-1884. Regular troops were engaged in the mass extermination of the recalcitrant.
The lands of the Indians were divided among themselves by army officers, their descendants, and today they own extensive ranch estancias in La Pampa.
La Pampa became a province of the country in 1945.
Conquistadors and missionaries wrote that these lands reminded them of the monastery courtyards of their native Spain: a large platform (pampa) resting against a blank wall (foothills of the Andes).

Large Argentine Pasture

This is what local economic observers call the province, not forgetting to add that the discovery of oil fields is unlikely to change the life of the Pampeans for the better.
The area of ​​the province of La Pampa is relatively large - 8th in the country, but in terms of population it is in 22nd place (out of 24 provinces). The fact that the number of pampeanos, as the inhabitants of the province call themselves, is small, the lack of water and the lack of roads played a role.
This province lacks moisture also because only two large rivers flow through its territory - the Rio Colorado and the Rio Salado. The water level in the rivers is decreasing from year to year: their waters are taken for irrigation in the neighboring province of Mendoza, where their middle course is located, and La Pampa already gets little. This distribution of water has caused a sharp conflict between the two provinces.
Great troubles for the population and economy are caused by steppe hurricanes passing through the pampas in the summer (January), preventing the passage of moist air from the Atlantic and often causing drought. Also in the province there are very few areas with suitable soil for cultivation and a high amplitude of daily temperatures, which is unfavorable for both people and livestock.
The economy of La Pampa is based on agriculture, mainly cattle breeding, which is customary for the Pampas region, with a predominance of local meat breeds. The entire northeast is occupied by invernads - farms specializing in fattening beef bulls for export.
There is little cultivated land - about 8% of agricultural land, as the quality of the soil leaves much to be desired. The main crops are rye and wheat. Intensive economic activity (primarily cattle breeding) led to the destruction of vegetation in many areas of La Pampa, which provoked severe soil erosion.
The industry is represented by mining - large deposits of oil and natural gas have been found in La Pampa - and food industry enterprises.
The city of Santa Rosa, where almost half of the population of the province lives, is the basis of all life in the province of La Pampa, its administrative, industrial, cultural, and educational center.

general information

Location: the center of Argentina.
Administrative division: 22 departments, 80 municipalities.
Administrative center: City of Santa Rosa - 124,101 people (2010).
Cities: General Pico - 57,669 people (2010), General Acha - 12,184 people. (2010), Eduardo-Casteh - 9253 people. (2010).
Formed: 1945
Language: Spanish.
Ethnic composition: Argentines.
Religion: Catholicism.
Currency unit: Argentine peso.
Major rivers: Rio Colorado, Rio Salado, Atuel, Tunuyan.
Neighboring territories: in the north - the provinces of San Luis and Cordoba, in the east -, in the south and southwest -, in the west - and Mendoza.

Numbers

Area: 143,440 km2.
Population: 318,951 (2010).
Population density: 2.2 people / km 2.
highest point: Mount Cerro Negro (1125 m).

Climate and weather

Moderate wet in the east, moderate dry in the west.
January average temperature: +32°С in the west, +30°С in the east.
July average temperature: +10°С in the west, +5°С in the east.
Average annual rainfall: from 200 mm in the southwest to 1000 mm in the east.
Relative humidity: from 60% in the west to 70% in the east.

Economy

GRP: $3.2 billion (2006), per capita $10,050 (2006)
Minerals: oil, natural gas, rock salt, gypsum.

Industry: food (meat and dairy, winemaking, cheese making), woodworking.
Agriculture: crop production (wheat, corn, sunflower, barley), animal husbandry (cattle, sheep, goats, pigs). Sea fishing.
Beekeeping.
Service sector: tourism, transport, trade, financial.

Attractions

Natural

Pampa, Atuel River Canyon, La Arosena Lagoon, Parque Louro Provincial Reserve, Lihue-Kalel National Park.

historical

Estancia estates.

City of Santa Rosa

Spanish Theater (1908), Fitte commune (1930), Provincial Museum of Art, Provincial Museum of Natural History.

Curious facts

■ The virgin pampa in the province of La Pampa is almost gone: it is either plowed up or turned into pastures. Remains of more or less natural vegetation can only be found in the railroad right-of-way and on roadsides outside fenced arable lands or pastures, as well as along river banks.
■ The pampas are now Argentina's most important agricultural region, growing 95% of wheat, 80% of the country's arable land, and 60% of the livestock. The pampas are home to 2/3 of the population of Argentina.
■ Nandu, although it looks like an ostrich, runs much more slowly, although it can reach speeds of up to 60 km / h. But, unlike the ostrich, the rhea swims well and is able to cross rivers without visible physical effort.
■ The discoverer of La Pampa - the Spaniard Hernando Arias de Saavedra (1561 -1634), who reached this corner of the Pampa in 1604. Better known as Hernandarias, this military and political leader became the first European to be born in America and become the governor of European colonies in the New World - first the colonies of the Rio de la Plata, and then - Paraguay.
■ In 1952, the province of La Pampa was renamed in honor of the deceased Eva Perón, wife of President Juan Perón. In 1955, Juan Peron himself was overthrown, and La Pampa was returned to its former name.
As I already wrote, a week ago our Tambov adventurers returned from a three-week trip to Argentina and Chile. In Chile, they captured only a small piece - the Atacama Desert. Argentina, on the other hand, was driven along from the north to the extreme south, from the border with Bolivia to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego. Without false modesty, I will say that Shlyakhtinsky knows how to put people on South America. Those who traveled with me once come back here several times. To different countries, of course. Although some manage to eat twice a year in Peru, for example. A month later, on January 31, I fly with the Tambovites and the Lipchans who have joined to Venezuela and Brazil until March.

But speech, actually, about another. Today's communication with our wanderers prompted me to make a post about Argentina. One or two more in the future. Africa has already fucked you up, friends, hasn't it?
Pampa, by the way!

From the Atlantic Ocean to the foothills of the Andes, and from the river La Plata to the Rio Negro, there is a flat area where there is nothing to stop the eye. Pampa is a word, a word borrowed from the Quechua Indian language and meaning "plain". Its landscape is monotonous, and the surface seems absolutely flat, although in reality it imperceptibly rises to the west from 200 meters at Buenos Aires to 500 meters at Mendoza. In other places, its level slightly rises near individual mountains, which suddenly appear before the traveler, like islands in this boundless ocean of land.
Covering approximately 80,000 square kilometers, the original pampa is the result of a gigantic accumulation of loose products of destruction of the rocks of the Andes, which for many centuries brought mountain streams and rivers here. The wind blowing away the smallest particles of this material also played a role in this accumulation. Sedimentary strata, whose thickness reaches almost 300 meters near Buenos Aires, and in some places much more, completely buried the ancient landforms. The absence of any noticeable slope does not favor the formation of a permanent runoff. Thus, the appearance of the pampa can be explained by the play of the gigantic forces of nature, which once sculpted the relief, and then repeatedly remade their creation. In this respect, the real pampa resembles the Indo-Gangetic plain, although the natural conditions in South Asia are quite different from those in Argentina.

The absence of any noticeable slope of the surface does not favor the formation of a permanent system of rivers. Rainwater accumulates in clay areas, collects in depressions and forms more or less permanent lagoons - swamp lakes. The rivers for the most part originate in the Pampinian Sierras, but as they move along the plain they lose their strength, and many of them dry up near the foothills. Rivers often change course, leaving their floodwaters behind in swampy depressions. Some of these lagoons, such as Colorado near the city of Bahia Blanca, are below sea level, and the wind obviously played a significant role in creating their bed.

Differences in climate between the western and eastern parts of the pampas also explain the difference in their soils. The western, hotter part is arid and covered with stunted vegetation, and vast expanses are completely bare.
In the eastern part, which receives more rainfall, there is a dense vegetation cover. The difference in climate has certainly had a big impact on agriculture. According to the definition of botanists, the pampas are a huge treeless steppe. Its landscape is utterly monotonous, and the traveler soon gets the impression that he is constantly circling the same plains.

The absence of trees in the primitive pampa can be attributed to the fact that there is compacted soil and insufficient soil aeration. Another reason may lie in the lack of precipitation in the summer. Man, however, managed to acclimatize various types of woody vegetation here, such as eucalyptus, casuarina, maple tree, summer oak, ash and poplar. These trees have transformed the landscape of the pampas, especially around populated areas.

To the west, the vegetation of the pampas changes: starting from the central part of the province of San Luis to the Rio Colorado, it resembles the flora of the arid Chaco - an area bordering the pampas in the north. In their natural state, the plains are covered with drought-resistant vegetation, mainly thorny shrubs from one to three meters high, such as yarilla, various prosopis, chanyar, chuquieragua and acacias. Between thickets of stunted trees and shrubs stretch vast expanses of bare land. Cereal grasses are rare here, and the number of species of other herbaceous plants is even more limited.
Despite the thickness of the alluvial deposits in the pampas, the mountains were still not completely buried under them. Separate ridges, composed of very ancient rocks, rise up among the plains and basically play the role of "water towers", from which rivers rush down in all directions.

The main role is played by the Sierras de Córdoba and the San Luis Massif, separated by the Conlar Basin. Where the slopes of the Sierras receive sufficient rainfall, they are covered with forest, and the wettest areas with subtropical vegetation. Above 1200 meters, forests are found only in well-protected gorges. Until the middle of the 19th century, the Sierras played an important role in the economy of Argentina. The rivers flowing from them contributed to the development of agriculture and farming, which were engaged in by the large population of this region.
The great similarity in the economic development of the Argentine pampas and the North American prairie strikes anyone who studies the problems of economic geography. It catches the eye of a simple traveler. When the plane flies over the pampas, it seems that you are heading from Chicago to Denver. Both the pampas and the prairies are gigantic plains covered with grassy communities characteristic of temperate zones.
The local fauna, in particular birds, also resembles the fauna of the prairies in some ways. In particular, this applies to water birds that teem in marshes and other bodies of water. Of the numerous ducks, we will focus primarily on the black-headed duck (Heteronetta atricapilla), which is distributed from the central regions of Chile to southern Brazil and further to Argentina. Outwardly, the black-headed duck resembles a teal, it has many features in common with ducks (Oxyura). But instead of building its own nest, the black-headed duck lays its eggs in the nests of other ducks or in the nests of very few birds related to it - palmedes, macaws, gulls, and even birds of prey. With her habits, of course, she resembles cuckoos.

Another very remarkable and typical inhabitant of the pampas is the teru-teru, the Argentine plover (Belonopterus cayanensis). Its plumage is mostly gray, but the belly is white and the head is black. As soon as the plover senses danger, it emits a deafening cry. If a person crosses this territory during the nesting period, a pair of plovers pursue him, both birds circling above him, emitting an alarm shrill cry. The wet eastern pampas are the true domain of these birds, which love grassy plains with plenty of water. Peons often collect plover eggs, but this species is still incredibly abundant. In the 19th century, many of these birds were slaughtered for shipment to Europe in salted or frozen form.
We should also mention the crested palamedia (Chauna torquata), which differs from other representatives of the anseriformes order. Palamedeans are usually found in pairs on the banks of rivers and swampy lakes. They emit a loud cry that sounds like "cha-cha". The dissonant cries of chaya (the local name for the bird) combined with the raucous cries of the teru-teru form the "music" of the pampas.

For the first time I read the word "pampas" from Jules Verne in "The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain". There, this South American steppe was very beautifully described, and I imagined the pampas as a mysterious place where "unprecedented animals" are found and amazing adventures take place. And indeed it is!

Definition of the word pampa

Pampa or pampas - steppe in South America. The eastern part of the pampas is washed by the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, and in the north it is limited by the Andes mountain range. Translated from the language of the Quechua Indians (literally), "pampa" is a grassy plain.. The Indians identified the pampas with the universe, the same eternal and infinite. These lands were very fertile and actively developed by man. Therefore, now the pampas are almost all sown with cultivated cereals- wheat, corn and cattle breeding is very developed.

Climate and population of the pampas

The climate in the pampas warm and humid and winters are cold and mild. The entire vast territory is open to winds - south, north or tropical. As a result, the weather changes dramatically. So, south, but cold winds "pamperos" bear a cold snap, rapidly lowering the temperature. Dry "pampers" bring a huge amount of dust, and wet winds - rains and snowfalls.

In the 17th century, the pampas formed a special type of population - shepherds-gauchos. They are characterized by endurance, strength and pride, sometimes bordering on arrogance.

3/4 of the total population of Argentina lives in the pampas. Everyone knows the Argentine city where he was born Che Guevara- Argentine revolutionary.

Flora and fauna of the pampas

Pampas are primarily tall (more than a meter tall) grass. It covers the steppe with a green carpet and retains its color all year round. Steppe grasses are very tenacious and can grow both under the scorching sun and in marshy places.

Typical representatives of the flora:

• fescue;
• bearded man;
• feather grass;
• verbena;
• lilies;
• silver hynerium. Very beautiful grass, reaching a height of 2 meters or more, with blue panicles.

Animals have also adapted to local conditions:

• coypu, armadillo and viscacha (large rodent) dig holes to hide from the wind;
• puma, jaguar - the largest carnivorous animals;
• Azar opossum. It is surprising that he lives in the pampas, because there are almost no trees here;
• tinamu - the most typical bird for the pampas, similar to a partridge;

• mustang - a wild horse, a symbol of the pampas.

An interesting fact: farmers use water from depths of 30 to 150 meters, since there are almost no rivers and lakes in the pampas.

This area is located to the west of Buenos Aires and is considered the birthplace of the legendary gauchos. Pampa was originally inhabited by nomadic Indians. kerandi who were hunters, fishermen and gatherers. They hunted guanacos and Nanda ostriches and were content with life until the arrival of the Spaniards. The Indians resisted the conquerors for more than three hundred years, preventing them from establishing safe settlements in the pampas. The resistance actually continued until 1879, when the Europeans declared a brutal war aimed at destroying the inhabitants of the pampas (Campagna del Desierto). Further, the region developed very slowly, given the hostility of the local population, as well as the lack of gold and minerals.

The colonization of these places is inextricably linked with the romantic image of the Argentine cowboy "gaucho". Gauchos are an ethnic group that formed in the 16th-17th centuries. from intermarriages of Spaniards with Indian women of Argentina and Uruguay. Etymology of the word gaucho not exactly established, but most likely it came from the word huachu, which in Quechua means orphan, vagabond. There is also a version of Arabic origin ( chowcho- whip for grazing), but, since the term itself gaucho first began to be used in 1816, it is unlikely.

During the period of early European colonization, gauchos led a wandering life, engaged in smuggling, theft, resale of livestock, and, only from the end of the 18th century. began to be hired as shepherds on cattle farms. Gauchos took an active part in the war for the independence of the Spanish colonies. In con. XIX - beginning. In the 20th century, when mass European immigration began, the way of life of the gauchos began to change. Many of them, having become rich, knowing the peculiarities of their country well and having close clan-kinship ties, received large plots of land and pastures in their ownership and began to hire European immigrants.

But, oddly enough, it was at this time that romantic literature about independent gauchos appeared with a great delay, their image became incredibly popular. Gauchos were then not only a symbol of extreme, but romantic Argentine nationalism, known as argentinidad. No one could even foresee such a popularity of the image of a man on a horse, dressed in worn trousers and a leather hat, with a sharp knife in his belt. Like his North American cowboy predecessor, the gaucho became the subject of films and books. Ironically, the Argentine cowboys won such popularity only during the fading of their era.

The unofficial capital of the gaucho today is the small town of San Antonio de Areco, located a little over 100 km from Buenos Aires. There is also a Gaucho Museum, and every year at the beginning of November, a traditional festival is held with horse riding competitions, dances and asados.

Currently, the Pampa plays a leading role in supplying the country with agricultural products. Numerous ranches are now also cultivating grain crops.