Different Gaucho types

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, an important figure in Argentine history, explained through one of his books the four types of gauchos: the gaucho singer, the baqueano gaucho, the bad gaucho and the tracker gaucho.

The gaucho singer has no fixed residence: his journey is where the night surprises him and where his verses take him. Wherever there is a glass of wine, the singer has his preferred place, his chosen part in the feast. This gaucho does not drink, if the music and the verses do not excite him, and each pulperia has its guitar to put in the hands of the singer.

The gaucho baqueano is a person who knows the paths and shortcuts of a terrain. He is a person very attached to his customs. By extension it applies to anyone who is particularly skilled at a task. Modest and reserved, he is in all the secrets of the campaign; the fate of his army, the success of a battle, the conquest of a province, everything depends on him.

Justice has persecuted the bad gaucho for many years; his name is feared, spoken in a low voice, but without hatred and almost with respect. He is a mysterious character; dwells in the pampas. The bad gaucho is not a bandit, he is not a robber, the attack on life is not his idea.

Lastly, the tracker gaucho is a character whose assertions bear witness to the lower courts. The awareness of the knowledge he possesses gives him a certain reserved and mysterious dignity. Everyone treats him with consideration, for everything the tracker is called immediately, who sees the trail and follows it without looking.

Although there are several types of gaucho, they all have the same essence, a relationship of direct affection with Argentine tradition and culture, with the land and with the horse, above all.