Argentina - Event

The Day of the Gaucho on 10 November is celebrated every year in San Antonio de Areco and across Las Pampas. Watch horse displays and polo tournaments, see silverwork, ceramics and colonial carpentry and glimpse the humble gaucho lifestyle.

Despite Argentina's history of European immigration, the gaucho is its native cowboy and has long been a national cultural symbol. During the mid-19th century, a clash of cultures between gauchos and European settlers meant the former were slow to find employment with the new landowners.

However, gaucho skills were indispensible when it came to tending to the roaming herds of cattle on the plains of Argentina, once a mainstay of the national economy. The gaucho is famous for his resilience, dexterity and - more unusually - his singing and dancing.