They look Spanish, maybe Basque:
Very macho.
The pants are called "bombachas". They also wear over their pants, a poncho called "chiripá" that they tie or attach with beautiful hand-worked leather belts to the waist.
Los pantalones tradicionales del gaucho se llaman bombachas, que son holgados y se estrechan hacia el tobillo para mayor comodidad al montar, aunque históricamente también usaron el chiripá, una especie de manta que se ajustaba a la cintura. Las bombachas son un símbolo cultural y hoy se usan en trajes gauchescos.
Those balls are very hard, maybe made of bone (?) and are called "bolones".
They were used to hunt guanacos
(the bigger-sized, scarier llamas that spit at you),
ñandús (the Argentine and Chilean ostrich).
They were also weapons to kill enemies, and the leather straps would be
hurled around a cow's legs to bring it down.
Los gauchos usaban las boleadoras (o "bolones", aunque ese término se refiere más a las canicas) para cazar (ñandúes, guanacos) y manejar el ganado (enredando las patas para derribarlos) y también como arma de guerra, ya sea arrojándolas para derribar al enemigo o usando una piedra como maza en combate cuerpo a cuerpo, una técnica que aprendieron de los pueblos originarios. Las boleadoras de tres piedras ("Tres Marías") eran las más comunes para el ganado y la guerra, mientras que las de dos bolas ("ñanduceras") se usaban para aves.
This gaucho seems barefoot, but it looks like he's wearing sandals.
Argentine men and women are Gorgeous.
Gauchos were / are not known for being pretty boys.
But maybe when they're young...
THIS IS MORE THE IMAGE OF THE REAL GAUCHO:
Tangos are romantic, many are melancholy (like our kundiman).
There was a very mean joke I heard years ago in the U.S.:
"I love to hear tango."
"Oh yeah, why?"
"Because everytime they play a tango, an Argentine dies."
What an asswipe joke.
But it is true that Argentines suffer from a historical depression about their country.
It was a great country that sank to the depths.
A lot of proud Argentinos
with little to feel proud of.
A lot of them left the country, went to the U.S.
Though not as many as Central Americans, or even Chileans.
Argentina was very rich when their first-rate meat and wheat were exported to the U.S. and Europe.
Buenos Aires is still a European city.
Lots of Italians emigrated there.
Then the military regimes started taking over.
(This was after the genocide of the Mapuches in the Patagonia in the 19th century.)
This is Argentine history from a total ignoramus (me).
The great haciendas were called estancias ganaderas.
The figure of the Argentine gaucho is extremely interesting.
This was the counterpart of the North American cowboy, but much wilder and tougher.
They were experts in wrapping a poncho around one arm and swinging a big knife with the other hand.
The Argentine pampa is a steppe. Endless empty prairie. Hot.
A dear Argentine friend gave me a small, leather-bound edition of the epic gaucho poem,
El gaucho Martín Fierro.
Here is my book:
have found the way to colonize the world
with their artistic talent, to express their sensibility, humor, caustic realism, and charm.
Argentines possess deadly charm.
They are essentially good, great people.
I personally have a ton of affection for Argentines.
Here, recently, when I met a wonderful group of Argentine ladies in Santiago:
Here's a guanaco about to spit at you:
And the ñandú:
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