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SAN ANTONIO DE ARECO
The center of the Gaucho Lifestyle.


But where were the Gauchos? I’d seen the Sunday Gauchos of the Feria de Mataderos, in Buenos Aires, but now I was ready for the real thing. The working Gaucho. The Full time Gaucho.

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My research told me that the small country town of San Antonio de Areco was the place, but I’d been here a couple of days, and had found very little in the way of  Gauchos.

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Finally, I decided to check out the Gaucho Museum, the Museo Gauchesco Ricardo Guiraldes. It was very nice museum, but most of the displays were under glass, and difficult to photograph. Besides, I was followed from room to room by a guard with a walkie-talkie who looked like he might call down an air strike if I dared whip out a camera.

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I wandered outside and around the corner of the building, where I ran into a no trespassing sign. So I tried the other side. Same thing. I climbed up on a berm alongside an irrigation ditch, and looked off into the distance, where I spotted some corrals, shaded by large Ombú trees. I could see some activity and a lot of dust. Interesting.

Just then, I noticed two Gauchos, dressed in black, riding out from behind the Museum, toward the corrals.

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Santiago Canelo, Director Comercial at South End Publishing in Buenos Aires was there with a crew of photographers, including Eliseo Miciu, his brother Isaias, and others. They had set up a photo shoot that included Gauchos working cattle and horses and posing for portraits. They very graciously allowed me to join in the fun, and I spent the afternoon firing away in gold-dust and Gaucho heaven.

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I hurried back inside the museum, and asked a friendly looking young woman with an ID badge if it would be OK to take some photographs out back. She said “Si, si, no hay problema.” I thanked her and rushed back outside, climbed the fence, and here’s what I found...

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