Do gauchos still exist today in Argentina? No, they no longer exist in the historical sense of the term, but they are still very present in folklore and in the collective imagination. They transformed from gaucho into ‘peón’, a kind of salaried peasant factotum within the estancias. In the Argentine countryside it is common to come across these rural workers in shirts and trousers, espadrilles and beret.
They still maintain various traditions related to horses and cattle, and despite the many comforts of the modern age, they still live in an austere way carrying on the work of herds, marking the cattle, taming the horses, checking the fences. Somehow they still continue to live in the freedom of the countryside riding their horses.
