SOURCE: Katra, William. “The Poetic Tradition of the Gaucho.” In Cowboy Poets and Cowboy Poetry, edited by David Stanley and Elaine Thatcher, pp. 299-314. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000.

In the following essay, Katra charts the gaucho style from its beginnings in the original gaucho poetic tradition to its evolution into eventual Gauchesque (imitation gaucho) form.

No continent has a monopoly on cowboys and their art, for wherever a local beef industry has arisen to satisfy consumer demand a rural society and its poetic expression of life among horses and cattle will thrive. That is particularly true of the region of the Río de la Plata—the river separating Argentina and Uruguay. The area is endowed with some of the world's richest pasturelands and still preserves vast expanses of pampas, or open ranges, for its preponderant cattle industry. Accordingly, the region boasts a centuries-old tradition of gauchos...