Argentina: People Of The Pampa (2nd Ed

[Music] [Music] There was a time more than a hundred years ago when the traveler could ride for days across the plains of Argentina and see virtually nothing to break the endless vistas of grass. These plains were named the PMPA. In those days, the PMPA was the home of vast herds of cattle and wild horses. Then too, hard, lawless men called gauchos roamed the Argentine PMPA, living as horsemen and nomads. The gauchos could live as they did only as long as the PMPA was a vast open territory too big for the land owners to control. The cattle roam freely and the gauchos could ride wherever they chose. Today, the gauchos of Argentina live their free and adventurous lives only in songs and stories. The pompa is still flat and seemingly endless, but one can no longer ride for days across the unbroken sea of grass. The traveler today will still see great herds of cattle, no longer roving freely across the open pampa, but grazing on fenced in pastures, cattle carefully bred, so that their meat will be tender and delicious. This is a region that has in a little over a century changed from a largely unsettled prairie into one of the world's great food producing areas. Argentina is the second largest nation in South America. It occupies most of the southern half of that continent. Many different kinds of land and climate are to be found in Argentina. To the north, there is a mixture of grasslands and scrubby forest. Here, the summers are very hot. The winter's often cold. All along the South American continent run the Andes, huge, rugged mountains that form the western boundary of Argentina, ranging 2,000 m all the way from north of the Tropic of Capricorn south to Patagonia. Patagonia is largely a high, cold, windswept plateau where sheep grazing is the principal occupation. In the center, the very heart of Argentina is the PMPA, 250,000 square miles, most of it as flat as a tabletop. This fertile region produces over 60% of the meat and 85% of the alalfa, corn, wheat, and other agricultural products that are the principal sources of Argentina's income. Today, the endless vistas of the PMPA are interrupted by railroad tracks and cultivated fields, by grazing cattle and farm villages. Most of the land of the Pampa is held by a relatively small number of people, the owners of the huge estates or ranches known as estansias. Estates that often measure 100,000 acres or more. The Corino family has owned this land for almost a century. But like many Estansiierro families, the Corinos spend very little time here. They have a home in Bueno Ziris and come to the Estansia only for a few weeks each summer. The responsibility for the actual operation of the Estansia is in the hands of the farm manager or mayormo Seenor Blanco who lives in a comfortable modern home in the Estansia Park. Seenor Blanco has worked for the Cino family for over 25 years and has grown to love this vast tract of land for which in many ways he alone is responsible and it is quite a responsibility. There are over 50,000 acres under his direct supervision and close to 100 men. Senor Blanco has his usual busy day ahead. Seenor Blanco rides first to the watering troughs near the main barns. There he inspects a new windmill that has just been constructed. It pumps water from a deep well, water for the cattle and for the fields. The Mayor Domo also inspects the new disinfecting bath for cattle, which helps prevent the dreaded hoof and mouth disease. Some cattle are kept in the pasture and some are sorted out for shipment to the meat packing plants in Buenosiris. On another part of the Estansia, the fields are being plowed for winter planting. On large Estansias, modern machines help increase the productivity of the land. Farm machinery, which comes mostly from the United States. On the far end of the estate live and work the Argentine cowboys, still called Gauchos. During the noon siesta, they eat and chat and tell stories of gauchos of long ago. They are in many cases descendants of the old gauchos. [Music] They are superb horsemen and they are skilled in the use of the gaucho's traditional tool, the bolleadero. This is a strip of plated cowhide with stone or lead weights at the ends. Gauchos used to use it for the serious work of hering cattle. Now it is used mostly for the not so serious work of catching the large birds native to the PMPA. Birds called ryas. The bird is not hurt. The gout will take only its soft white tail feathers. They are worn as hat decorations. Near the main building of the Estansia are the riding stables where the raceh horses of the Estansia are exercised. Every day on his way back to the office, Seenor Blanco visits Mitkille Ron Velvet II. This is the prize bull of the Estansia. Seenor Blanco's pride and seenorino's too. He has won prizes at several local fairs. And in another week, Seenor Blanco will take him to Buenosaresis to be exhibited at the Argentine International Livestock Exhibition. But raising livestock is not the only business on this Estansia. About half the land is planted in crops. This land is rented to tenant farmers called Colog. One of the most prosperous tenants on this Estansia is Seenor Galves. Today he has come to inquire about his rental contract. He learns that it has been extended for another 5 years. Tenants like Seenor Galveves rent two or 300 acres of Anastansia. Each tenant farmer gives a portion of his crop as rent. Most tenants work one piece of land for several years. Then the estansiierro takes it back to be used for pasture and the tenant rents another piece of land or moves to another estansia. This corn, for instance, is part of Seenor Galveves's rent for the use of the land. Mr. Galves hires farm laborers to do some of the work. Landless people of the PMPA work for other farmers. These men are harvesting potatoes for Seenor Galveves. It is close to dinner time. Senora Galves and the children have been waiting impatiently to hear about the new rent contract. Seenor Galdez is happy. They all can stay in this lovely house for a few more years. Radio is their favorite entertainment, and the music they like best is the slow Argentine tango. Before dinner, mate is always served. Is the most popular beverage in Argentina. A kind of tea made from the leaves of a tree grown in the northern part of Argentina. Mate is traditionally drunk from a gourd, often through a silver tube, and is considered to be very healthful. Seenora Galdez keeps an eye on the dinner. It's short ribs of beef tonight. Argentinians eat a lot of beef. Homegrown potatoes and home-raised beef make a delicious and inexpensive meal for the Galves family. Notice how the children hold their knives and forks. It's the European way. European, especially Spanish influence, is strong in South America. Seenor Galves and his family are among the many Argentinians who make their livingings from the land. All over the PMPA, the crops and livestock they produce are taken to the railroads that cover the PMPA. By rail, these products go to the cities. Much of the corn goes to Rosario. Rosario is Argentina's second largest city and its major corn shipping center. But the vast bulk of all produce goes to Argentina's largest, most important city, Buenosiris, the nation's capital. This great city, the largest in South America, owes its size and importance chiefly to the wealth and fertility of the Pompa. 4 million people, a quarter of the entire population of the country, live and work in or near Buenosiris. They call themselves portenos, people of the port. The growth of a large trade in the products of the PMPA with countries overseas have made this a great port. The Portenos are proud and independent. Proud of their beautiful city without boulevards and impressive buildings. Proud of its size and importance. Portenos call their city the Paris of Latin America. And like the people of Paris, the Portenos are interested in clothes and in the latest fashions. The shops that line the streets in the main shopping district are filled with goods from the markets of the world. People from all over Argentina come to shop in Buenosardis. And as in Paris, sidewalk cafes and restaurants are very popular. Like most of their countrymen, residents of Buenosiris are of mixed extraction. predominantly Spanish but with a mixture of Italian, English, German, Portuguese, French, and other European nationalities all blended into something distinctively Argentinian. The people of Argentina are proud of their fine theater, especially their opera. The opera cologne attracts singers from all over the world. The opera building is a landmark of Buenosiris. Another landmark is the capital. Here the parliament meets. Here too, several revolutions have been fought and decided. It's time to go to the fairgrounds where the Argentine International Livestock Exhibition is being held. One way to go is on the subway or subterranean. There is excitement at the fairground. This is an important event in Argentine life. Here is Seenor Blanco with his prize bull. He exhibits him in person. Pampered, petted, cared for every minute of the day. And Tequille Ran Velvet II is a candidate for the prize. The bull that wins the grand championship will be a national hero honored for many days to come. For beef is the wealth of Argentina. Beef and pork and wheat which are exported to Europe and Asia and cotton which is sold on the world markets. Argentina's manufacturing industries are growing, but the country is still far from self-sufficient. With money earned from the export of agricultural products, Argentina pays for her imports. This is why Argentina's main source of prosperity will long continue to be the products grown on the vast fertile PMPA, the wheat and flax, the corn, the wool and meat products that Argentina exports to the rest of the world.