Archivo General de la Nación Argentina 1890 aprox, Paisanos en el campo

Gaucho, the nomadic and colourful horseman and cowhand of the Argentine and Uruguayan Pampas (grasslands), who flourished from the mid-18th to the mid-19th century and has remained a folk hero similar to the cowboy in western North America. The term also has been used to refer to cowhands and other people of Rio Grande do Sul state in Brazil.