Fiesta de la Tradición

The gaucho and Martín Fierro

Argentina’s Day of Tradition falls on 10 November, the birthday of the poet José Hernández (1834–1886), author of the narrative poem El gaucho Martín Fierro and its sequel, which describe the life of a gaucho. The idea came from the poet Francisco Timpone in 1937; the province of Buenos Aires declared the day by law in 1939, and a national law extended it to the whole country in 1975.

Areco, founded in 1730, is one of the oldest towns in the province. Its writer Ricardo Güiraldes turned three centuries of local history into the novel Don Segundo Sombra in 1926, and in 1939 a group of residents and paisanos, country people, organised the first Fiesta de la Tradición as a tribute to the man of the countryside and his customs. The town was later named the permanent provincial seat of tradition, and in 2015 the national capital of tradition.

A weekend on horseback

On Saturday the Parque Criollo fills with the first asados and gatherings. In the afternoon the skills ground hosts roping of mares, corridas de sortija — ring races — and carreras cuadreras, horse races, and at dusk campfires are lit for a night of music, songs and traditional dances.

On Sunday the streets of the town centre are decorated for the festival. Dancers from the municipal dance school perform in front of the town hall, and the celebrations open with the band of the Mounted Grenadiers Regiment. Flag-bearers on horseback receive the national and provincial flags from the authorities, and the parade begins: about 2,000 paisanos and some 60 tropillas, herds of horses, move through several streets to the courtyard of the La Blanqueada general store for the lunch. In the afternoon the riders return to the skills ground for the mixing of the herds and more contests of country skills until sunset.