A huaso () is a Chilean countryman and skilled horseman, similar to the

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, the

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charro (and its northern equivalent, the

vaquero The ''vaquero'' (; pt, vaqueiro, , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in Mexico from a methodology brought to Latin America from Spain. The vaquero became t ...

), the gaucho of Argentina, Uruguay and

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, and the

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n stockman. A female ''huaso'' is called a huasa, although the term china is far more commonly used for his wife or sweetheart, whose dress can be seen in

cueca Cueca () is a family of musical styles and associated dances from Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. In Chile, the cueca holds the status of national dance, where it was officially declared as such by the Pinochet dictatorship on September 18, 1979 ...

dancing. Huasos are found all over

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and Southern Chile while the Aysén and Magallanes Region sheep raisers are gauchos. The major difference between the huaso and the gaucho is that huasos are involved in farming as well as cattle herding. Huasos are generally found in Chile's central valley. They ride

horses The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million yea ...

and typically wear a straw hat called a '' chupalla''. They also wear a poncho—called a ''manta'' or a '' chamanto'' (although this was originally reserved to land owners, as it is much more expensive)—over a short Andalusian waist jacket, as well as tooled leather legging over booties with raw hide leather spur holders that sustain a long-shanked spur with 4-inch rowels, and many other typical garments. Huasos are an important part of Chilean folkloric culture and are a vital part of parades, fiestas, holidays, and popular music.Mularski, Jedrek. ''Music, Politics, and Nationalism in Latin America: Chile During the Cold War Era''. Amherst: Cambria Press. . The dancing of the

in which the coy china is courted by the persistent huaso, both traditionally attired, is ''de rigueur'' on such occasions. In Chile, the term ''huaso'' or ''ahuasado'' (in a ''huaso'' way) is also used disparagingly to refer to people without manners or lacking the sophistication of an urbanite, akin to US English redneck.(This is not based on fact)

Etymology

Various theories are commonly advanced: from the Quechua ''wakcha'' (hispanicized as ''huacho'') meaning ''orphan'', ''not belonging to a community'', hence free and homeless, an important aspect of the huaso/gaucho myth, or alternatively from the Quechua ''wasu'', meaning either the back of an animal, or rough and rustic. Moreover the word ''guaso/a'' is used in Andalusian and American Spanish with the last sense. It appears that a form of

folk etymology Folk etymology (also known as popular etymology, analogical reformation, reanalysis, morphological reanalysis or etymological reinterpretation) is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more famili ...

has operated to conflate the contrasting identities of the huaso, viewed as both a free horseman (implying some wealth and nobility) and an unsophisticated country bumpkin. Both senses can be observed in Chilean usage.

References

External links

Southamerica.cl/Chile/Huasos.htm
{{Mounted stock herders Animal husbandry occupations Chilean culture Society of Chile National symbols of Chile Pastoralists Horse-related professions and professionals Transhumance

Etymology

See also

References

External links