Argentina 1870s: The Gaucho Outlaw and the Alambrado

In the 1870s, Argentina's pampas were transformed by a single invention: barbed wire. The alambrado, or wire fencing, ended the open range and the gaucho's nomadic way of life. This episode follows the story of Juan Moreira, a legendary gaucho outlaw who became a folk hero after a series of violent confrontations with alcaldes and the newly established rural police. We explore the Ley de los Alcaldes of 1870, the rise of the estancia system, the military campaigns against indigenous peoples in the so-called Conquista del Desierto, and the cultural shift that turned the gaucho from a symbol of freedom into a figure of nostalgia. Through Moreira's life and death, we see how the modern Argentine state — beef export, railroads, and all — was built on the enclosure of the land and the erasure of a way of life.

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