Malvinas: After the British Invasion, Gaucho Was the Main Workforce

Gauchos remain a main population during the initial years of British occupation

An 1856 British engraving in *The Illustrated London News* depicts "Spanish-American gauchos" capturing horses with boleadoras in the Malvinas.
The English press documented the established presence of Rioplatense culture following the 1833 occupation—a history that supports our sovereignty.





The colonial authorities relied on them. In a British Parliament report (1843), Admiral King details the urgent shipment from the Río de la Plata of "trained horses and 6 recados (gaucho saddles)," as Luis Vernet’s own stock was exhausted.



The report highlights Antonina Roxa, a legendary Rioplatense woman who played a key role in taming cattle on East Falkland (Isla Soledad). In 1841, Colonial Lieutenant Tyssen admitted that, to venture into the interior, he was left "alone with an Indian, a boy, and Antonina." They needed her expertise.



Faced with isolation, Tyssen pleaded in his official letters for the urgent hiring of more "gauchos from Buenos Aires or Montevideo who understood the trade." They knew full well that the economy and survival of the islands were impossible without the Rioplatense criollo.



The archive reveals that the British referred to the Argentine governor as “Don Louis Vernet,” thereby acknowledging his prior role de facto.
Sovereignty is not merely a legal claim; it is etched into the land, the place names, and the documents of those who occupied the territory.

Argentina: On Gaucho Diet

Gaucho Diet

1800s Argentina: British writer William Henry Hudson visits the Pampas, encounters gauchos. Documents their diet with horrified fascination.

"The gaucho eats nothing but beef. Flesh morning, noon, and night. Never bread, never vegetables, rarely salt."

Hudson expects malnutrition and disease. Finds "men of extraordinary stamina and strength, capable of riding 12-14 hours without rest, then dancing all night."

The diet: beef, mate tea, occasionally grilled kidney fat (delicacy). Nothing else.

Darwin visits 1832-1833, observes gaucho life: "I was surprised at the difficulty persuading gauchos to eat anything but beef. I brought biscuits and found them thrown away. They'd rather go hungry than eat bread if beef was available tomorrow."

Typical meals: Morning - beef roasted over fire, fattier cuts. Afternoon - grilled ribs. Evening - beef again, tougher cuts slow-cooked.

Zero vegetables. Zero grains. Zero variety. Just beef and tea.

Hudson documents outcomes: "The gauchos suffer none of the ailments common to civilised man. No digestive troubles, no obesity, no tooth decay I could observe. Their teeth were uniformly excellent despite never cleaning them and consuming nothing but meat. Physical endurance such that they could ride for days with minimal rest, fight when necessary, resume riding without apparent fatigue."

French physician Dr. Jules Crevaux, 1850s-1870s: "These men live exclusively on animal flesh and appear healthier than our European peasantry who eat varied diet of grains and vegetables."

When asked why they don't eat bread or vegetables, common response: "That's food for horses and cattle. We eat cattle."

They understood hierarchy. Cattle eat grass, convert to meat. Humans eat meat. Eating what cattle eat makes you perform like cattle.

Into early 1900s, traditional gauchos maintained beef-exclusive diet. Then European immigration brought wheat cultivation.

Health transformation documented by Argentine physicians. Traditional gauchos: healthy into old age. Urbanised former gauchos on European diets: diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, dental decay.

Modern Argentina: 28% obesity, cardiovascular disease leading cause of death, diabetes nearly 10%.

The gauchos who ate nothing but beef had none of these. They rode horses 12 hours daily into their 60s, maintained teeth without dental care, died from accidents or old age, not chronic disease.

Same beef. Different context. When you eat beef with grains, seed oils, sugar: modern disease. Beef alone: You have the health of a 19th century gaucho.

Argentina: Gaucho Legacy