San Antonio de Areco

The banks of the Areco River were Querandí country, and the region suffered a large Indigenous raid, a malón, in 1714. Jesuits had settled along the river in the 17th century, and on 23 October 1730 the authorities in Buenos Aires declared San Antonio de Areco one of the first seven rural parishes of the province — the date taken as the town's birth. It grew as a frontier settlement of the pampas, and after the British invasions of 1806 and 1807 it was one of the towns that received British prisoners.

In the mid-19th century immigrants from Spain, Croatia, Italy and Ireland arrived in the town. The Italianate-creole houses of the centre were built between about 1870 and 1930, and in 1978 the old centre was marked out as a protected heritage zone.

Areco's identity was fixed by Ricardo Güiraldes, son of an old local family. His 1926 novel Don Segundo Sombra, modelled on the real gaucho Segundo Ramírez, made the town a symbol of rural tradition. In 1939 residents organised the first Fiesta de la Tradición, and in 2015 a national law declared San Antonio de Areco the National Capital of Tradition.

San Antonio de Areco calls itself the cradle of tradition, and the gaucho — the horseman of the pampas — is at the centre of its culture. The Fiesta de la Tradición, held each November since 1939, is considered the oldest criollo festival in Argentina: the whole town turns out, and gauchos in their finest clothes parade on horseback through the streets towards the old pulpería La Blanqueada, followed by displays of horsemanship, folk music and dancing.

The town is equally known for its craftsmen. Areco's silversmiths, the plateros, make belts, knife handles, spurs, buckles and mate fittings; alongside them work sogueros who braid rawhide, saddlers, blacksmiths, potters and weavers of the pampa loom. Locals speak of the artesano arequero as a recognised tradition of its own.

Literature and painting reinforce the gaucho image. Güiraldes's novel is the town's book, and his grave lies in the historic section of the cemetery. A private museum shows the work of Florencio Molina Campos, whose affectionate, humorous paintings of country people were reproduced on calendars across Argentina. For a town of its size Areco has an unusual number of museums — eight, two of them public.

About 23,000 people lived in the town at the 2022 census, a rise of about 16 per cent since 2010. It is the seat of a rural partido of the same name, whose economy rests on farming and on the crafts and tourism that the town's heritage attracts. For a farming community it has an unusual number of craftsmen, about a hundred, working in traditional trades.

Life follows the rhythm of a pampas town. Shops close for a long midday break, the square and the river parks fill in the late afternoon and on weekends, and Sunday lunch is an asado with the family. Weekends bring visitors from Buenos Aires, many of them day-trippers, while weekdays are quiet. The historic centre is a protected heritage zone, and many of its houses have been restored as shops, workshops, cafés and guesthouses.

The estancias around the town combine cattle farming with tourism, offering riding, asados and stays to visitors from the capital and abroad.

Food in Areco is country food. The asado — beef ribs, flank, sausages and morcilla (blood sausage) grilled slowly over wood embers — is the centre of any celebration, and at the estancias it is served at long tables after a morning on horseback. Empanadas, baked turnovers of minced beef, are the everyday snack, and locro, a thick stew of maize, beans, squash and meat, is eaten on national holidays and in winter.

Mate, the bitter infusion of yerba mate drunk from a gourd through a metal straw, is shared at every hour, often in gourds fitted with the silver of local plateros. Sweet tooths are served by dulce de leche, the thick milk caramel spread on bread and folded into pastries, and by the facturas of the town's bakeries.

The old country stores and bars — pulperías and almacenes — were once the social centres of rural life, places to buy supplies, drink and play cards, and a few in and around the town keep the atmosphere, serving cold meats, cheese and drinks to visitors.