Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
have been able to preserve some measure of dignity in the country-
side. The perpetual labor shortage in this era of expansion favored the
worker. His real wages rose from 7
1
/
2
gold pesos per month in 1804 to
12 pesos in 1864.
In fact, much evidence exists as to the inability of the landowners to
transform the native-born worker into a dependent, hardworking, and
stable peon. Workers had a long tradition in the countryside of escap-
ing labor discipline. They tended to take the day off whenever they felt
like it. Already, the gauchos had gained rights to leisure time on the
numerous fiesta days. Employers needed permission from the police to
get them to work during a festival. Moreover, the employer frequently
had to put up with a lack of respect among his peons. They could and
did insult the owners and their foremen.
The work habits of the native-born laborer apparently did not improve
much with the growth of the provincial economy. Most refused to per-
form any work on foot, such as plowing, ditch digging, gardening, or
repair work. And apparently, native-born workers could not be left alone
without strict supervision. Each
estanciero
had to be involved full time
in the work of his ranch and in the management of his men in order “to
escape pillage.” While the successful rancher may have lived in town, “he
must still pass a considerable part of his time on his estate,” one traveler
observed, “to superintend personally the operations of buying and selling;
for as those transactions take place generally between persons who know
nothing of the arts of writing and account keeping, unless the payments
come direct into the hands of the principal himself, sad mistakes are too
likely to occur” (Beaumont 1828, 63-64). Clearly, if the employer wanted
diligence from his employees, he had to be there to enforce it. Otherwise,
the peons took advantage of him, gaining a reputation for procrastina-
tion, and as another foreign traveler observed, “a life of a procrastinator
is an everlasting tomorrow” (MacCann 1853, I:156). In the eyes of the
employer, it was as if the peons purposely disobeyed their superiors who,
anyway, disdained the customs and skin color of the lower class.
Culturally, the work offered familiar social occasions steeped in the
gauchos' own traditions. The cattle roundup on large
estancias
attracted
as many as 30 itinerant peons and their strings of horses. Between las-
soing, branding, and castrating the cattle, there would be beef roasts,
singing and guitar playing, smoking and storytelling, horseplay, and
mock or real knife fights. As long as he was free to move about, the
gaucho never felt out of his element.
Although employers attempted to increase the efficiency and the
rhythm of work, the peons turned the scarcity of labor to their advan-
