Cowboys and gauchos: Contrasting views in the frontier literature of Argentina and the United States

While there are many similarities in the frontier literatures of the United States and Argentina, the contrasts between the two are most vividly seen in the countries' respective views concerning the role of nature. The nineteenth century authors of the literature constructed an imaginary foundation on which the generations that were to come would build a framework of their respective ideas concerning the relationship between nation and nature. In analyzing the publications of the nineteenth century, particularly those that deal with the image, in the United States, of the frontiersman and the cowboy in the ever-expanding western landscapes of the nascent nation, and those that explore the Argentine image of the gaucho and the campesino on the pampa, one comes to understand how they eventually built an imaginary national foundation based on preconceived myths that they held about nature, a foundation on which the national self-image would be interpreted and later perceived as historical reality. However, those ideals were based on myth and ancient customs from the motherlands and cultures from whence these two peoples came. These myths and customs were hardwired from birth into the psyches of the European settlers, and by extension into the psyches of the authors of United States and Argentine frontier literature, manifesting themselves in varying psychological mother-complexes as related to Mother Nature. Carl Jung described a positive and negative mother complex that can also be applied to man's relationship with Mother Nature. While the colonizers of the United States projected a positive mother complex regarding Mother Nature upon themselves, those of the Argentine Republic projected upon themselves a negative mother-complex. Authors from both countries, however, appeared to suffer from Sigmund Freud's Oedipus-complex as it related to Mother Nature while attempting to penetrate Mother Nature's realm and tame her. This implies a metaphorical shift in their views of her from Mother to object of sexual desire. The myths, combined with certain psychological archetypes unconsciously influenced the writings of frontier literature and the author's views of nature in the nineteenth century.