The Gauchos as possible heirs of the Moriscos: the case of the Argentine asado

Abstract

ABSTRACT Asados, Argentine cook-outs or barbecues, to this day have a prestigious reputation within Argentine identity often due to its lasting association with the Gauchos—rural Argentine cowboys—who flourished in the nineteenth century shortly after the country’s independence from Spain. However, what is less known is how this quintessential dish, especially the well-done slow-cooked nature of the meat, is a rarely explored window to the past. I stipulate that the transatlantic, transcultural, and even transtemporal importance of this dish preserved by the Gauchos since the nineteenth century places them and their descendants as the hidden heirs of clandestine Moriscos—mostly crypto-Muslims forcedly converted to Christianity in the Iberian Peninsula—who settled in the least monitored area of Spain’s American colonies in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Moriscos knew how to mask certain actions while still holding strong to some former cultural and culinary practices. So too did the Gauchos as they were originally coined rebellious outlaws who did not want to fully conform and assimilate to the dominant culture. Perhaps in viewing their shared cooking styles we can see the often ignored history of Andalusi influence via Morisco practices in the Southern Cone.