WTF is a Gaucho?

While signing up for online classes through Saddleback College, Britney J. Parks of Oklahoma tweeted, “The f— is a Gaucho? (Online orientation for Saddleback College in CA) #suchconfuse.”

In a post on Twitter, @theheroofalbion expresses her confusion over the definition of a gaucho.

The Lariat decided to take a poll and found out most of those surveyed know a gaucho is a native cowboy of the South American region.

But for some, the first thing that came to mind was the drinking game “Gaucho ball,” a surprise, the Brazil soccer team, a genie, drop the bass, and gaucho-style pants.  The University of California, Santa Barbara are known as the Gauchos as well.

In April 2010 the Saddleback College Associated Student Government pitched a resolution to modify the mascot. ASG proposed several solutions including creation of an art contest allowing students to design and submit a new representation of the college’s mascot, or using a private company to adequately and accurately develop the current depiction of the Saddleback College Gaucho. Finally, another option was to completely eliminate the cartoon image and just keep the “G” as the logo.

It is now almost at the halfway mark in 2014, and the Gaucho has not yet been modified, but the process is still in progress.

“I believe the process is still ongoing and that the Athletics department was looking at it,” said Audra DiPadova, director of Student Life.

There has been much discussion in online blogs about the image our mascot is portraying. Gustavo Arellano from OCWeekly.com wrote he was offended by our mascot. Not because of what it is, but because of the illustration’s lack of attention to detail. He says the image chosen to represent the Gaucho looks more like a stereotypical bandito than a South American cowboy.

“Look, Saddleback: if you’re going to use Latino stereotypes, at least use the right ones,” Arellano said. “They can’t even get the sombrero right. The one Saddleback College’s mascot wears is a Mexican sombrero, while the type common to Argentina is flat on top.”

So what exactly is a Gaucho? People from the Río de la Plata zone (Argentina and Uruguay). They were all horsemen who took care of horses and can be related to the traditional American cowboy.

The term even comes up on UrbanDictionary.com:

The definition comes up in several flavors on the website urbandictionary.com.

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