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gaucho
gaucho , cowboy of the Argentine and Uruguayan pampas (grasslands). The typical gaucho, a familiar figure in the 18th and 19th cent., was a daring, skillful horseman and plainsman. As fighters, revolutionary soldiers, and campaigners in frequent internal struggles, they played a significant role i...
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llanos
llanos , Spanish American term for prairies, specifically those of the Orinoco River basin of N South America, in Venezuela and E Colombia. The llanos of the Orinoco are a vast, hot region of rolling savanna broken by low-lying mesas, scrub forest, and scattered palms. Elevation above sea level neve...
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Juan Facundo Quiroga
Juan Facundo Quiroga , 1790-1835, Argentine caudillo . One of the most brutal of the early gaucho chieftains, he was called el tigre de los llanos (the tiger of the plains). After a turbulent youth, Quiroga participated briefly in the 1810 revolution against Spain and then rose rapidly to become,...
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pampas
pampas , wide, flat, grassy plains of temperate S South America, c.300,000 sq mi (777,000 sq km), particularly in Argentina and extending into Uruguay. Although the region gradually rises to the west, it appears mostly level. Precipitation decreases from east to west. Trees are found only along wate...
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Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas , 1793-1877, Argentine dictator, governor of Buenos Aires prov. (1829-32, 1835-52). As a boy he served under Jacques de Liniers against the British invaders of the Rio de la Plata (1806-7). Most of his youth was spent in the cattle country, where he built his fortune through l...
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Uruguay
Uruguay , officially Oriental Republic of Uruguay, republic (2005 est. pop. 3,416,000), 68,536 sq mi (177,508 sq km), SE South America. The second smallest country (after Suriname) in South America, Uruguay extends from a short Atlantic coastline along the north bank of the Río de la Plata to...
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Argentina
Argentina , officially Argentine Republic, republic (2005 est. pop. 39,538,000), 1,072,157 sq mi (2,776,889 sq km), S South America. Argentina is bordered by Chile on the west, Bolivia and Paraguay on the north, Brazil and Uruguay on the northeast, and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. Buenos Aires ...
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