The Last Cowboys at the End of the World: The Story of the Gauchos of Patagonia

by Nick Reding

Gaucho conjures up an image as iconic as the word cowboy. But according to historians and anthropologists, their semi-nomadic culture disappeared at the end of the nineteenth century, and no one has seen the gauchos since. Until now.

Twenty-five years ago, the government of Chile began building a road into Chilean Patagonia, one of the least-populated regions in the world. In 1995, when Nick Reding traveled down that still-unfinished road into an unmapped river valley, he found himself in a closed chapter of a last, undetected, and unexplored outpost of gauchos so isolated that many of them, some of whom are boys as young as thirteen, still live completely alone with their herds, hours on horseback from the nearest neighbors. In 1998, Nick returned to the valley to witness what happens when time catches up to a people whom history has forgotten.

Reding’s account of the ten months he spent in Middle Cisnes, Patagonia, is a riveting, novelistic exploration of the longing for change by a people and a culture that, according to history books and the Chilean government, do not even exist. There’s Duck, the alcoholic with whom Reding lives and who takes Reding on long cattle drives, teaching him to ride and work as gauchos have for centuries; Duck’s wife, Edith, who is convinced she is reliving the life of her estranged mother, who was, according to legend, wed to the Devil; John of the Cows, a famed cattle thief wanted for murder who takes Reding to the secret place in the mountains where he hides his stolen stock; and Don Tito and Alfredo, two brothers who are unsure of their age and communicate with each other through smoke signals.

In Middle Cisnes, Reding watches a singular—and ultimately murderous—conflict take hold between those who want to trade life in the nineteenth century for life in the twenty-first and those who want to keep living as gauchos have for hundreds of years. What all of them understand is the near impossibility of a journey through a world where everything from the fierce landscape to a ravaging disease conspires against them, a journey whose terminus—the Outside, the only town in central Patagonia’s 42,000 square miles—is a place where the gauchos are not only ill-equipped to live, but clearly unwelcome.

The Last Cowboys at the End of the World is a story of regeneration through violence and tragedy. When the people of Middle Cisnes finally try to take their place in the modern world, the results are as horrifying and surprising as they are heroic. In the collision of the gaucho past, our present, and an unknown future, Nick Reding captures a moment in time that we have never before seen and will never see again.

Genres: Nonfiction, Travel, History

293 pages, Hardcover

First published December 11, 2001

About the author

Nick Reding was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, and received his B.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Northwestern University in 1994. He has an MFA in Creative Writing from N.Y.U., where he was a University Fellow from 1995 til 1997. He lived in New York City for thirteen years, where he worked as a magazine editor, a graduate school professor, and a freelance writer. His first book, The Last Cowboys at the End of the World, was published by Crown in 2002. Methland is his second book. He has written for Harper¹s, Food and Wine, Outside, Fast Company, and Details. He lives with his wife and son in Saint Louis.

Book websites:
http://thelastcowboys.com
http://methlandbook.com

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apr 30 ~~ Review asap. Must think a bit.

May 3 ~~ This is the second time I have read this book and I had the same reaction to it as I did many years ago. But why?

Published in 2001, this tells of the author's experiences in the Patagonian region of Chile in the late 1990's. He visited there in '95, and went back in '98, living and working with the gauchos of the area.

The book is filled with general history of Chile and the gauchos themselves, at least what is known or assumed to be true. And Reding has a way of bringing all his adventures to vivid life; from his hoping to hide the fact that he can barely ride a horse to surviving a drunken brawl with his host, to a hellish ride in a rainstorm along a trail that would give a goat nightmares.

I love books that take me to unusual places and allow me to meet unusual people. This is a fascinating look at a forgotten part of the world, and I enjoyed it a great deal. So why did I feel so disappointed when I reached the final pages? Not that feeling of 'oh, darn, the book is over', but a deeper sense of something not right somewhere.

I have spent a few days thinking about things and I think I have finally answered my own question. It is not the book that is the problem. It is Society, Government, The Modern World itself that has let me down here.

Society for looking down on people who face life differently. Government for ignoring and persecuting the same people, who seem to be always on the other side of Acceptable. The Modern World for turning its back on traditions and heritage, for refusing to acknowledge that sometimes basic life skills are more important than knowing how to use a computer.

People look away from those who live by their sweat and muscle. People who actually work for a living, and I mean laboring from can see to can't see and beyond in any weather simply because the job must get done: these people are not respected but frowned upon, sneered at, taunted, and of course are the first ones under suspicion when something goes wrong somewhere.

The world of the gaucho as described in this book is disappearing. I am not at all sure that the world taking its place is any better. And that is why I was disappointed when I reached the final pages of this book. Our world should be so very much more than it has become.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book thinking it was about the gauchos of Argentina. No matter: Author Nick Reding writes about the gauchos of Chilean Patagonia, just over the Andes from Argentina. For most of the book, we follow a gaucho nicknamed the Duck, based in Middle Cisnes north of Coihaique -- a sparsely populated region now served by the Carretera Austral, which goes as far south in Chile as one could du without tunneling sideways through the Southern Andes.

The Last Cowboys at the End of the World: The Story of the Gauchos of Patagonia follows a group of misfits whose way of life is disappearing. Herding societies of skilled loners are giving way to corporate farming oriented more towards profits rather than sheer survival. There is a primitive quality to these las surviving gauchos:

When I looked at Edith [wife of Duck], I understood more clearly than ever that people in Cisnes did things not because they were evil, or even unkind, but to lash out violently against the unbearable weight of the boredom and the isolation and the fear of what the loneliness might drive them to do. The factthat everyone claimed to have seen their face reflected in that of the Devil moments, or even days, before something horrible occurred was a kind of admission of guilt -- an admission that it was they, not him, who was at fault.

The last part of the book takes place in the slums of Coihaique, which has been growing by leaps and bounds from the new highway construction. Duck, Edith, and their children have moved there; but their lives are not markedly better. The author, on the other hand, is getting more and more ill as his final departure from Chile approaches.

This is a strange book, but a riveting one.

[Beverly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was amazingly interesting. Written by a journalist who spent 10 months living in Patagonia and studying the " lost in time" land of the gauchos. Duck (a gaucho) and his wife, Edith, generously take him under their wings and allow him to live their daily lives with him, even to the point of letting him join in for cattle drives (although he's never ridden a horse). The couple and Nick learn many things about their diametrically opposed cultures but, in the end, determine that in spite of the differences...people are basically the same everywhere.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

"'Just like us,' said Don Luis, 'the patron understood all these things. He was a hunter and a rider. When we rode back to the compound, he slept as often as not in the quarters we kept, which were nothing more than little puestos of cattle skins and dirt on the floor. As you can imagine, there was a reason for this.'" (273)

[Neddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not actually about Gauchos as a whole.

[jonah yinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good I learned a lot and perfect to read on my trip to Patagonia 🤓🤓🤓

[Cade Cowen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really miss Chile

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the world becomes smaller, traditional cultures are heavily influenced by encroachments of modern life, so much so that in time many eventually disappear. I recall recently that the last known member of a native East Indian group passed, taking with her the language and culture of her people. And this process, of course, is not new, though modern technology seems to have accelerated it. In this book the author sought to come to some understanding about changes experienced by one group, the gauchos of Chile (who migrated out of Argentina as it was modernized). In Patagonia these independent and tough individuals (who often prefer being alone) work as sheep and cattle raisers in the high mountains of southern South America. Although not very religious, they are strong believers in the Devil and witchcraft. They resist newcomers, to the point of extreme shyness, and suffer the effects of isolation in such a hard country. In fact, boredom and isolation seem to be the root of violence and drunkenness. Reding spent most of his time living with Duck and Edith, and their three children; Duck was the foreman on an absentee-owner ranch. One of the most harrowing incidents happens when the author is attacked by his host, seemingly (as later explained) because he is trying to elicit some sort of emotional response from the writer, who had tried to maintain his distance and objectivity. There are fascinating and funny details of cultural nuances, from the manner of drinking and sharing mate (tea), which can reveal the unspoken intentions of the host. Although the book is uneven, there are wonderful parts, such as his description of his participation on a cattle drive (after he lied about knowing how to ride a horse), attending a dance, tagging along with a cattle rustler into the neighboring Argentina, facing a street gang in one of the towns. I loved when Duck turned to Reding, who had screwed up royally, and says, "If idiots like you could fly, Nico, the sky would be cloudy every day." I also was fascinated by the collogialisms, such as when a person tells another that they know they are holding back on some tidbit of information, "I can see the tail of the rat in your trap." These are stubborn and proud people, and yet there is humor and desire, jealousy and spite, sadness and despair. Although I was acquainted with the gauchos’ history somewhat, this book was an interesting, revealing exploration that broadened my limited knowledge. It is a good addition to the literature on the effect of modernization in Latin America.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really loved this book and found it inspiring. I felt very attached to the characters and the unique place and time it explores culturally. For that reason, I was able to overlook some issues with the writing, like awkwardly translating of a prominent character's nickname,"Pato," into the English equivalent "Duck" instead of explaining the joke once and calling him by his name. Worth reading if you're interested in South America, cowboys, fly fishing, and adventures.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author rambled along for the first 1/2 of the book--or, at least I had a hard time following any point he was trying to make--but that problem got sorted out by the second half. It is a good book if you want an idea of how a very small part of the world works: Chilean Patagonia and the gauchos who still live there.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book especially because I have spent the last year living in Coyhaique. Although I doupt some of his options and facts in the book, it is overall a very unique look into an often ignored culture.

[Desiree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. I read this in preparation for my trip to Chile later this year. While I think it would be cool to visit a remote area like this, I'm not sure I'm brave enough to do it. These people are crazy!

[Jason 7734 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, incredible research delving into a culture far removed from your average American.
Nick Reding knows how to write, dammit!

[David Zemke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible book about the gauchos of Patagonia. I read it while I was travelling in Chile/Argentina and it added a lot of color to my visit.

[Nate Hendrix · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting view of the life of a gaucho, but not a great book.