I could not resist this article! 🙂  Gauchos and God: lessons from Argentine cowboy culture – From Argentina via Rome – Pope Francis,

[Pope Francis] then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires published an essay in 2002 using the famous literary gaucho as a figure for reflection about the future of the nation.

The future pope said the gauchos had something to teach the country because “we Argentines have the dangerous tendency to think that everything just started today, to forget that nothing appears out of thin air or drops out of the sky like a meteorite,” he wrote in the essay titled, “A Reflection Starting with Martin Fierro.”

The future pope wrote that in the idyllic world of Fierro, the gaucho lives in harmony with nature, works with joy and skill, has fun with his friends, and lives simply and humanely surrounded by few material belongings.

… the gaucho used the poncho as a coat and blanket at night, ate with his knife — the “facon” — and carried a hollowed out gourd or ox horn for drinking his herbal tea called mate. When they could, gauchos would embellish their tools and horse trappings with ornately designed silver.

Then-Cardinal Bergoglio highlighted the fortitude and can-do attitude of the gaucho, who “takes his destiny into his own hands” with what little he has instead of pining for more or waiting for someone else to act.

“Rebuilding isn’t the task of a few but of everyone,” he wrote.

Full article, Gauchos and God: Pope draws life lessons from Argentine cowboy culture. Also my reference to Argentine tea, mate’ in, Sacrificing tastebuds for mateship.