A huaso is a Chilean countryman and skilled horseman, similar to the Americancowboy or Mexicancharro, the gaucho of Argentina, Uruguay and Rio Grande Do Sul and the Australian stockman. A femalehuaso is called a huasa, although the term china is far more commonly used for his wife or sweetheart, whose dress can be seen in cuecadancing. Huasos are found all over Central and Southern Chile while the Aysén and Magallanes Region sheep raisers are gauchos. The major difference between the huaso and the gaucho is that huasos are involved in farming as well as cattle herding. Huasos are generally found in Chile's central valley. They ride horses and typically wear a straw hat called a chupalla. They also wear a poncho—called a manta or a chamanto —over a short Andalusian waist jacket, as well as tooled leather legging over booties with raw hide leather spur holders that sustain a long-shanked spur with 4-inch rowels, and many other typical garments. Huasos are an important part of Chilean folkloric culture and are a vital part of parades, fiestas, holidays, and popular music. The dancing of the cueca in which the coy china is courted by the persistent huaso, both traditionally attired, is de rigueur on such occasions. In Chile, the term huaso or ahuasado is also used disparagingly to refer to people without manners or lacking the sophistication of an urbanite, akin to US Englishredneck.
Etymology
Various theories are commonly advanced: from the Quechuawakcha meaning orphan, not belonging to a community, hence free and homeless, an important aspect of the huaso/gaucho myth, or alternatively from the Quechua wasu, meaning either the back of an animal, or rough and rustic. Moreoverthe wordguaso/a is used in Andalusian and American Spanish with the last sense. It appears that a form of folk etymology has operated to conflate the contrasting identities of the huaso, viewed as both a free horseman and an unsophisticated country bumpkin. Both senses can be observed in Chilean usage.
