According to the writer Nadezhda Teffi, the pampas were famous for their forests. And J. Zh. Rousseau, who proclaimed the famous slogan “Back to nature”, is sometimes humorously rephrased: “Back to pampas!” Another famous character, the literary and cinematic Ostap Bender, also draws attractive pictures of the exotic landscape. In his pampas "bison run ...", baobabs grow and serious passions boil between a pirate, a creole and a cowboy. So what does pampas mean? Why are they unique?
Mysterious Pampas of the Southern Hemisphere
There is only one place on our planet that combines plain terrain and a subtropical coastal climate, making this steppe spacious territory attractive to the colonialists of South America. This is the so-called pampa , bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Andes, covered with grassy vegetation. On the map, pampas are a solid green spot on the territory of modern states - Argentina, Uruguay and a small part of Brazil.
The origin and meaning of the word pampas
What does the word pampas mean? Dictionaries give several different interpretations of its etymology. For example, the pre-revolutionary edition of the Dictionary of Foreign Words by A. N. Chudinov elevates this toponym to the Peruvian language, in which it denotes the plain. The modern works of linguists and lexicographers are unanimous: pampas is the Spanish word, the plural form of the noun “steppe”. And in Spanish, perhaps, it appeared as a borrowing from the Quechua Indians. Thus, the meaning of the word pampas is as follows: this is the name of a geographical object in the subtropics of South America, a combination of localities on the plain, steppes, and salt marshes. In their own way, these open spaces are beautiful: for most of the year, pampas look like virgin land, covered with dense tall grass. Apparently, that's why youth jargon rethought this space in its own way. The expression "go to pampas" has two meanings: "get drunk, lose your head" and "disappear from sight, get lost for others, leave society."
And the popular Internet resource Electronic Pampas contains excellent literary works for children (all ages!). What are pampas in this case? This is a symbol of endless space for creativity, games, adventure and fantasy!
Pampa Conquest History
Before the invasion of the Spanish colonialists in the 16th century, life in the picturesque pampas for millennia flowed peacefully and moderately, in harmony with nature. The local population - the Quechua Indians - fought hard against the conquerors, but, despite fierce resistance, European values still began to be planted, and local Aborigines were exterminated. What are pampas for the Indians? The vast expanses of the steppes, the unique natural world, fertile lands ... In the mythology of the indigenous population of South America, the pampas symbolized the infinity of life and at the same time its mortality, the insignificance of one living creature before eternity.
Over the past centuries, the development of the pampas, the local flora has become completely different, because for the European colonialists, these steppes were another source of enrichment and future prosperity. The Spaniards brought with them not only the warlike spirit and traditions of farming, but also cattle, mustang horses, which in South America had not existed until then. Now they also embody the spirit of pampas: grazing herds, the edge of the Andes, grass on the slopes and wide plain expanses ... And somewhere, along the path that he knows, a horseman rider, a descendant of the Spaniards and Indians, rides. The modern criollo horses are also feral descendants of those legendary Spanish baguales.
The nature and climate of pampas
What is pampas, will understand the one who in childhood had to play and hide in the tall grass. Only here it is endless boundless open spaces covered with grassy grass plants (feather grass, bearded, fescue).
The territory of modern pampas occupies about 750,000 square meters. km, this is slightly less than the area of Turkey. But this does not mean that the steppes in the La Plata basin are overgrown with grasses. Closer to the Brazilian highlands, the climate becomes more continental, arid, mixed vegetation begins, resembling a forest-steppe with islands of evergreen shrubs and man-made forest plantations (maple, poplar).
Reserve corner
What are pampas for modern South Americans? A significant part of the land is occupied by farmland with crops of cereals and other crops, farms and pastures for livestock (especially in the Argentine part). But residents also care about the well-being of nature reserves - after all, a person’s active activity must be restrained, otherwise, transforming the world around him, he may be in the desert. In the inaccessible corners of the pampa, far from roads, along the banks of the rivers, pristine islets of unspoiled nature have been preserved.
The fauna of the pampa is made up of unique representatives of the fauna of our planet - pampas deer, rodents nutria and viskasha, pampas cat, Patagonian mara, maned wolf, ostrich nandu, armadillos, scarlet ibises.
Trees in the pampa do not grow, white mesquites (caldeens) are rarely found in the foothills.
The pampas grass of the cortaderia has become world famous. Due to its unpretentiousness and good adaptability to environmental changes, the perennial began to be used as an ornamental plant. The bushes of the cortaderia reach three meters in height, they are long-livers - they are able to grow up to 40 years and even longer.