This documentary is a story of immigration and survival in the Argentine pampas. At the end of the 19th century, thousands of East European Jews fled from persecution and pogroms. With the help of the Jewish Colonization Association, these Jews adapted to a life on the pampas alongside the tough Argentine cowboys, the gauchos. The immigrants became ranchers and farmers-professions unknown to shtetl Jews from East Europe. The Jewish Gauchos, like their native counterparts, dressed in black hats and wide belts. They adapted to the local customs of their new community: They built schools, libraries, theaters, hospitals, and an agricultural cooperative that gave the pampas its own unique Jewish character. Utilizing archival footage, commentary from scholars, and interviews with those who remember the earliest days of Jewish settlement in Argentina, this lively documentary illuminates an unknown chapter of modern Jewish history.
