Subverting the Myth of the Gaucho: Gender and Representation in Alessandra Sanguinetti’s The Adventures of Guille and Belinda Series
Presentation Type
Presentation
Start Date
8-3-2025 4:00 AM
Description
Alejandra López-Oliveros, Ph.D. Candidate, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New York, U.S.A.
Subverting the Myth of the Gaucho: Gender and Representation in Alessandra Sanguinetti’s The Adventures of Guille and Belinda Series
At the time of Uruguay and Argentina’s independence, “gauchos” became the symbol of the nation in its purest form. 200 years later, and despite debates around the gaucho’s extinction as a social group, gauchos are still directly linked with the present-day countryside. Their idealized image as the sole inhabitants of the Pampa has flooded popular culture and art, to the detriment of flesh-and-bone wage laborers of all genders.
This presentation analyses Alessandra Sanguinetti’s photographic series, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda (ongoing since 1999), which focuses girls and women in the countryside. The series pointedly highlights their previous absence and few depictions as passive figures in the gaucho narrative, and instead provides of a nuanced portrayal of the several generations of women living and working in rural Buenos Aires province. I claim that her accurate and unembellished portrayal presents itself as an alternative to the hetero-normative, machista narrative centering only around gauchos.
In this presentation, I establish how Sanguinetti subverts the myth of the gaucho and establishes a compelling and empowering representation of modern-day inhabitants of Argentina’s countryside. By contrasting historical depictions of the gaucho in comparison with Sanguinetti’s work, I contend that her work disrupts the century-long, established notions of life in rural Argentina and makes room for those who have been systematically underrepresented within the traditional development of the “rural hero.” Furthermore, her practice provides a new approach to understanding the visibility of these usually socially, economically, and visually marginalized groups.
Alejandra López-Oliveros (she/ella) is a PhD student in the Department of Art History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. She studies contemporary photography in Latin America, focusing on women engaging in feminist, decolonial, and queer studies, and using photography as an activist tool. She holds an MA in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts-NYU an MA in Art Museums and Gallery Studies from the University of Leicester in England, and a BA in Art History from the University of Granada in Spain. Alejandra is currently a Rutgers Presidential Fellow and is a former La Caixa and Fulbright Fellow. She has previously worked at Another Space in New York, Project for Empty Space in Newark, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, and the Center for Art on Migration Politics in Copenhagen.
Relational Format
Conference proceeding
Recommended Citation
López-Oliveros, Alejandra, "Subverting the Myth of the Gaucho: Gender and Representation in Alessandra Sanguinetti’s The Adventures of Guille and Belinda Series" (2025). Women of Photography: A 24-Hour Conference-a-thon Celebrating International Women’s Day 2025. 13.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/womenofphotography/2025/schedule/13
Subverting the Myth of the Gaucho: Gender and Representation in Alessandra Sanguinetti’s The Adventures of Guille and Belinda Series
Alejandra López-Oliveros, Ph.D. Candidate, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New York, U.S.A.
Subverting the Myth of the Gaucho: Gender and Representation in Alessandra Sanguinetti’s The Adventures of Guille and Belinda Series
At the time of Uruguay and Argentina’s independence, “gauchos” became the symbol of the nation in its purest form. 200 years later, and despite debates around the gaucho’s extinction as a social group, gauchos are still directly linked with the present-day countryside. Their idealized image as the sole inhabitants of the Pampa has flooded popular culture and art, to the detriment of flesh-and-bone wage laborers of all genders.
This presentation analyses Alessandra Sanguinetti’s photographic series, The Adventures of Guille and Belinda (ongoing since 1999), which focuses girls and women in the countryside. The series pointedly highlights their previous absence and few depictions as passive figures in the gaucho narrative, and instead provides of a nuanced portrayal of the several generations of women living and working in rural Buenos Aires province. I claim that her accurate and unembellished portrayal presents itself as an alternative to the hetero-normative, machista narrative centering only around gauchos.
In this presentation, I establish how Sanguinetti subverts the myth of the gaucho and establishes a compelling and empowering representation of modern-day inhabitants of Argentina’s countryside. By contrasting historical depictions of the gaucho in comparison with Sanguinetti’s work, I contend that her work disrupts the century-long, established notions of life in rural Argentina and makes room for those who have been systematically underrepresented within the traditional development of the “rural hero.” Furthermore, her practice provides a new approach to understanding the visibility of these usually socially, economically, and visually marginalized groups.
Alejandra López-Oliveros (she/ella) is a PhD student in the Department of Art History at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey. She studies contemporary photography in Latin America, focusing on women engaging in feminist, decolonial, and queer studies, and using photography as an activist tool. She holds an MA in Art History from the Institute of Fine Arts-NYU an MA in Art Museums and Gallery Studies from the University of Leicester in England, and a BA in Art History from the University of Granada in Spain. Alejandra is currently a Rutgers Presidential Fellow and is a former La Caixa and Fulbright Fellow. She has previously worked at Another Space in New York, Project for Empty Space in Newark, the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow, and the Center for Art on Migration Politics in Copenhagen.
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