Alpargatas in Argentina: Gauchos, a Factory and a Slogan

In Argentina, the alpargata is not a beach shoe. It was the working shoe of the countryside, the product of one of the country's oldest industrial companies, and, in the 1940s, a political symbol. Its story starts with Basque emigrants and ends with a Brazilian takeover.

From Mauléon to the River Plate

The Basque encyclopedia Auñamendi links the birth of the espadrille industry in Mauléon, in the French Basque Country, to emigrants in Argentina who ordered espadrille soles from home. Trade with South America grew fast: by 1868, about four-fifths of Mauléon's production was going to the River Plate, Argentina and Uruguay.

The factory: Fábrica Argentina de Alpargatas

According to English Wikipedia:

The company's brand list today still includes Rueda, for espadrilles and sneakers.

The gaucho's shoe

English Wikipedia explains that rural workers in Argentina and Uruguay adopted the alpargata in place of the leather bota de potro, and that it became the usual companion of bombachas trousers. Spanish Wikipedia adds that in Uruguay rubber-soled versions are sold as rancheritas.

Molina Campos and the calendars

In 1931, the painter Florencio Molina Campos began illustrating the company's calendars with scenes of gaucho life. English Wikipedia records that he was paid 6,000 pesos for 12 original paintings, worked with Alpargatas until 1936 and again from 1940 to 1945, and that an estimated 18 million calendars were printed.

A slogan: alpargatas yes, books no

By the 1940s, Spanish Wikipedia notes, the alpargata had become a symbol of the working class. In 1943-1944, students opposed to Juan Perón used the slogan "No a la dictadura de las alpargatas" (no to the dictatorship of the alpargatas). Perón's supporters answered "alpargatas sí, libros no" (alpargatas yes, books no). English and Spanish Wikipedia report the same two slogans.

Common mistakes

A common mistake is to read the Argentine alpargata as a summer beach shoe imported from Europe. In the countryside it was a working shoe, worn with bombachas trousers, and the company made it locally for decades. Another is to treat the calendars as simple decoration: they were a commercial tool, and their gaucho scenes are part of how the brand became known. A third is to mix up the two slogans. The one about the dictatorship of the alpargatas was the students' cry, and the answer alpargatas yes, books no came from Perón's supporters. Finally, the later history should not be read back onto the early one, since ownership changed over time.

Points to check

When you read about the Argentine alpargata, check four things. First, the period: most of the company's milestones fall in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while the slogans belong to the 1940s. Second, the source: the Basque encyclopedia and the English and Spanish Wikipedia articles do not always give the same dates, so compare them before quoting. Third, the name: Rueda is one brand in the company's list, not the company itself. Fourth, the ownership: the Brazilian control came late, and it is a separate chapter. These checks stop one anecdote from standing in for the whole history.

Why this matters for the espadrille

The Argentine story shows that the rope-soled shoe is not only European. The same shoe, under its Spanish name, became an emblem of the pampas, and the company named after it grew into a multinational whose Brazilian branch later created Havaianas in 1962. For the word itself, see alpargata vs espadrille; for the Basque side of the trade, see the Basque word for espadrille.