The Voice - Student Newspaper

Gaucho

By Alecia Ranere
Reporter, The VOICE

The mascot of a school says a lot about their spirit, however school spirit is a funny thing. Whether or not a school is liked amongst peers, students will represent and standby.

I asked Aaron Means, a student at Glendale Community College, (GCC) if he knew what our school mascot was. He replied I know it's a gaucho, but "what's a gaucho?"

Kenneth Cline, a student at GCC, also knew our mascot was a gaucho but when asked if he knew what a gaucho was he hesitantly replied, "I want to say it's a donkey," followed by laughter when the real meaning was revealed.

So, what is a gaucho? According to www.education.yahoo.com, "A gaucho is a cowboy of the South American pampas."

Try not to confuse a gaucho with a trendy pair of calf-length pants with flared legs.

There are quite a few variations of the meaning of a gaucho, such as the dates of the term and where it was derived from.

According to www.wikipedia.com, "the word gaucho could be described as a loose equivalent to the North American Cowboy."

Why did Glendale Community choose a gaucho for our mascot? Cline replied "I think because when it comes to sports we're very professional. This makes sense, because gauchos took pride in their horses and anything physical they had to do.

Student Brandon Holmes knew what a gaucho was, and when I asked him how he knew, he replied "I already knew what a gaucho was before I came to this school, I'm just a geek."

When asked why he thinks the school chose this mascot, Holmes replied, "I can't figure it out, we're not in South America. It might have something to do with the 60's when the school opened and the whole Spanish cowboy association."

I too am guilty for not knowing what our mascot is or what it means.

Now that we understand a little bit more about our school mascot, we can continue to have pride and know why.