¡alpargatas si!

...bombachas can come later. It was fun reading the AP report on one of my favorite gaucho things, alpargatas.

I adore them...especially with the jute soles. They are tough, functional as well as a bit ingenious...not to mention disposable (I think I paid 4 Pesos for mine.)

Ones with rubber soles are very common, too. But not only will they cost you a Peso or two more in Old Once they are less cushiony and damned slippery on a wet Buenos Aires sidewalk. On the up-side, rubber soles won't shrink like the jute ones if you happen to get them wet. The jutes stretch back after they dry but it takes a few blocks.

In fact, when you buy the jute model, you have to select them at least two Argentine sizes smaller than the rubber. There is a short breaking-in period in which they stretch to a comfortable glove-like fit (if you don't get them almost painfully too small you'll end up with a pair of hemp flip-flops as the back part of the upper will not bind to your heel.)

Apparently they are of Pyrenean origin and arrived here in the first half of the 19th century much to the delight of Gauchos in three countries. Before their appearance on the scene, Gauchos used the bota de potro, a sleeve of rawhide taken directly from the leg of a horse...one of it's joints forming a natural heel for the boot...but, of course, that left it being toe-less.

The jute sole is made from a length of rope or braid that is wound by hand into a sole-shaped coil.

Modern soles are then steamed and heated then they get the traditional stitching that goes through the middle of all the rope strands thereby holding them into shape.

My wife can't stand the scratchiness of the jute but I find it pleasantly stimulating and, after a while, the inner and outer surfaces wear down to a felt-like nap. Not only that but, as you might guess, they breathe like no other shoe I have ever worn. And all that scouring, breathing, and the kind of herbal nature of the rope leaves your feet feeling and smelling pretty good at the end of the day.

The Wikipedia entry (spanish only) shows its astute Gaucho fashion-sense in mentioning that they are inseparable companions to the bombacha trousers (which have a pretty interesting history themselves!)