When a day of July of 1926 appeared in the Areco newspapes Mr. Francisco A. Colombo, the “Don Segundo Sombra” of Ricardo Güiraldes, the pago de Areco started to walk the first steps of a print that would finish in the Tradition Day Festivity. The Parque Criollo (Creole Park) and the Güiraldes’ Museum were opened and began to work in 1939.  

That year, because of the Intendente’s efforts, Mr. José Antonio Güiraldes, supported by the “Agrupación Base” (Base Group) from La Plata city (nowadays, this entity does not exist any more), the Buenos Aires Province government, the official holder, Mr. Manuel A. Fresco, created in his territory the Tradition Day. The Public Law N° 4756 maintains its original effect and orders the Tradition Day Festivity in San Antonio de Areco and Luján. A latter Public Law, filed before the provincial legislature by the Senator, Mr. Jorge J. Areces, approved in 1988, added a section in which stated that San Antonio de Areco would be the regular official place appointed to celebrate the Tradition Day. This bill approved in 1939 had an enthusiastic and unanimous approval in the bonaerense legislature.

The first Fiesta de la Tradición (Tradition Festivity) was made in 1939 with the participation of all the inhabitants, the landowners and the gauchos from this region. The parque criollo was not prepared for all the activities, as nowadays. The jineteada de potros (men who break in horses) was made before the expectant audience near the riding animals. The parade or paso de los gauchos (parade showing horses) was established and it began to be a distinctive and colorful custom. Such parade did not exist in the program at the very beginning. Before that, the paisanos (gauchos) ate an asado (barbecue) at midday and then, they rode on horseback up to the parque criollo. The event seemed to be forgotten and the following year, the festivity was made in La Plata city. But in 1941, San Antonio de Areco came back to be the official place appointed to make the celebration. In front of the City Hall, official authorities and guests had been gathered to see the gauchos’ parade towards the Parque Criollo. A man who worked in the City Hall, saw the gauchos without an Argentinean flag and shouted: ‘The Flag!’. He entered his home and went out immediately with a flag that had been left there by a local school. He gave it to the first gaucho who saw and thenceforth, the custom that the gaucho always appears with the Argentinean flag became a ritual. The standard-bearer rider and his escort go to the parade and they come near the official box, where the highest official authority gave the flag to the rider and at that moment, he becomes the official standard-bearer of the parade.