Long before cattle or cowboys first appeared in the American West, men were herding livestock in Spanish Mexico. Conscripted by wealthy Spanish conquistadors in the sixteenth century, these Native American vaqueros became spectacular riders and ropers as they mastered the art of cow herding. Three hundred years later, they taught the inexperienced settlers of the American West how to round up cattle, bring down a steer, and break a wild bronco. It was from the vaqueros that cowboys derived their distinctive clothing, saddles, and lingo -- words like lasso, dally, and buckaroo. But it is the cowboy whose fabled reputation we remember, while the vaquero has all but disappeared from history. Russell Freedman tells the fascinating story of the vaqueros in this dramatic account of the first true cowboys, illustrated with evocative period paintings and drawings.

The role of the vaquero -- the Hispanic cowboy -- in U.S. ranching history has been overlooked and misrepresented, particularly in popular culture. With this book, he intends to rectify that wrong and does so quite successfully. Sandler notes the role that Spanish explorers such as Cortes and Coronado played in the introduction of ranching to the continent, as well as the importance of the Spanish mission system. The systematically arranged chapters also follow a fairly direct chronological progression and present the tools and skills of the vaquero, later adapted by Anglo cowboys, and aspects of daily life. The chapter on the tales the vaqueros told to amuse themselves in the evenings will be especially interesting to students who relish ghost and scary stories. Sandler also addresses the "silencing," as it were, of the vaqueros-the deliberate denigration by Anglo writers and their removal from the accounts of the "Wild West."

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The American Cowboy

An integral part of the story of America, the cowboy is a national icon, a romantic, rugged metaphor for America's frontier past, Westward expansion and creation myths. Sensationalized by Hollywood and by real-life bad boys, the heroic, hard-working, hard-riding, free-thinking cowboy is inseparable from American history itself.

Early 1800s - the Vaquero Age

America's first cowboys came from Mexico. Of course, in California the cattle business emerged with settlement itself. But to the east, beginning in the 1500s, vaqueros -- the Spanish term for "cowboy" -- were hired by ranchers to drive and tend to livestock between Mexico and what is now New Mexico and Texas. During the early 1800s, and leading up to Texas's independence from Mexico in 1836, the number of English speaking settlers in the area increased. These American settlers took their cues from the vaquero culture, borrowing clothing styles and vocabulary and learning how to drive their cattle in the same way.

The vaquero influence persisted throughout the 1800s. Cowboys came from a variety of backgrounds, and included European immigrants, African Americans, Native Americans and Midwestern and Southern settlers. In the nineteenth century, one out of three American cowboys in the south was Mexican.

From PBS - independent lens

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National Geographic adds more

The first cowboys commonly were criollos (Spanish-born Americans) and mestizos (mixed Spanish and Indian settlers) pushed past the Rio Grande River to take advantage of land grants in the kingdom of New Mexico, which included most of the western states.

They were called caballeros, says Donald Gilbert Y Chavez, a historian of the cowboy's Spanish origins.

"One of the highest stations you could have in life was to be a caballero," said Chavez, a resident of New Mexico whose lineage can be traced to the Don Juan de Oñate colony, the caballero who was among the first cowboys in the U.S.

"Even the poor Mexican vaqueros were very proud and there were few things they couldn't do from a saddle."

Caballero is literally translated as "gentleman." The root of the word comes from caballo -- Spanish for "horse." For every caballero there were perhaps dozens of independents -- the true "drivers" of cattle: vaqueros.

"All of the skills, traditions, and ways of working with cattle are very much rooted in the Mexican vaquero," Nelson told National Geographic News. "If you are a cowboy in the U.S. today, you have developed what you know from the vaquero."

From Jonathan Haeber article

Also see Antigua Residencia de los Aztecas

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Apesar da repressão da época, encontramos vários documentos que comprovam as relações sexuais interraciais entre brancas (as sinhás) e os escravos Negros, principalmente em meados do Séc XIX.

Relacionamentos inter-raciais: entre a razão e o desejo
Brasil

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Strong Men

and yes ~ firm faith

Our Lady of Guadalupe ~ Tepayec hill (1531 AD)
link is to Jedediah Strong Smith

"La esencia del espíritu es el amor. Esta energía es luminosa, amorosa, y nos que connecta uno al otros."

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Esteban the Black Moor of Coronado's Expeditions

Benito Juárez : called "the Abe Lincoln of Mexico"

Why Americans should honor Cinco de Mayo, also

Cristóbal Colón ~ Spain and the Admiral's Opus Dei

Somos Primos : Hispanic Heritage (blog)

Columbus came in Jesus Name

Gringo Spanish and Spanglish

A look at Richard Henry Dana

Día de la Mujer Latina

Model Sessilee Lopez

Spanish On the Ranch

Spanish Flash Cards

Gala quincinera

de colores

The whole world needs a

Teología de la liberación

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last save 12.23.11

site maintained by
Robert Shepherd

http://www.pazactiva.org

William Robert Shepherd

The Hispanic Nations of the New World

La música ranchera es la "Quinta esencia" de la forma de la Canción Mexicana.