Vaqueros and Cowboys

VAQUERO DE NUEVO SANTANDER C.1750

by Lynne Beeching, development officer for MOSTHistory

The early Mexican vaquero was not the romantic figure the cowboy would become in American culture nor those portrayed in Hollywood movies and dime novels.

The vaquero was a laborer riding a horse. As far back as the 1930s, television and movie cowboys like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and the Lone Ranger captured the viewer’s imagination and influenced the perception of the Old West. They were entertaining but a far cry from the real thing.

What began in the New World in 1521 when Gregorio Villalobos brought the first cattle to the banks of the Río Pánuco near present-day Tampico, Mexico, the skills used to harvest cattle and herding followed the trail of Spanish and Mexican settlement north to the banks of the Río Bravo/ Río Grande. Here, herding traditions developed as the demand for hides and tallow shifted to include a demand for beef as a food source. Tools like the hocking knife were replaced by the lazo (lasso). Ironically, the equipment and tradition the vaquero developed over the next 200 years would become such a vital part of the iconic cowboy image of the present.

The stock saddle used by vaqueros and cowboys evolved from the Spanish Conquistador war saddle, which was not designed to be used with a lasso. The saddle designed for working cattle had distinctive features such as a strong high-peaked pommel with a horn ideal for wrapping a rope tightly to hold a wild cow and wide wooden stirrups to steady the rider. The wide-brimmed sombrero became the cowboy hat; the leather chaqueta became the brush jacket; and the wrapped leather leggings called botas later developed into cowboy boots and chaps to protect the rider’s legs from the thorny chaparral. Espuelas (spurs) with large round, spiked rowels became synonymous with the vaquero. The cowboy’s spurs were generally smaller, both made a distinctive “jingle-jangle” when walking.

Let’s take a moment to tip our collective hats to the humble, hard-working Mexican vaqueros and American cowboys who, for centuries, have been working cattle in the borderlands of South Texas and northeastern Mexico and beyond.