Rubio credited Spain for the origins of the American cowboy. Mexico begs to differ
MEXICO — Few characters occupy as important a place in American history as the American cowboy, that embodiment of rugged individualism celebrated in dime novels, radio, television and vintage Hollywood blockbusters.
But Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s recent musings have fueled a sometimes acrimonious debate — mostly on social media — over the origins of the big-hatted buck who, with the help of a trusty steed and a six-gun, helped tame the West.
At the Munich Security Conference this month, Rubio said that “the whole romance of the cowboy archetype that has become synonymous with the American West” was “born in Spain.”
One of the Florida Republican’s ideological antagonists, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, issued an indignant riposte, saying, “I believe Mexicans and descendants of African slave peoples would like to have a say on this.” »
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with Bloomberg Television at the Munich Security Conference, Germany, February 14.
(Alex Kraus/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
On social networks, those interviewed did not hesitate to take sides.
“This tradition originated in present-day Mexico and South Texas, and it is not Spanish,” said one person on X.
Another wrote: “Andalusian cowboys agree with Marco Rubio and respond to Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Even roping cattle came from Spain.’ »
In one sense, experts say, Rubio, Ocasio-Cortez and their defenders are all right — even if their accounts only tell part of the story.
It was in fact the Spanish and the Portuguese who, in the 16th century, introduced horses and cows, species then non-existent in the Americas.
But the New York legislator is also on the right track: the cowboy tradition has evolved in a direct line with the unique innovations of Mexican America. vaqueros. Their varied ranks included people of European, Indigenous, and mixed race descent.
Nevertheless, the Mexican vaquero is largely erased from popular American representations of the cowboy. Mainstream Western dramas were more likely to portray vaqueros as bandits than as hard-working ranch hands whose contributions were fundamental to the American West.
“The American cowboy, our great national folk hero, is recognized throughout the world as a symbol of our country,” the late Jim Hoy, a noted cowboy historian, told Texas Highways magazine. “The Cowboys as we know them, however, would never have come into existence without the vaquero.”
But as Rubio said, the lineage of cowboys dates back to the Iberian Peninsula – as far back as the late medieval era, before Spain as a nation even existed. Moorish horse breeds were crossed with native breeds to create a sturdy and agile beast for handling livestock. The horse also proved indispensable during the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521.
However, once Hernán Cortés triumphed, the conquistadors moved from war – defeating the Aztecs – to the project of subduing the indigenous resistance and building an autonomous territory loyal to the crown. Among the many tasks: managing ever-increasing multitudes of livestock.
Non-native livestock—not just horses and cows but also donkeys, pigs, and sheep—thrived in the vast grasslands, plains, and deserts of the New World. The sudden arrival of animals has transformed ecosystems, cultures and entire economies.
“You get to the Americas and the place is giant,” said Eric D. Singleton, curator at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. “You have a new environment and you develop new techniques and new things within that environment to make it hospitable.”
Topography, weather, crops, and other factors were radically different from Old World standards, so managing livestock required something beyond the skills of Andalusian shepherds.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
The task of perfecting riding and roping techniques – while modifying equipment and clothing – fell largely to the ingenious vaqueros, from the Spanish word vacation for cow.
“The vaquero had to reinvent techniques and strategies in a completely new context,” said Héctor Medina Miranda, a Mexican anthropologist and author. “It wasn’t just copying Spanish. It involved a whole new approach.”
Mexican cowboys became adept at everything from calving to branding to supervising long-distance cattle drives that later became a staple of the Western.
It was the vaqueros who developed the first incarnations of the so-called Western saddle, with its distinctive “horn”, used both as a handle and to secure the ropes..
Centuries later, the terminology of Spanish origin persists: words such as “corral”, “lasso”, “bronco”, “lariat” (the reata) and “chaps” (chaparreras). The term mesteñomeaning wanderer or wild, became, in cowboy parlance, mustang – this legendary, free-ranging inhabitant of the high plains.
Even the “10-gallon hat” – barely big enough to hold a gallon – probably had Mexican origins. One theory is that the nickname originated from a misinterpretation of the Spanish word. braidfor braided headbands. A hat with a crown large enough to support 10 bands became a 10-gallon hat.
Bull riding, still a staple of the American rodeo circuit, has its origins in the vibrant vaquero tradition of charreadas — competitions showcasing participants’ skills with horses, ropes and livestock. Charreadas remain a mainstay throughout Mexico and in Mexican American communities north of the border.
“The vaqueros did not cross the border,” Medina Miranda said. “The border passed over them.”
El Charro, the expert and indomitable horseman (or woman) wearing a wide-brimmed hat and embroidered jacket and pants, still plays a central role in Mexican culture. The charro is far from being a modest vaquero, but a venerable rider (gentleman) who has mastered the art of fighting on the border.
To this day, charrería is the national sport of Mexico. The figure of the charro, long celebrated in cinema and music, is as much an incarnation of virility and culture in Mexico as the cowboy is in the United States. The late Vicente Fernández, the beloved actor and Grammy-winning maestro of mariachi and ranchera genres, was affectionately nicknamed “El Charro de Huentitán”, after his hometown of Jalisco.
Ocasio-Cortez was right about something else. African Americans and immigrants also helped create the cowboy tradition. Adding to this diverse mix were employees from tribes such as the Comanches, Cheyennes, and Apaches, who became peerless whisperers long before settlers arrived on their lands.
Like many famous characters, the cowboy proves to be a more nuanced individual than the often one-dimensional portrayals of the big screen. Before John Wayne and Gary Cooper, there were the noble vaqueros of Mexico, mythmakers in their own right.
“I equate the cowboy to what the medieval knight is to Europe, what the samurai is to Japan,” Singleton said. “It’s our mythology.”
Special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez Vidal contributed to this report.
