Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had a run-in with Secretary of State Marco Rubio this week on the origins of America’s cowboy, leading to a broader conversation on the history of the West.
While criticizing a recent speech, Ocasio-Cortez took issue with what she claimed was Rubio’s statement that America’s cowboys came from Spain.
“My favorite part was when he said that American cowboys came from Spain,” she said in her criticism of Rubio’s speech. “And I believe the Mexicans and descendants of African enslaved peoples would like to have a word on that.”
The comment quickly went viral, with experts weighing in on what is believed to have been a mix of origins for cowboy culture in America.
The Vaquero Legacy
The History Channel reports that America’s cowboy culture stretches back further than America itself, to the era of Spanish colonialism.
“Hundreds of years before there was the American cowboy, there was the vaquero,” it says, referring to expert horsemen who came after the Spaniards landed in 1519 in what is now Mexico.
The first vaqueros, it says, were “Indigenous Mesoamerican men who learned from their Spanish colonizers how to herd cattle on horseback.”
Independent historian Pablo A. Rangel, who has studied vaquero history extensively, says it is “a forgotten history of centuries of horsemanship in the Americas that roots the vaqueros in the colonial past.”
The word “vaquero” itself comes from “vaca,” which is the Spanish word for cow. As Spain extended its North American Empire into what are now Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California, the vaquero played a crucial role. The vaquero domesticated wild horses, braided ropes, constructed saddles, and learned to use a lasso expertly.
From Lazo to Lasso
Many cowboys’ traditions actually originated with the Spanish and Mexicans.
The word “lasso” itself comes from “lazo,” Spanish for “rope.” The early cowboys’ ropes were made of braided leather and horsehair. The vaquero’s rope skills are now an important part of rodeo competitions.
The chaps also originated from “chaparreras,” which protected gear from “chaparral,” a type of Southwestern brush.
As ranching expanded into what was then known as New Spain, the vaquero also functioned as an auxiliary force in regional battles. The vaquero played an important role at missions, especially in California.
A Blended Cultural Inheritance
Several cultures contributed to the development of cowboy culture, which later spread to the United States.
Following Texas’ independence from Mexico and subsequent admittance to the U.S. in 1845, Anglo settlers began to assume ranch duties. The Mexicans remained as skilled laborers on Texas ranches, training Anglo cowboys in horse and cattle skills.
Historians estimate that as many as one-fourth of all cowboys in the 19th century were black.
Performers such as Buffalo Bill Cody also incorporated Mexican vaqueros into their traveling Wild West shows, though in a rather romanticized, stereotypical fashion. The Hollywood Westerns of the early 20th century began to portray cowboys as heroic white Americans, rather than the multiracial groups that developed the practice.
“That’s when the vaquero turns into something else,” Rangel told the History Channel. “He becomes this racialized, vilified character.”
