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The Vaquero: How Mexican Horsemen Shaped the American Cowboy

Spanish cattle and horses reached Mexico in 1519, and the vaqueros who worked them built the techniques, tools and vocabulary of American ranching.

Who were the vaqueros?

The word vaquero comes from vaca, the Spanish word for cow. In the 17th century, landowners often Spanish-born employed vaqueros as ranch laborers, and the vaqueros were generally Indigenous or mestizo, according to Mexico News Daily. The role grew out of the encomienda system, in which Indigenous people herded cattle and rode horses.

Over time vaqueros became independent contractors who moved between ranches with their own horses and gear. They were known for horsemanship, roping, herding and branding.

How did cattle ranching begin in Mexico?

Cortes's forces landed at Veracruz in 1519 with horses. In 1521, Gregorio de Villalobos brought the first cattle from the Dominican Republic, one bull and six cows, and their descendants include the Texas Longhorn. In the late 16th century Don Juan de Onate led a drive of more than 7,000 cattle from northern Mexico into present-day New Mexico.

By the early 1700s, cattle ranching had spread into what are now Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and south to Argentina, as American Cowboy magazine summarizes. Ranches stocked with Spanish cattle and horses became the training ground where Indigenous workers learned to handle both.

Gear and techniques that outlasted the Spanish era

Braided rawhide reatas were the root of the word lariat. Horses were trained to respond to a hackamore, and riders used a dally, a wrap around a high saddle horn. Notable equipment includes center-fire rigged saddles, long reatas and silver-mounted spade bits.

Many of those tools survive in the working outfits of buckaroos in Oregon, Idaho and Nevada, where slick-fork saddles and spade bits are still used and nylon ropes have replaced rawhide. The word buckaroo is itself a mispronunciation of vaquero.

Words the vaqueros gave to English

A good deal of the cowboy vocabulary is Spanish, as the American Cowboy word list shows. Lasso comes from lazo, lariat from reata, rodeo from rodear, meaning to surround, and chaps from chaparreras, the leather leggings. A remuda, a herd of horses, comes from remudar, to exchange, and dally from dar la vuelta, to take a turn.

The wide-brimmed sombrero was a common vaquero hat, and the ten-gallon hat may derive from galon, the braid on a sombrero's hatband. American Cowboy's history traces buckaroos in Oregon, Idaho and Nevada to the same root.

From California missions to Texas trail drives

In California, a chain of 21 Franciscan missions from San Diego to San Francisco, begun in 1769, started the livestock industry. Californios roped cattle from horseback with braided rawhide reatas. After the Mexican-American War and the 1849 gold rush, more Americans arrived and adopted vaquero methods.

In Texas, Richard King of King Ranch recruited vaqueros from Tamaulipas in the 1850s, and Mifflin Kenedy also relied on them. Trail drives between 1860 and 1890 took cattle to railheads such as Abilene, Kansas. Trail-driving Texans adopted vaquero techniques and carried them north.

What Made It Work

The vaquero tradition worked because it fitted people, animals and country together. Spanish stock suited the dry ranges of Mexico and the Southwest, and workers who trained horses and cattle from childhood developed methods that other ranchers could copy.

There are costs in the record too. Vaqueros often worked under a hierarchy that began with the encomienda system, and historian Monica Munoz Martinez, cited by Mexico News Daily, says the vaquero's place in U.S. history was erased after the Mexican Revolution amid anti-Mexican racism.

  • Horse and cattle work were taught together, producing riders who could rope from horseback.
  • The hackamore and the spade bit trained horses to respond to light signals.
  • The dally, a wrap around the saddle horn, gave a rider control over a roped animal.
  • Branding was widely practiced, and the Mexico News Daily account credits Mexico with its origin in North America.
  • Vaqueros became independent contractors who could move between ranches with their own horses and gear.

Legacy and where to learn more

The vaquero style shaped the modern livestock industry, and branding spread north from Mexico along with it. Hollywood Westerns, meanwhile, typically cast Mexican characters as bandits, which helped hide the debt.

For more on ranching traditions, visit the ranching pages at farm.FM or read a farm.FM story on vaquero horsemanship.

Timeline

  1. 1519Spanish forces land at Veracruz with horses
  2. 1521Gregorio de Villalobos brings the first cattle: one bull and six cows
  3. Late 1500sDon Juan de Onate drives more than 7,000 cattle into present-day New Mexico
  4. Early 1700sRanching has spread into Texas, Arizona and New Mexico
  5. 1769Franciscan mission chain begins California's livestock industry
  6. 1850sRichard King recruits vaqueros from Tamaulipas for King Ranch
  7. 1860-1890Texas trail drives carry vaquero methods north to Kansas railheads

Frequently asked questions

What is a vaquero?

A vaquero is a Spanish-Mexican cattle herder and horseman. The word comes from vaca, meaning cow. Vaqueros developed the roping, herding and branding techniques that American cowboys later adopted.

Did vaqueros come before cowboys?

Yes. Cattle ranching in North America began with the Spanish conquest of Mexico after 1519, and vaqueros were working cattle long before the Texas trail drives of 1860 to 1890.

What English words come from vaquero culture?

Lasso (lazo), lariat (reata), rodeo (rodear), chaps (chaparreras), remuda (remudar), dally (dar la vuelta) and buckaroo, a mispronunciation of vaquero.

Sources and further reading

Profiles are compiled from public sources and reviewed against them. See our editorial policy to suggest a correction.

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