The First Cowboys

 Don't we love our cowboys? But from where did they originate? Who were the first cowboys? In my recent release ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS (Prairie Rose Publication), my hero is Ricardo Romero, son of a West Texas rancher on an original Spanish Land Grant. His mother is Felicitas Romero, half Comanche/half Spanish. Ricardo helps his parents run the huge expanse of land.
The ranch hands are Mexican vaqueros and Anglo cowboys.

HISPANIC ROOTS

One out of every three cowboys in the late 1800s was the Mexican vaquero. Their story really begins in the Southwest, two decades before the pilgrims landed in 1620 on Plymouth Rock, when adventurous 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-including Texas.

They were called caballeros, one of the highest stations you could have in life. The caballero 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. A cowboy in the U.S. today has developed what he knows from them.

Vaqueros were proverbial cowboys—rough, hard-working mestizos who were hired by the criollo caballeros to drive cattle between New Mexico and Mexico City, and later between Texas and Mexico City. The title, though denoting a separate social class, is similar to caballero, and is a mark of pride.

Vaquero is a transliteration of the words 'cow' and 'man.' Vaca means 'cow.' 
Interestingly enough, in Spanish they are called cowmen; in English, it was demoted to cowboys.

TEXAS LONGHORNS FREE FOR THE TAKING

In 1821 Anglo settlers arrived in Texas and became the first English-speaking Mexican citizens in the territory. Led by Stephen F. Austin, they arrived in San Felipe de Austin, Texas, to take advantage of the vast expanse of cattle, free for the taking.

Millions of longhorn cattle in the brush country of Texas were loose, and had strayed and multiplied. All the new settlers had to do was round up the cattle.

The vaqueros had been doing this for 223 years, since 1598, when Don Juan de Oñate, one of the four richest men in New Spain (present-day Mexico) sent an expedition across the Rio Grande River into New Mexico.

Oñate spent over a million dollars funding the expedition, and brought some 7,000 animals to the present-day United States. It eventually paid off; the first gold to come from the West was not from the Gold Rush, but rather from its wool-bearing sheep and then its long-horned livestock.

DISAPPEARING?

Four centuries have passed since the vaqueros first roamed the plains of Texas and New Mexico. Many say that the culture is dead, or on the verge of dying—along with the cattle-driver culture in general. But is it disappearing? It is said that there will always be cowboys as long as there are cattle, because they all claim the most efficient way to work cattle is from horseback.

And the vaqueros? I think it will stay very much the same. Though there may be optimism about the preservation of the culture, there is pessimism about outside influences.

But they're very proud of who they are. They are very much interested in keeping their culture alive and viable.

***

http://www.amazon.com/All-Hopes-Dreams-Celia-Yeary-ebook/dp/B01ADR72ZK/ref=sr_1_11?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1457443381&sr=1-11&keywords=celia+yeary

In my 1880 Western Historical romance, All My Hopes and Dreams, the hero is Ricardo Romero, owner of a huge ranch—which was an original land grant from Spain—on the far western edge of the Texas frontier. He was born on the ranch, making him a citizen of the United States. He is proud of his ancestry through his Spanish father Rafael Romero, and his Comanche half-breed mother. The ranch is a self-sustaining community, such as the Mexican haciendas, or estates, with Ricardo and his father in command as the patrons. Many of the wranglers on his ranch are vaqueros.

~~*~~Blurb:
To escape an arranged marriage, beautiful, proper Cynthia Harrington from East Texas impulsively marries Ricardo Romero, a striking, sensual Spaniard who ranches on the far western edge of the Texas frontier. Innocently, she steps into a hotbed of anger, rivalry, and strong wills. As she struggles to gain a foothold in the hostile household and foreign ranch community, she finds that her biggest challenge is to make her husband love her.
Ricardo creates his own problems by marrying an outsider, angering his mother, father, and his jealous ex-lady friend. Then, the Texas Rangers arrive looking for a killer, and Cynthia saves Ricardo’s mother in a confrontation with the wanted man. Ricardo realizes that his delicate bride has more grit and spunk than he thought, and his greatest trial becomes a race to pursue his own wife and persuade her to stay with him.
~~*~~
Excerpt:
   “What are we going to do, Ricardo?” she asked matter-of-factly.
   He crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes. “What exactly do you mean?”
   Cynthia hesitated a long while, as she looked toward the barn door, and down at her feet, and away to the other end of the barn. Finally, she spoke, very softly and very distinctly. “I don’t think I can live here, Ricardo. Nothing has been right since I arrived, and I don’t see it’ll get any better. Never in my life did I think I would walk into a situation such as this. Your mother hates and despises me so much, I can hardly describe it. Your father doesn’t believe what I say, certainly. And then, there’s Starr.”
   The mention of Starr’s name brought him to attention. “What do you mean? What are you implying?”
   “The truth? I realize you and she have been together far more than you or I have. However, what I’ve seen and overheard makes me truly believe that one day and perhaps soon, she’ll seduce you once more. And that, Ricardo, I will not stand for.”
   “You’re being ridiculous, now. You can get that out of your head, because that won’t happen. She understands the situation. That’s the truth.”
   “The truth. Then tell me the truth about this. Did you marry me so the ranches would not merge? Your mother said so. She told me to leave now, because you would never love me, and you would eventually turn to Starr.”
   “That’s a lie!” He pointed a long, slender finger in her face. “That’s a damn lie!”
   “Oh, so, now your mother is lying.”
   “All right, all right. I get your point. But it’s a lie that I would ever turn to Starr, and I certainly did not marry you so the ranches wouldn’t merge.”
   “I hope so. I sincerely hope so, but there’s more to it. She was conveniently here when we returned from town. So, when we came home and were told everything that had happened to your mother in our absence, who told us? Starr. We did not hear it from anyone else. I didn’t believe it for a minute, but Starr gave me a warning. Want to hear it?”
   “I guess. You’ve gone this far.”
   “You said that with suspicion in your voice. Did you realize it?”
   “No, I didn’t. Just tell me how she warned you.”
   “So you can say I’m lying?”
   Ricardo removed his hat with a dramatic sweep, and slapped it down on the side of his thigh.   
   “Damn, Cynthia! You’re making me crazy! Tell me!”
~~*~~
Celia Yeary-Romance...and a little bit 'o Texas
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