Cowgirl Roundup
"Los Vaqueros" - Transcript
[Ricardo Garcia]
Wow, hey that is a tight fit. Okay, here they come.
This is where it all started. Way back when the Spaniards first came to Mexico, they brought with them horses and cattle.
Well, the problem with that was they wouldn’t give their slaves horses. So they had to round them up on foot because the Spaniards didn’t trust their slaves on horseback because they were afraid that slaves would ride away. So they got some of their loyal slaves and said, “Look if we give you horses you won’t ride away, will you?
Now the Americans turned the rodeo into a competitive sport and its kind of an American invention as far as the sport is concerned. But it was originally just a game that the vaqueros or the cowboys used to play. And so it’s a kind of a neat thing ‘cause we’re back here at a Mexican rodeo where in a sense it all got started.
This is where it all started for me. When I was a little boy I used to visit my uncle’s ranch and he taught me about being a cowboy. Punching cattle, riding a horse, fixing fence and all those things that cowboys do. And of course, that’s what the original cowboy was all about.
A long, long time ago, back into the 1500s, when the Spaniards first came to Mexico, they brought livestock, they brought horses to Mexico and they set up ranches. The only trouble is, those ranches were not in any way, shape, or form like ranches we have today. For one thing they had no fences. The cows got all jumbled up, and so they got their... because they were lazy, the Spaniards were, they got their Indian slaves and their African slaves to round up the cattle.
And they said, Nah, we won’t ride away.” And guess what they did?
Well, their skills, roping, branding, rounding up the cattle, handling the bulls – all of those particular skills were highly valued by the Spaniards. And it wasn’t long that the cowboy, or in those days called the vaquero, developed this attitude of independence, and if they didn’t like the way they were being treated they’d go on to the next ranch where they’d get better treatment. And so the myth of the cowboy and the idea that the cowboy himself as a independent, free spirit got its start in reality.
It was later when the Americans came to what is now Texas and they saw what the vaqueros were doing, they liked it. But there’s one thing that the Americans did to change being a cowboy and that was the development of the rodeo. Originally when the vaqueros were alone down there in Mexico and even Texas, they would round up the cattle and while they were waiting for other outfits to bring their cattle they’d play games. Riding a bronco, roping a calf, riding the bulls, branding. And when the Americans came they said, “Hey you-all, what you doing? What you doing there, you-all?”
And they said, “Rodear. We are in a sense rounding up the cattle and waiting.” And the Americans couldn’t pronounce rodear and roll their R's, so they said rodeo.
But that was the beginning of cowboy culture.
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