Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, whether it's John Wayne
Speaker 1: or Little Nez, the cowboy holds a sacred place and
Speaker 1: the pantheon of American heroes. But the cowboy that we
Speaker 1: know didn't spring fully formed from the dust and tumbleweeds
Speaker 1: of the wild West. The original cowboy, in fact, had
Speaker 1: nothing to do with the wild West. Historically speaking, the
Speaker 1: whole cowboy image, the trusty horse, the open range, get along,
Speaker 1: little doggie, camp fires under starry nights, old town road,
Speaker 1: beans from a chuckwagon, yeehaw, cattle drives, branding, chaps, and
Speaker 1: spurs grew from roots a long way from the American West.
Speaker 1: It all began in Europe with three central elements man, cow,
Speaker 1: and horse. In Spain, for centuries, the horse was king.
Speaker 1: Richard W. Slatta writes in the introduction of his book
Speaker 1: Cowboys of the amir Beca's social history of cowboys in
Speaker 1: the Western Hemisphere. Quote the Spanish culture endowed horsemanship with
Speaker 1: high status. Official portraits of Spanish kings depicted them astride, pawing,
Speaker 1: rearing horses. The Spanish used their horses in a burgeoning
Speaker 1: livestock economy, which included cattle and sheep to complement farming
Speaker 1: in the fourteen hundreds, and when the Spanish made their
Speaker 1: voyages to the so called New World in the late
Speaker 1: fourteen hundreds, they took with them horses and cattle. Eventually,
Speaker 1: from Espaniola, the island that today houses the Dominican Republic,
Speaker 1: and Haiti, the men, the horses, and the cattle made
Speaker 1: their way to Florida and parts of what's now Mexico.
Speaker 1: The cattle multiplied, and the need for horsemen to track
Speaker 1: them down and keep them in line grew. Cows were
Speaker 1: needed then, more for their hides than their meat, So
Speaker 1: ranchers trained Native Americans who came up with all sorts
Speaker 1: of new cow handling techniques, and the vaccaro was born.
Speaker 1: The word comes from the Spanish word for cow, vacca,
Speaker 1: and the volcaro, sometimes pronounced baccarro, is the direct predecessor
Speaker 1: of the American cowboy. In Russell Friedman's book In the
Speaker 1: Days of the Vacaro, America's first true Cowboys, he explains
Speaker 1: that Vacarro's were herding cattle on the Mexican planes some
Speaker 1: five hundred years ago. They were poor laborers and not
Speaker 1: given much credit by the Spanish colonizers who employed them,
Speaker 1: but they invented the cowboy as we know it. Other
Speaker 1: cowboys proliferated through Central and South America. In Mexico there
Speaker 1: was also the chatto, usually the Vaciro's horsemen landowners. There
Speaker 1: was the Naro in Venezuela, the Waso in Chile, the
Speaker 1: gaut Show in Argentina and Uruguay. They can all trace
Speaker 1: their ancestors to the Va Caro, and America too, would
Speaker 1: soon have its own version of a horseman and cattle herder.
Speaker 1: As the Vicarro's learned to rope and ride and through lariats,
Speaker 1: as they modified their saddles to include a horn to
Speaker 1: anchor rope too, and as they introduced sun blocking hats
Speaker 1: and leg protecting chaps. They moved into what is now Texas,
Speaker 1: and their influence was felt even farther west. In eighteen
Speaker 1: thirty two, King Kamama the Third sent for some Vicarios
Speaker 1: to help with wild cattle in Hawaii. The Hawaiian cowboy
Speaker 1: became known as the Paniolo. Eventually, an American counterpart formed
Speaker 1: and spread throughout the West. Cowboys had other names cowhands,
Speaker 1: cow punchers, cow pokes, cattlemen, buckaroos, and drovers. We officially
Speaker 1: those who moved cattle from one place to another on
Speaker 1: a cattle drive. But the work was the same, long days,
Speaker 1: nights on the plains, a lot of dust, some danger,
Speaker 1: and when they weren't working the herds, they were branding cattle,
Speaker 1: fixing fences, caring for their horses, and performing other hard
Speaker 1: labor around ranches. They weren't necessarily gamblers and gunfighters like
Speaker 1: say wild Bill Hickock, or gun slinging law men like
Speaker 1: White Earth or his showy buddy Dot Holiday, or did
Speaker 1: I sharpshooters like Anti Oakley, or all out showmen like
Speaker 1: Buffalo Bill Cody. Though all of these legends have legit
Speaker 1: claims to a spot in the Wild West Hall of Fame,
Speaker 1: and in a way, all of those types have become
Speaker 1: known as cowboys. Slaughter wrote in the Cowboy Encyclopedia, the
Speaker 1: cowboy of the American West, a dashing figure in popular
Speaker 1: novels and films, was in reality a poorly paid laborer
Speaker 1: engaged in difficult, dirty, often monotonous work. The cowboys work
Speaker 1: year centered on two big events, the roundup and the
Speaker 1: long drive. Roundups were held in the spring, and often
Speaker 1: also in the fall. After cowboys had herded cattle to
Speaker 1: a central location, they branded newborn calves, castrated and de
Speaker 1: horned older animals, and in the spring chose the cattle
Speaker 1: to be taken to market. At one time, tens of
Speaker 1: thousands of cowboys worked ranches throughout the West. By the
Speaker 1: end of the American Civil War, an estimated quarter of
Speaker 1: those were black cowboys, many of them formerly enslaved. But
Speaker 1: the cowboys heydaid didn't last long. The invention of barbed
Speaker 1: wire in the late eighteen hundreds helped pen cattle in
Speaker 1: and the expansion of railroads made long cattle drives less necessary.
Speaker 1: So the white, well kempt gunslinger cowboy of Hollywood westerns
Speaker 1: isn't a particularly accurate image, but like the cowboy himself
Speaker 1: or herself, it is an enduring one. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by John Donovan and produced by Tyler Clang. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other topics that are
Speaker 1: wanted dead or alive, visit how stuff works dot com.
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