The First Cowboys
The origin of the cowboy came from medieval Spain and then to the New World centuries later by the Spaniards.
During the Middle Ages, many Spaniards were nomadic, always on the move to avoid ruthless rulers and invading Moorish armies. They became adept at moving their families, and their livestock, from place to place. Their preferred breed of cattle was the Corriente — cows that were well adapted to traveling long distances and living off sparse vegetation. The Corriente also proved to be ideal for their lean meat, milk and use as a draft animal. These early “cowboys” were called pastoras, the term for a herder that goes back to biblical times.
The Arabian Moors were excellent horsemen that taught their skills to the Spaniards. The pastoras quickly adapted to herding their cattle on horseback.
As the Spaniards began to colonize the New World in the 1500s, there was great need for animals and meat. These pastoras were used to bring herds of horses, oxen, sheep and beef cattle to Mexico on the Spanish galleons. They bred and raised their stock in the arid climate of Mexico, including the hardy Corriente.
Mexico offered something not found in Spain: miles and miles of wide open places for grazing. The pastoras, using their expert horsemanship, developed techniques to drive herds of cattle from pasture to pasture, as well as roundups for branding and slaughter. Now working almost exclusively “in the saddle,” they became known as vaqueros — which means “herders of cows” — the first cowboys in the New World. In South America, they were known as gauchos.
Vaqueros in New Mexico
The first vaqueros in New Mexico were those who arrived with Juan de Oñate. More than 7,000 head of cattle came with the 1598 caravan over El Camino Real, herded by vaqueros. Some of this livestock was used to feed the colonists on the trail, although the majority was used to establish herds of sustainable cattle, and food, in the New World.
The early Spanish colonists built haciendas — a family home on a tract of land for raising a few head of cattle, a few sheep or goats, and for their fields. Basically a farm. Everything to survive in New Mexico had to be raised or grown on one’s own land. With only a few cows or sheep, this was a perilous balance. If your animals didn’t breed, your family would soon go hungry; if you were forced to slaughter your livestock for food, you had no breeding stock for the following year.
To address this problem, many Spaniards began breeding and raising large herds of cattle to supply meat or stock to the local haciendas. These larger tracts of land were called estancias — a ranch — and the ranch owner was known as the patron. The term rancho did not come into vogue in New Mexico until the 1821-1846 Mexican era...
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