TONY Z GIVES PRIMER ON VAQUEROS-TEJANO HERITAGE

By Dr. Antonio Zavaleta
(This article originally appeared in the Brownsville Herald)
The selection of a name or image to represent an institution or a sport’s team is not a simple matter. This is primarily because satisfying everyone is close to impossible. When a selection is made, even one that is unanimously supported, those involved can only hope that most will not find the selection offensive as with reference to a protected group or class of people. Last week University of Texas Rio Grande Valley President Guy Bailey announced the university’s new mascot to the community. After careful consideration and input from student groups and others, President Bailey made an executive decision to present the Vaquero as the new mascot to the UT System Board of Regents, who unanimously approved it. I believe that President Bailey did a tremendous job in selecting a concept that represents not only our geographical area, but the history, culture and traditions of south Texas. The selection of the vaquero truly shows his sensitivity and respect for our home and region.
In fact, the area north of the Rio Grande to the Nueces River is the oldest and longest settled area of Spanish Texas, notwithstanding the long history of Native Americans here. By the 1600s, tiny settlements of Spanish immigrants began popping up along the Rio Grande. The Camino Real, King’s Highway, ran northward from Saltillo through the middle of the Tejano heartland, vaquero country, up to San Antonio de Bexar connecting the pioneers from the north and south.
These unique and resilient people came to be known as Tejanos and they lived and thrived in this vast grassland of the Wild Horse Desert for a hundred years before the Count of Escandon established his series of lower river settlements in 1750.
Long before the creation of the cowboy, Tejano vaqueros lived as small cattle ranchers developing traditions and culture as well as becoming the origin of the cattle industry in Texas. Vaquero families of men and women lived in the harsh region in jacales, houses made of mesquite and brush, fending off Comanche and Apache raids. The revered American icon, the cowboy, was shaped after the image of the vaquero.
I am proud to have a vaquero tradition, culture and history represent our university. There are so many opportunities for UTRGV to develop new university traditions around this iconic concept. For example, imagine the pride of a class ring with the vaquero emblazoned on its side.
Dozens of Spanish words derived from vaquero culture have been adopted into American English, demonstrating the importance of the vaquero in American and Texas history.
The list of adopted words begins with the quintessential “buckaroo,” a variation of the word “vaquero” often reserved for a young cowboy. The vaquero cultural lexicon is essential in modern English. For example, the vaquero worked on the “range,” a word that morphed into “ranch” and the “ranchero” morphed into “rancher.”
The vaquero mounted his “silla,” saddle, to his horse with a “cinche,” chinch. He used a “riata,” lariat also called a lasso. The cattle were herded into a corral. Seasonally, he would display his vaquero expertise at a competitive gathering called a rodeo.
What would our great Texas culture be without its rich vaquero heritage?
Vaqueros introduced many words for the preparation of food like “barbacoa,” barbecue, in which the animal is cooked slowly in a ground pit from the “barba” to the “cola,” from head to tail. Pan de campo, camp bread and pan semita, Semite bread, are part of vaquero food traditions. South Texas populations had a strong admixture of the Jewish Sephardim in their Judeo-Catholic background.
The rich mixture of cultures includes a strong influence of Basque farmers and sheep herders who settled in northeastern Mexico along the Rio Grande in the 17th century. The vaquero mascot brings these and many more aspects of our historic culture into the educational equation that should be understood, embraced and shared.
The vaqueros were experts at herding cattle through the thorny scrub brush of south Texas called monte or chaparral. They protected their legs with thick leather chaparreras the cowboys call chaps. Vaqueros often encountered herds of wild horses in the brush they called broncos. They protected their faces from violent dust storms with bandanas. These sudden and violent storms were whipped up by northerners in the winter they called nortes.
Finally, and maybe most importantly, the vaquero serves as an archetypal image of the south Texas super hero as described by Dr. Americo Paredes in his book about Gregorio Cortez, titled “With a Pistol in his Hand.” The humble vaquero Gregorio Cortez was wrongly accused of horse theft, perused by law enforcement, but escaped by performing a series of super-human feats.

Brownsville’s own Juan Nepomuceno Cortina is another larger-than-life vaquero superhero from the area of Rancho Viejo on the Military Highway. He was also wrongly accused of being a bandido, or bandit.
Cortina was from a wealthy river family. Family lore recounts that he was asked by his mother to take his vaqueros to recover their stolen cattle that had been driven northward to the vast King Ranch. Even though Cortina was a patriot, the United States waged war against him but he was never caught. Eventually he became governor of Tamaulipas, and has the distinction of fighting with his vaqueros at the Battle of Palo Alto and at the Battle of Puebla on the Cinco de Mayo. He lived the life of a superhero in exile, not allowed to return to his south Texas home.
The list of vaquero traditions and words adopted into the vernacular is extensive. Imagine the university clubs and organizations that will emerge by incorporating vaquero vocabulary and culture on campus. Think of the youth groups that could be called the buckaroos, developing cultural-historical curricula that will help schoolchildren understand their rich south Texas heritage throughout the region.
Rather than finding fault in a name, let’s find value in the heritage of the vaquero. UTRGV is off to a great start by branding our mascot the Vaquero. Honoring the vaquero honors a blend of traditions that make us unique and outstanding in the State of Texas. It provides us with a real opportunity to see the value of bilingualism and multiculturalism. Therefore, join in the yell, Go Vaqueros!
(Dr. Antonio Zavaleta is professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Brownsville.)