We have to laugh at the brouhaha that has erupted over the choosing of the mascot for the new and improved UT-Rio Grande Valley super-duper university.
Some on the west side of the Rio Grande Valley say the new entity should have kept the Broncos mascot. Others on the east side say that after UTB President Julieta Garcia spent all that moollah consulting and fine-tuning the system to come up with the name Ocelots, that some sort of consideration be given the name.
By all appearances, the poor ocelots were road kill from the get-go. As an endangered mascot, they lasted for a full year before they were tossed into the trash heap of academe history. Fame, as it were, is fleeting.Now there is protest and lamentation from some quarters that after the long and drawn out process to select a mascot for UTRGV the new university president Guy Bailey announced that the name "Vaqueros" had been selected. Furthermore, the new mascot will incorporate the colors of both schools (PanAm and UTB) into the new logo.
(At right is a compromise mascot, the OceBronc.)
That, apparently, wasn't good enough for some hard-core Bronco loyalists and they went as far as to get some local city commissions on the west side of the RGV to keep Bucky the Bronc. Others drafted similar resolutions on the east side of the RGV for regents to disregard the guys on the west side and come up with their own unimpeded by the provincial interests there.
Well, Bailey was right when he told the media that the Vaquero mascot was chosen from among scores of names submitted because of its unique historical relationship with local culture and geography.
"There is no greater icon of our region than the Vaquero...Vaqueros are the horsemen and cattle herders who lay the foundation for the North American cowboys and cowboy culture."
That sounds logical to us here.
After all, the first ranches established in South Texas were cattle ranches and the economy was on based on livestock operations.
The Chisolm Trail started is Brownsville and went all the way up to Wichita, Kansas. Teh Texas Rangers were a force created to protect the interest of Richard King and his cattle empire. And even Ben Neece and George Ramirez's Half Moon Saloon – the hitching post of downtown entertainment in Brownsville – is a former tannery that shipped hides to the East Coast.
Some have complained that the name Vaqueros is a sexist, male-chauvinist name because it excludes women. Well, that shows a total lack of linguistic knowledge. When you refer to students in Spanish, you say "los estudiantes," as you do "los this" and "los others." There were women who worked as cow...vaqueras. Anyway, it's actually a very gender-inclusive article.
The farthest reach as far as criticism is that cowboys were known to frequent brothels after a hard cattle drive on the range. They, at best, they say, were whore mongers, all of them, an insult to women.
Others say that important historical figures like the Oblates who evangelized South Texas were overlooked.
Well, let's examine that one. What if we had named the mascot Oblates instead, after the religious order?
The Oblates were single men thrown into a wild frontier. We know what happens when you deny a priest's sexuality. The explosion in claims against the clergy for those kind of offenses against young boys makes an occasional foray into the saloon by vaqueros seem like jaywalking in comparison. And the urban myth that states that public work crews in Brownsville came across fetuses entombed inside tunnel walls (the result of illicit relationships between priest and nuns, they say)
when they dug to construct infrastructure in the city is the stuff of gossip, unfounded or not.
Besides, when our cousins to the north start pronouncing the "u" in vaqueros, it is a golden opportunity for locals to enlighten them on the silent pronunciation of the "u" between the "q" and the "e" or "i."
Vamos Vaqueros!
8 comments:
First of all, the letter q in Spanish ALWAYS appears with the u and is consider a single letter. The u is not silent but part of the combined single letter. It is called a digraph in linguistics. When the u follows the letter g in combination with the e or i, it is silent. example: guitarra
Secondly, in the state of Texas there are around 12 million cattle. Hidalgo and Cameron County combined have about 48,000 head of cattle. Ranching is a very minor part of the entire economy. There is very little historical residue leftover from the second half of the 19th century cattle drives in the Valley. Brownsville never was a cattle town like San Antonio or Abilene. It has always been a center of commerce and this goes double for McAllen.
By the way, there already is a Vaqueros team mascot, the San Diego, Texas High School, athletic program, which is a real cattle town.
The name has all the hallmarks of a feeble attempt by Anglos to coddle up to the local Meskins with a "Spanish" mascot.
From Texas Monthly Magazine:
If you approach the UTB campus from the west, you pass through downtown Brownsville, a squat collection of old, one-story buildings and businesses like Payless ShoeSource and furniture shops that offer short-term loans in the same convenient location. From the east, you pass by the Veterans International Bridge, which crosses the Rio Grande into Mexico. Brownsville is the poorest metropolitan area in America, and it looks like it.
McAllen-Edinburg-Mission is the third-poorest metropolitan area in the country, but the differences are stark. On Edinburg’s University Drive you pass by the Maki Sushi Bar, Starbucks, Chili’s, and GameStop, all a reassuring twenty miles north of the border. The median family income in Edinburg is 30 percent higher than in Brownsville. Even the names used to describe the respective regions drip with class issues: Edinburg is nestled in the “Upper Valley,” Brownsville in the “Lower Valley.” Roberto Godinez, who teaches at South Texas College, in McAllen, puts it in terms that fans of The Simpsons will understand. “There’s kind of a Springfield-Shelbyville thing going on,” he says.
It's not about mascots
From Texas Monthly Magazine:
Good description but you left out the punchline. The "Upper Valley" is far more affluent for a very simple reason, Monterrey. Money moved from Brownsville to the McAllen in the 70's and stayed. Amigoland Mall at one time had the highest sales per sq. ft. of any mall in the country. Now it is a ghost town bought by Julieta.
Brownsville is doomed to eternal poverty and ignorance. The race is over, Hidalgo County won. Actually, Brownsville never really had a chance due to the cacique, patron system that has permeated the culture since Stillman and still flourishes today. Everything is Brownsville is based on patronage, there is absolutely NO meritocracy whatsoever. McAllen, on the other hand, has been open from its inception to outside ideas and people. Take a good look around Brownsville and you will not see one position earned on merit. It is all about low level, tribal backwardness. Brownsville did have a brief period of prosperity in the 1920's because people from outside the area moved into the area. Sadly, that did not last because of the depression.
The patron system got going like gangbusters from the 1970's forward when the city grew rapidly and government money rained down to service the high poverty rate. The local patrons have milked this system to their great advantage and to the great disadvantage of the poor. There are very well paid "jefes" providing inferior services that keep the peons ignorant and docile, afraid to rebel because they might lose their place in free cheese line. In the end, that cheese is not free, it costs people their most important value, their dignity. Few cities can boast that both the former DA and Sheriff are serving time.
I am somewhat disappointed with the "Vaqueros" as the mascot. I was rooting for the UT-RGV Beaners.
Naco culture prevails in Browntown . Now enters Tony Tormenta with Deep pockets power to soothen the constitution .
We have to realize that McAllen is fed by the municipality satellites. We, on the other hand are like the Lone Dove in the wood pile. While visiting Miami, the natives there refer to Brownn T.as being " en el culo del diablo ."
Too bad the citizens of this area and the students in Brownsville don't get more involved with their education than fighting for a mascot. But that's Julieta's fault....she spent tax dollars and encouraged the students involvement (something she rarely does with important issues) to come up with a mascot. The new UTRGV president took it upon himself to make a recommendation (which was unanimously accepted at UT) that spent no tax dollars. His leadership has begun. Pres. Baily has been head of the Univ of Alabama and Texas Tech and understands that education takes precedence over a mascot. We applaud his action and, and like Gov Chris Christy said to one whinner..."sit down and shut up to those who have been whining out loud about this mundane issue.
People take notice the Mexican name Vaqueros is not liked by those of Mexican Heritage. Is it a bit insulting! Why not call them the Stallions? That would be more of a compliment than the name Vaqueros.
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