De Vaquero to Cowboy Pt. 1: The Hidden Moorish & Spanish Origins of the American Cowboy
Here is a truth that Hollywood never told you: The American cowboy, that quintessential icon of the Wild West, did not ride out of a vacuum in Texas or Montana. He was not invented by John Wayne, Buffalo Bill, or the Anglo settlers of the 19th century.
The cowboy is an inheritance. He is the direct descendant of a centuries-old equestrian tradition that began on the sun-baked plains of medieval Spain, was revolutionized by the Moors of North Africa, and was perfected by the mixed-race castas of Mexico.
Long before the first Stetson was stitched or the first Winchester rifle was cocked, the vaquero was already a legend.
This is the story of the true original cowboy—a figure born from a collision of cultures, religions, and continents. If you think you know the history of the West, saddle up. We are about to rewrite the script.
1. The Moors Invented the Cowboy (Yes, Really)
Did you know? The way cowboys ride horses today was actually developed by Islamic warriors in the 8th century? It’s called "La Jinete," and it changed everything.
To find the heartbeat of the American cowboy, we have to look much further back than 1776. We have to go back to 711 AD, when the Moors—North African Muslims of mixed Arab and Berber descent—crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and invaded the Iberian Peninsula (modern-day Spain and Portugal).
The Moors didn’t just bring a new religion; they brought a revolution in horsemanship that would eventually define the American West.
For nearly 800 years, the Moors occupied Spain. The Moors, encountered an indigenous Iberian riding style, perfected and refined it. They introduced their own innovations in saddle design, bit construction, and horsemanship techniques that would ultimately transform the Western world. This style is known as "a la jinete."
The Jinete Revolution:
The Name: The term jinete is believed to be a corruption of "Zenata," the name of a Berber tribe from North Africa famous for their cavalry skills.
The Technique: Riders used shorter stirrups and bent their knees, allowing them to stand and move fluidly with the horse. This was light cavalry riding, designed for speed, sudden stops, and rapid turns—the exact skills later needed for working wild cattle.
The Genetics: The Moors brought the Barb horse, a smaller, more maneuverable mount from North Africa. These were bred with Spanish stock to create the Andalusian and Lusitano breeds—the ancestors of the American Quarter Horse and the Mustang.
The Spanish adopted these techniques to manage their own herds in the dry, sparse grasslands of Andalusia. When the Christians finally reconquered Spain in 1492, they didn't erase this Moorish equestrian culture; they absorbed it. They took the Moorish bit, the saddle, and the riding style, and they prepared to export it to a New World.
Did you know? The Moors defeated the Spanish using their highly refined horsemanship and ability to utilize smaller more versatile and maneuverable Barb horses.
2. From Garrocha to Reata: The Tools of the Trade
Next time you see a rodeo, tell your friends that the "hackamore" isn't just a rope halter—it's an ancient Moorish invention designed to save a warhorse's mouth.
The physical tools of the cowboy are direct artifacts of this medieval history.
The Hackamore (Jaquima): The Moors brought foundational noseband techniques using rawhide and leather. Over 800 years of Spanish occupation, these evolved into increasingly sophisticated designs. When conquistadors brought horses to the Americas, they adapted these tools further, eventually creating the hackamores we know today. The jaquima allowed riders to train young, powerful horses without damaging their sensitive mouths with heavy iron bits.
The Pole vs. The Rope: In medieval Spain and early New Spain, herders didn't originally rope cattle; they prodded and tripped them. They used a long lance called a garrocha (or desjarretadera) to maneuver herds or hock bulls during a fight.
However, in the New World, the landscape changed the game. The brush was too thick, and the cattle were too wild for lances alone. The vaqueros replaced the cumbersome garrocha poles with the la reata (the lasso), a braided rawhide rope. This shift from lance to rope marked the transition from the Spanish campero to the true North American vaquero.
Fact Beat:
Original Word: La Reata (Spanish)
Americanized: Lariat
Origin: Braided rawhide, introduced by Moorish leatherworking techniques.
3. 1519: The Horse Returns to America
Trigger: Imagine a continent without horses. That was North America until one specific year.
Horses had been extinct in the Americas since the Ice Age. The landscape was silent of hoofbeats until 1519, when Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés landed on the shores of what is now Mexico.
Cortés brought 16 horses with him. It wasn't many, but it was the spark that ignited a wildfire. By 1521, Gregorio de Villalobos brought the first calves to New Spain. The combination of Andalusian cattle and Spanish horses on the vast, open grasses of Mexico created a biological explosion.
The animals multiplied beyond anyone's wildest dreams. By 1550, Mexico was prime horse country. Vast herds of "wild" cattle and horses (mustangs, from the Spanish mesteño, meaning "stray") roamed the open range, ownerless and dangerous.
The Spanish landowners (Hacendados) had a problem: How do you manage thousands of wild beasts on millions of acres of unfenced land? They needed a mounted workforce. They needed the vaquero.
4. The First "True" Cowboys: A Story of Rebellion and Invention
The lasso wasn't just a tool; it was an invention born out of oppression and necessity.
Who were the first vaqueros in North America? They were not the wealthy Spanish Dons.
Enslaved Moors & Africans: Historians suggest the very first "cowboys" in the New World were likely enslaved Moorish and Black Muslim men brought by the Conquistadors to handle the livestock. By the 1570s, ordinances showed that cattle ranching in Mexico was almost "universally done by Mulattos" and Black men.
Indigenous Peoples: Spanish law initially prohibited Native Americans from riding horses, fearing they would use them for war. But the herds grew too massive to manage on foot. The Spanish were forced to break their own laws, training Indigenous populations to ride.
The Secret Origin of the Lasso: Here is a piece of history often overlooked. In 1574, the Spanish Mesta (livestock council) passed discriminatory laws prohibiting Black, Mulatto, and Indigenous vaqueros from owning the desjarretadera (the hocking lance used to kill or disable cattle). The punishment for a slave caught with a lance was 100 lashes.
Stripped of their primary tool but still required to manage wild cattle, these Black and Mulatto vaqueros had to innovate. They circumvented the law by developing roping from horseback. They took the braided rawhide techniques of their ancestors and turned the rope into a projectile weapon—the lasso. The iconic tool of the American cowboy was likely invented by African and mixed-race vaqueros to do their job without getting whipped.
Fun Fact: Vaqueros were early versions of independent contractors... Vaqueros owned their horses, saddles, and ropes and what they did with them would shape the history of Texas ranching."
5. The Invention of the Tools We Know Today
Practical Value: Why does a saddle have a horn? Why do cowboys wear chaps? It’s not fashion—it’s survival.
The vaqueros of colonial Mexico adapted Spanish gear to the brutal, thorny landscape of the Americas. Every piece of equipment seen in a modern Western movie was engineered by these men for survival.
The Saddle Horn: In Spain, lances were used. In the Americas, once the rope became the primary tool, riders needed a way to anchor a 1,000-pound steer. Vaqueros developed the high-pommel saddle with a horn (cabeza). This allowed them to dally (wrap) the rope around the horn to use the horse's weight to stop the cow. This technique—dar la vuelta (to take a turn)—is the origin of the English word "dally". Some historians argue the saddle horn actually has Afro-Mexican origins, derived from West African saddle designs used to hang bags.
The Chaps: The brush in Texas and Mexico is covered in cactus and thorns that can shred a rider's legs. Vaqueros designed chaparreras—leather leg coverings that hung from the belt. These evolved directly into the "chaps" worn by rodeo stars today.
The Rope (Reata): A vaquero's rope was his life. It was braided from four to eight strands of rawhide, carefully cured and greased. It could be 60 to 100 feet long—far longer than the ropes used by modern rodeo cowboys. To keep it supple, they would rub it with lemon juice and beef fat.
Quotable: "A cowboy without a rope is like a man without arms." — Albert 'Lolo' Trevino, King Ranch Vaquero
6. The Hacienda: The Original Ranch
Story: Before the "Wild West," there was the Hacienda.
We often picture the "ranch" as an American invention of the 1800s. In reality, the hacienda system was operating in Mexico and the American Southwest centuries earlier.
These were self-sustaining city-states. A large hacienda might cover hundreds of thousands of acres. It had its own church, blacksmith, and hierarchy. The Hacendado (owner) lived like a king; the Caporal (foreman) ran the operations; and the Vaqueros (cowboys) lived in the saddle.
By the 1700s, this system had spread north into what is now Texas, Arizona, and California. The Mission system in California relied entirely on vaquero labor to manage massive herds of cattle raised for hides and tallow.
Long before the Pony Express or the Oregon Trail, vaqueros were driving herds of cattle from Texas to Louisiana to feed Spanish soldiers during the American Revolution. They were the masters of the open range when the "American West" was still just a line on a map.
Teaser: The Clash of Cultures
Cliffhanger: So, if the vaquero was here first, dominating the landscape with superior skills, gear, and horses... what happened when the Anglo settlers finally arrived?
In the early 1800s, English-speaking settlers began to drift into Texas and California. They arrived in wagons, often walking, with little knowledge of how to survive in a desert or handle wild longhorns.
When they met the vaqueros, they didn't just see a different culture—they saw a template for survival. They couldn't pronounce the word vaquero (vah-kair-oh), so they anglicized it into a new word: "Buckaroo".
They took the vaquero's gear, his horses, and his vocabulary. But as they moved north, the tradition split.
In Part 2: We’ll watch the vaquero move north. We’ll uncover how the California Vaquero and the Texas Cowboy evolved into two completely different breeds of horsemen, and how a clash of civilizations gave birth to the modern rodeo.
Share This Story
Did you know the lasso was likely invented to skirt a 16th-century law against lances? Share this post with the history buff in your life and help set the record straight.
