These Were the Vaqueros - My 5 favorite Samples
Here are a few of my favorite excerpts from These Were the Vaqueros.
As a student of history, I have to say I love a good book. The older I get, and the more I understand the value of reading, the more enjoyment I find from them. In my personal journey, this started as I read more and more primary sources from the American West. Journals and recollections of mountain men, cowboys, and other frontiersmen really helped connect me to people of the past. Reading has also helped me better understand myself and the world. Currently, I just finished a classic book I’d encourage all people interested in horsemanship and horse cultures to read. That book is These Were the Vaqueros by Arnold Rojas.
Arnold Rojas was an ordinary blue-collar individual with an extraordinary eye for culture and people, as well as a knack for storytelling. While reading the book I was continually struck by his observations of people, and the selection of stories he included. Basically, These Were the Vaqueros is a collection of short stories about vaquero life. Rojas himself was a working vaquero who grew up, worked, and was shaped by the vaquero culture surrounding him. Born in 1896, Rojas worked alongside vaqueros who had been in their prime when California was still wild and free of fences. Although the book is in part a nostalgic retelling of history (a point made by Rojas himself) it does provide us a portal back into the past.
It seems impossible to read this book without being impressed by the author. Through his writing, he comes across as very intelligent and sensitive to the world around him. He understood people, and how his life, culture, and world fit into the larger scene. In his early life, he was a simple vaquero just like so many of his contemporaries. Later in life, he moved away from vaquero work, but still felt a fondness for the way of life. In this book, Rojas recounts a traditional way of life that none of us will ever get to see. He lived, knew it, and wrote about it in this classic book. In a way, this is a book that does what great books do, it serves as a portal to connects two people across time and space. It’s like sitting down with a friend you never could meet so they can tell you stories around the campfire. For people interested in the topic, it’s certainly worth your time.
If you’ve never read These Were the Vaqueros, here are 5 of my favorite samples from the book.
From “Branding Time”
“We sat down in the kitchen and watched the old man stir up the fire. As he put the coffee pot on the stove I was sure I heard a sigh. ‘I get pretty tired now,’ he said, ‘Guess I’m getting old.’ Yes, tired of an act on which the curtain fell long ago and tired from years spent in a calling that men have tried to preserve in the face of progress and the high price of beef.”
This may be my favorite excerpt from the entire book. Simply, yet profoundly, Rojas captures one of the more complicated difficulties of life. I’m guessing I’m not the only one who has wondered how the past fits into the present. In fact, I know I’m not because of this excerpt. You can imagine how difficult it would have been for the old vaqueros to let go of a way of life that had been completely rearranged in a few decades. Throughout the book, Rojas describes how vaquero work changed during his life, and how the old ways were in some ways discarded. Of course, there were people who clung to the tradition. They clung to the past and a way of life that they loved. You can’t blame them. In the end, some were somewhat pushed to the edges, clinging to “an act on which the curtain fell long ago,” and were left tired because of it.
I can say this is an area I struggle with. It’s easy to look at the passage and think they ought to change. However, had everyone accepted the change, there may have been nobody to teach Rojas or tell him their stories. If they had quit, we may not have the elegant California bridle horses that a handful of people still make. In some ways, the tired old man sacrificed his life to pass on a tradition that we get to enjoy. It was too good to let go of, and some never could.
From “Memories of the Tejon Ranch”
“From ‘Cheno’ I learned that a good vaquero need not be a bucking horse rider, for he, ‘Cheno,’ could never stay on a horse after the first buck no matter how mild the jump. The mayordomos, however, always gave him colts to break, because he was a man of infinite patience with young horses and he turned out some of the best working horses on the ranch; well-reined and well-trained in every way.”
Although many people think colt starting is all about riding bucking horses, this excerpt suggests otherwise. Cheno apparently made some of the best horses without the ability to ride a bronc. Instead, he used patience to get the job done. In the end, it sounds like his horses worked better for him than anyone else. There are a few stories of Cheno in the book, and all of them consistently reflect this same description.
Sometimes, when we’re making horses, we can engage in a battle with the animal. I know I’m not the only one to think something like, “Well, if you want it that way…” and then proceed to fight it out. However, I know this isn’t when I do my best work. One of the most rewarding benefits of starting colts and working with horses truly is the opportunity to work on myself. The more I control my emotions, the better things go. The more I mange myself, the more I can help the horse manage its. I’m not perfect, but I’m better than I was. More than anything, Cheno’s story proves what many horsemen believe; and that is, don’t get in a fight with a colt and you’ll be better in the long run.
From “On Being a Vaquero”
“Sitting at the feet of the wise old men and listening to tales of vaqueros and vaquero horses is one thing; putting all this lore into practice is another. To become an accomplished vaquero a boy must not only absorb much of this wisdom but put it into practice before he can achieve his ambition.”
As a writer, this snippet of wisdom especially struck me. You see, writing comes fairly naturally to me. I enjoy it, it helps me learn, communicate, and understand the world. I’m also a touch philosophical and tend to think about ideas and concepts. I also enjoy history, and I would be the person who would enjoy “sitting at the feet of the wise old men and listening to tales of vaqueros and vaquero horses.” However, as Rojas points out, that’s not where it should end. We shouldn’t just listen to the stories, but instead should listen and then put them into practice.
Today, a growing number of people in today’s world are content creators and more and more people are consuming that content. For example, one website estimates that people watch 250 million hours of YouTube videos every single day. Of course, these estimates vary, but I don’t think we’d be wrong in assuming that whatever the number of hours is, it’s a bunch. Maybe you’re one of those people who enjoy consuming content on the Internet. I know I’ve fallen into that trap before. Why? Well, it’s probably because I enjoy learning. However, as Rojas reminds us, there is a time for learning and a time for doing. As a visitor to this website, my hope is that you can find some information that will help you “do,” not just “know.” That’s the point of learning. The advent of the Internet has offered us a tremendous educational opportunity, but it’s also an endless pit of content as well. If we’re not careful, we’ll spend too much of our time on our devices and not enough time applying the information to our real lives. Like many things, it’s a balancing act.
From “An Old Master”
“At the end of the first month the bronco had learned to turn, slide to a stop, and back up when his rider raised the rein…True he had many lessons yet to learn…but the first lessons had been learned, without cruelty, without abuse, and without letting the bronco know his own strength.”
“An Old Master” is one of the longer stories in the book. It begins by telling of an old man observing a 6-year-old untouched gelding in a pen. After some deliberation, the vaquero decides to start the horse. As the story unfolds, Rojas describes the process the old man employed to train the animal. Rather than use force or muscle, the white-haired old man uses patience and persistence to gentle the animal. The excerpt above is the final few lines of the story.
Similar to the story of Cheno, it is another good story about the different ways to make good horses. You don’t have to be a saddle-bronc rider. As I’ve heard Pat Puckett say, “I don’t train horses, I just outlast them.” Anybody who has trained a horse has walked the delicate line of challenging a horse, “without letting the bronco know his own strength.”
I suppose at times we’re all guilty of one of two faults. One is to push on our horses too hard and too fast. The other is not challenging our horses enough. Your individual temperament likely determines which fault you tend toward. This story illustrates one old man’s ability to perfectly straddle that line. Not too much, but not too little. He never fought the horse, but he never asked “pretty please” either.
From “Death of Spanish California”
“The sun had set for the Iberian in California…the old ones told each other over and over again the simple tales, for they were simple folk. Often a remnant of an old legend in fading Spanish would cling to the memory of a lad who in later years would see through a mist of unfamiliar words the soul of a people, with eyes he had not possessed as a child, memories that left a vague regret and longing he had lost and would never find again.”
Finally, there is something about this passage that makes a person stop and think. Like the “Branding Time” excerpt, this speaks to history and tradition. “The old ones” can’t let go, but the young ones won’t listen. In the end, they wish they had. As they grow, they are “left a vague regret and longing” for something they “would never find again.”
A warrior poet in his own way, Rojas leaves us all something to think about with those few sentences.
If you are interested in history or horses, and you’ve never read They Were the Vaqureors, I’d recommend giving it a read. It not only has good stories of history, but it touches on topics of horsemanship that are still relevant today.