Fun History Fact: The overwhelming majority of cowboys in the U.S. were Indigenous, Black, and/or Mexican persons. The omnipresent white cowboy is a Hollywood studio concoction meant to uphold the mythology of white masculinity.
I think it was high school when i overheard some white girl put on her best semi-disgusted and confused voice and go “why do so many Mexicans dress up like cowboys?” and I had to be the person to tell her.
Why do you think the whites say buckero? Cause they couldn’t say vaquero.
I dunno if I reblogged this before but fuck it, y’all gon learn today.
Thank you.
also, cowboy culture was hella gay. like, write-poems-about-your-cowboy-partner gay.
IF people acknowledge it, they play the necessity card– there weren’t any women out on the range, so they had to “resort to men.” this claim completely erases 1) the romantic (not just sexual) writings of actual cowboys, 2) the acknowledgement of cowboys’ potential homosexual activity by writers at the time, and 3) the possibility that some men would deliberately become cowboys with the intent to seek out homosexual encounters.
no one wants to admit it, but cowboy culture was just. so inherently gay.
The first cattle trail was founded by a Cherokee man called Jesse Chisholm
He was also an aid, interpreter and diplomat of several Cherokee tribes, who lead groups of Native Americans away from battles during Civil War since they feared they would be killed in the fighting, as well as being the forefather of cowboys.
Being a cowboy was a really shitty job, it paid next to nothing, it was lonely, it was a massive physical strain on the body as well as being flat out dangerous. Most cowboys died young, and the image we have of cowboys today is a heavily bastardised version which Hollywood strained through with a massive dose of nationalistic propaganda for good measure. Most of the people who claim to love cowboys films would have turned their nose up at real cowboys
