Vaquero

There was an argument, then some insults, then a vaquero shot Hardin's way.

He fired back, wounding the man.

Calmer heads prevailed, but just as Harden and his cousins felt the matter settled, six of the Vaqueros charged the Texans.

In a wild gunfight, all six Vaqueros ended up dead.

Harden claimed to have killed five of them.

By the time he bought his first drinks up in Abilene, he found he had earned a new nickname, Little Arkansas.

So the guitar...

If you listen to all the slacky guys saying that Vaqueros came, brought the guitar.

When they left, they left the guitar.

So the Hawaiians didn't know how to tune it.

There is a word in Spanish that also means cowboy.

It's spelled V-A-Q-U-E-R-O.

Here's how it's pronounced in Spanish courtesy of spanishdictionary.com.

Vaquero.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Michael Fassio Buffalo Bill from Prairie to Palace by John M. Burke The Riders of the World Many customs and habits, by reason of their peculiar surroundings and requirements, have become necessities and, indeed, second nature to some people, while to others, whose observation has shown the graces and beauties of these same customs and habits, they are studied with great diligence and application and acquired, as far as such things can be acquired, as accomplishments.

To the Bedouin of the Arabian desert, the Cossack, the Vaquero, the Gaucho, and last, but to the peers of any of these, our native Indian and our own cowboy, the horse is a necessity.

And woe be unto that man who by fraud, stealth, or force attempts to despoil the owner of his animal, his pet.

Pleasures, comforts, necessities, aye, living itself would be impossible to either of these if his horse was not part of his worldly possessions.

On their light step horses, which are as fierce and active as themselves, they have proven themselves worthy of their fierce and warlike sires.

Experts as swordsmen, as well as horsemen, they met their old enemies, the Russians, on equal terms.

As picturesque and more gaudy in appearance and trapping than either the Bedouin or the Cossack, is the wily Vaquero of our neighboring Mexico.

Agile, hardy and dashing, adepts in the work of the lasso throwing, as well as with arms, they are alike interesting in exhibition and dangerous as foes.

So the legend of El Muerto spread like wildfire through the adobe cantinas from Laredo to Corpus Christi.

Vaqueros swore that when the creature rode past, the wind turned freezing cold and the air filled the stench of brimstone and grave dirt.

Travelers crossing the brush roads would hear the rhythmic pounding of unshod hooves in the dead of night, followed by the clanking of spurs and creak of dry leather.

When they looked up, the black Mustang would crash through the mesquite, the headless rider sitting tall and unyielding, bursting straight through the thorn thickets that would have torn a living man to shreds.

So, there's a word.

called cowboys in Spanish, vaqueros, V-A-Q-U-E-R-O-S. They're from Spain and Mexico.

They were the first to introduce cattle herding techniques, the equipment, the saddles, the lassos, the lariats, the chaps, spurs, the wide-brimmed hats, all that, and the ranch systems to the American Southwest.

The entire U.S. cowboy tradition is embedded to that culture.

For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Michael Fazio Buffalo Bill from Prairie to Palace by John M. Burke The Riders of the World Many customs and habits, by reason of their peculiar surroundings and requirements, have become necessities and, indeed, second nature to some people, while to others, whose observation has shown the graces and beauties of these same customs and habits, they are studied with great diligence and application and acquired, as far as such things can be acquired, as accomplishments.

To the Bedouin of the Arabian desert, the Cossack, the Vaquero, the Gaucho, and last, but to the peers of any of these, our native Indian and our own cowboy, the horse is a necessity.

And woe be unto that man who by fraud, stealth, or force attempts to despoil the owner of his animal, his pet.

Pleasures, comforts, necessities, aye, living itself would be impossible to either of these if his horse was not part of his worldly possessions.

On their light steppe horses, which are as fierce and active as themselves, they have proven themselves worthy of their fierce and warlike sires.

Experts as swordsmen, as well as horsemen, they met their old enemies, the Russians, on equal terms.

As picturesque and more gaudy in appearance and trapping than either the Bedouin or the Cossack is the wily Vaquero of our neighboring Mexico.

Agile, hardy and dashing, adepts in the work of the lasso throwing, as well as with arms, they are alike interesting in exhibition and dangerous as foes.

And they actually had a little village just down the road over here where they called Little Mexico.

And that's where the original Vaqueros lived.

And most of them went back after, I'm not sure if it was 10 or 12 years, but they weren't here for a very long time.

But there was one or two families that actually stayed.

And some of our Paniolo are descendants of those original Vaqueros.

Yeah, it sounds cliche, but even people that are in the cattle industry on the mainland think of Hawaii as the place of luau's and lei's and lanai's and anything but cattle.

But it feels like this Paniola culture is a really significant part of the Big Island in general, and not even just as region of the Big Island.