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XV VAQUEROS OF THE SOUTHWEST
"Between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande . . . the brush country is still a cow country, and brush hands, mostly Mexicans, still 'kill up' their horses running wild cattle. . . . Here the mesquite is just one among many thorned growths, most of them known to the people of the region only by their Mexican names. They give the land a character as singular as that afforded to Corsica by the maquls or to Florida by the everglades. . . .
In running in this brush a vaquero rides not so much on the back of his horse as under and alongside. He just hangs on, dodging limbs as if he were dodging bullets, back, forward, over, under, half of the time trusting his horse to course right on this or that side of a bush or tree. If he shuts his eyes to dodge, he is lost. Whether he shuts tnem or no, he will, if he runs true to form, get his head rammed or raked. Patches of the brush hand's bandana hanging on thorns and stobs sometimes mark his trail. The bandana of red is his emblem. . . . Unseen and unapplauded, he has never been pictured on canvas or in print. An 'observer' might hear him breaking limbs; that is all. When he does his most daring and dangerous work, he is out of sight down in a thicket."
—J. Frank Dobie, A Vaquero of the Brush Country, Dallas, Texas, 1929. |
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