![\"Secretary](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771857071_55_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nMEXICO CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Few figures occupy as prominent a niche in U.S. lore as the American cowboy, that embodiment of rugged individualism celebrated in dime novels, vintage radio, TV and Hollywood blockbusters.<\/p>\n
But recent musings from Secretary of State Marco Rubio have fueled a sometimes-acrimonious debate \u2014 mostly on social media \u2014 about the origins of the tall-hatted buckaroo who, with the help of a trusty steed and a six-gun, helped tame the West. <\/p>\n
At the Munich Security Conference this month, Rubio stated that the \u201centire romance of the cowboy archetype that became synonymous with the American West\u201d was \u201cborn in Spain.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hurling an indignant riposte was one of the Florida Republican\u2019s ideological antagonists, New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who declared: \u201cI believe that Mexicans and the descendants of African enslaved peoples would like to have a word on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks with Bloomberg Television at the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Feb. 14.<\/p>\n
(Alex Kraus \/ Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
On social media, respondents were not hesitant to take sides. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat tradition was born in present-day Mexico and southern Texas, and it is not Spanish,\u201d said one person on X.<\/p>\n
Wrote another: \u201cAndalusian cowboys prove Marco Rubio right and respond to Ocasio-Cortez: \u2018Even roping cattle came from Spain.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In a sense, experts say, Rubio, Ocasio-Cortez and their defenders are all correct \u2014 though their accounts tell only a part of the story. <\/p>\n
It was indeed the Spanish, and Portuguese, who, in the 16th century, introduced horses and cows, species then nonexistent in the Americas.<\/p>\n
But the New York lawmaker is also on track: The cowboy tradition evolved in a direct line from the singular innovations of Mexican vaqueros. Their varied ranks included people of European, Indigenous and mixed-race origins.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, the Mexican vaquero is largely erased from popular U.S. depictions of the cowboy. Traditional western dramas were more likely to depict vaqueros as bandits than hard-working ranch hands whose contributions were fundamental to the American West. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe American cowboy, our great national folk hero, is recognized around the world as a symbol of our country,\u201d the late Jim Hoy, a renowned cowboy historian, told Texas Highways magazine.<\/a> \u201cCowboys as we know them, however, would never have come into existence without the vaquero.\u201d<\/p>\n But as Rubio said, cowboy lineage can be traced to the Iberian Peninsula \u2014 as far back as the late medieval era, before Spain as a nation even existed. Moorish horse breeds were crossed with native stock to create a sturdy and agile beast for managing cattle. The horse also proved indispensable in the Spanish conquest of Mexico in 1521.<\/p>\n However, once Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s triumphed, the conquistadors went from waging war \u2014 vanquishing the Aztecs \u2014 to the project of subjugating Indigenous holdouts and building a self-sustaining territory loyal to the crown. Among the many tasks: managing ever-multiplying multitudes of cattle.<\/p>\n Nonnative livestock \u2014 not just horses and cows but also donkeys, pigs and sheep \u2014 thrived in the vast grasslands, plains and deserts of the New World. The animals\u2019 abrupt arrival transformed entire ecosystems, cultures and economies. <\/p>\n \u201cYou get to the Americas, and the place is giant,\u201d said Eric D. Singleton, a curator at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. \u201cYou have a new environment, and you develop new techniques and new things within that environment to make it hospitable.\u201d<\/p>\n The topography, weather, cultures and other factors were drastically distinct from Old World norms, so managing cattle required something beyond the skill sets of Andalusian herders. <\/p>\n
![\"Emilio](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771857071_114_.jpeg\")
Emilio Carranza Sr. calls for a backup saddle when a stirrup breaks during the