Spanish Word of the Day: Vaquero (cowboy)

When you hear the word vaquero (cowboy), you probably imagine a cowboy hat-wearing man riding a horse through the hot desert of the Wild West. You’re not wrong! The Wild West is where you can trace back the meaning of the word vaquero. 

The term vaquero traces its roots back to the Latin word vacca (cow) and the Spanish suffix -ero, which denotes a worker. Thus, vaquero translates to someone who works with herding cows.

Vaquero is the masculine noun whose plural form is vaqueros. The feminine version of the noun is vaquera and its plural form is vaqueras. These two words take the following definite and indefinite articles:

• el vaquero / la vaquera = the cowboy / the cowgirl
• los vaquero / las vaqueras = the cowboy / the cowgirls
• un vaquero / una vaquera = a cowboy / a cowgirl
• unos vaqueros / unas vaqueras = some cowboys / cowgirls

If you’ve watched Southwestern-style Hollywood films, you know that a vaquero has a unique style! A vaquero’s signature look is the sombrero vaquero (cowboy hat) and the botas vaqueras (cowboy boots).

But it doesn’t stop there.  A cowboy also needs his cinto vaquero (cowboy belt), pantalones vaqueros (denim jeans), chaparrales (chaparrals), a bandana (bandana), and his laso (lasso). Oh, and don’t forget the most important thing, his caballo (horse)! 
As you can see, many English words relating to cowboy gear were taken from the Spanish language. 

Here are some other words that include the word vaquero:

Now that you know a vaquero’s style, let’s go back in time and learn some history about vaqueros. Cowboys that we are familiar with from old Hollywood films can be traced back to vaqueros who evolved in the Northern regions of Mexico, which at the time included a large part of the land of what the United States is now, such as Texas, Arizona, and California.

Vaqueros first evolved when the Spanish settlers brought caballos (horses) to North America in 1519 and Hernán Cortés arrived in mainland Mexico. The indigenous people of Mexico began tending to their ganado (herd) and ranchos (ranches) on horseback. They became what we now know as our first vaqueros.

When part of Mexico became the United States, the U.S. settlers had already adopted the way of herding cattle on horseback as the northern vaqueros did. They eventually became known as the cowboys of the ‘good ol’ Southwest of North America.

Today, in Mexico you can hear vaqueros being referred to with their closely related synonyms. They are charros (horsemen/special performers), rancheros (ranchers), and jinetes (horsemen).

Although vaqueros first evolved in Mexico, there are other types of vaqueros in Latin America too. However, they may look slightly different because they might not ride a horse or dress the same, but they are workers tending to animals on land. These animals may be sheep, llamas, alpacas, or other herding animals.

Here are a few names for vaqueros in other countries: guachos (Argentina), llaneros (Colombia), chalán (Peru), huasos (Chile), and tejanos (Texas, U.S). 

Other synonyms for vaquero include: caballista (horse rider), capataz (foreman), ganadero (cattle herder), ovejero (sheep herder), and rancheros (ranchers).

Colloquial and figurative phrases featuring ‘vaquero‘

Los vaqueros in the plural means the cowboys, but it also has some figurative meanings. Let’s take a look at them.

In some Spanish-speaking countries, los vaqueros refers to blue denim jeans made from tela vaquera (denim fabric).

In Puerto Rico, some locals use los vaqueros as a synonym for the word gringos which is a word used to call a person from the United States. The famous Puerto Rican singer Calle 13 uses the word vaquero in his political song El Hormiguero as a reference to a gringo.

The phrase baño vaquero translates to cowboy shower. In Spanish, cara, sobacos, y agujero means face, armpits, and hole. This is what you wash when you take this type of shower. Sobacos is the vulgar way of saying axila (armpit) and agujero (butthole) is another vulgar way of referring to the ano (anus). A person takes a baño vaquero on occasions when there is no gas for warm shower water or when there is little to no water for a full shower. 

Idiomatic expressions featuring ‘vaquero’