Editing Cowboy (section)

===Vaqueros===
{{main|Vaquero}}
[[File:Vaqueros.jpg|thumb|Vaqueros in California, circa 1830s]]

Though popularly considered [[The Americas|American]], the traditional cowboy began with the Spanish tradition, which evolved further in what today is [[Mexico]] and the [[Southwestern United States]] into the ''vaquero'' of northern Mexico and the ''[[charro]]'' of the [[Jalisco]] and [[Michoacán]] regions. While most ''hacendados'' (ranch owners) were ethnically [[Spanish people|Spanish]] ''[[Criollo people|criollos]]'',<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mPoqfoiIp4sC&pg=PA379 |publisher=Wadsworth Publishing |edition=5 |page=379 |date=2007-11-30 |access-date=2013-02-28|isbn=9780495501831 |last1=Adler |first1=Philip |last2=Pouwels |first2=Randall |title=World Civilizations }}</ref> many early ''vaqueros'' were [[Native Americans in the United States|Native Americans]] trained to work for the Spanish missions in caring for the mission herds.<ref name=Vaqueros>{{cite web|url=http://west.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/pager.php?id=14 |title=Vaqueros |access-date=2010-10-11 |author=Exploring the West |publisher=Stanford University |year=2000 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100818221801/http://west.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/pager.php?id=14 |archive-date=August 18, 2010 }}</ref> ''Vaqueros'' went north with livestock. In 1598, [[Don Juan de Oñate]] sent an expedition across the [[Rio Grande]] into New Mexico, bringing along 7000 head of cattle. From this beginning, ''vaqueros'' drove cattle from New Mexico and later Texas to Mexico City.<ref name="Geographic">{{cite web |last1=Haeber |first1=Jonathan |title=Vaqueros: The First Cowboys of the Open Range |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2003/08/0814_030815_cowboys.html |website=National Geographic News |access-date=July 27, 2019 |date=August 15, 2003}}</ref> Mexican traditions spread both South and North, influencing equestrian traditions from Argentina to Canada.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}