The Vaquero - Spanish pronunciation: [baˈkeɾo] meaning Cowboy The Buckaroo - meaning Cowboy As English-speaking populations began to arrive in the West, they had trouble pronouncing the Spanish words. Thus vaquero took on its Anglicized form and became “buckaroo”; and la reata became “lariat” In the late 1820s and early 1830s, the words buckaroo and vaquero start to appear in English. From the point of view of etymology, buckaroo and vaquero are in fact the same word. In Spanish, vaquero simply means “a man who deals with cows”—that is, a cowboy. It is derived from the word vaca, “cow,” by means of the suffix -ero. When vaquero was borrowed into English in southwest and central Texas, it kept the original Spanish spelling. In California, however, the Spanish word vaquero was Anglicized to buckaroo. (In Spanish, the letter v is pronounced like b, so this Anglicized spelling actually represents the sound of the Spanish word well. The change of a Spanish o, pronounced like English (ō) to an English oo in buckaroo can be seen in several other English words, such as calaboose and vamoose.) The two words vaquero and buckaroo also reflect cultural differences between cattlemen in Texas and California. The Texas vaquero was typically a bachelor who hired on with different outfits, while the California buckaroo usually stayed on the same ranch where he was born or had grown up, and raised his own family there. It’s important to me to understand the history and traditions of my family’s past. I’ll never be the Hand my grandfathers, grandmothers, and parents were, that’s for certain. I will however stay humble and true to my roots as I honor the legends of the past and present.