....to a hardy pioneer and carefree soul with unforgettable appeal  

  

Today we check our February regalia: Boots are polished and hat brims curled, with silver bolos or buckles adorning work shirts and jeans. Recently, cowboy tales about "land closest to God" entranced us...and we admired a rancher braiding his reata in traditional art. We whooped for the clown during tie-down roping and for the cowgirl kicking up barrel dust at La Fiesta de los Vaqueros�, still underway. And we sampled more than our share of jerky and BBQ, abounding in great variety as we celebrate cattle ranch tradition born in Sonora, New Spain a few centuries ago. February is the month of the cowboy/girl in Southern Arizona. And this is what we need to know: The cowhand spirit is alive and well after all, in all of us. The cowboy may be America's most beloved occupational character, a buckaroo-blend of the vaquero and the frontiersman, a creation encouraged by the Spanish settlers and mission priests who brought their cattle and horses to Mexico to explore for souls and gold. Although the world certainly has changed, the working rider who emerged from this legacy is still with us, true to his/her character, transcending tourist myths and wild west-inspired cuisine. 

It's with a spunky ride that we stay astride this month's saddle of BorderLore cowboy-related stories:

Cowbelles: First ladies of Arizona cattle ranches like Janice Bryson help us celebrate beef and cattle ranch traditions. She is a 2008 Arizona Culture Keeper, Maricopa County 4-H Family of the Year in 2002-2003 and a 2013 Arizona 4-H Centennial Family.  She shares folklife about the roots of the American National Cattle Women association in a 1939 Douglas ranch cattle women's club, the first Cowbelles, here.

 

Wild west cinema romance may have obscured some realities of the cowboy, but his/her dreams and traditions still echo along the wide-open grasslands and deserts. As Jim Griffith tells us, trail-drivers today carry culture in their skills, their music and the expressive prose of their everyday speech. Certainly this herder of tradition entwines folklife, fact and fiction... as he/she also profoundly shapes our region's natural and community landscape.