The Real Cowboys of the West

When thinking of cowboys of the west, you probably think of Pecos Bill, or the famous Lone Ranger and his adventures for justice. People often think of cowboys as rugged white knights of the west, but what if you were told that the image you have grown accustomed to was wrong and that’s not who cowboys really were.
Cowboys were men who mined for gold and herded cattle in frontier towns. They weren’t really focused on guns, nor did they go out and shoot out bad guys who were trying to take over their towns. According to Adam Conover, of the informational comedy and historical show Adam Ruins Everything, he states that, “Actually, most cowboys weren’t white at all. A third were Mexican, and a quarter were black.” In other words, 1 of every 4 cowboys were black. According to the Huffington Post, so many cowboy words like: lasso, rodeo, bronco, mustang, and chaps are all derived from Spanish, which shows the huge influence the Mexican cowboys had on their culture.
So, here’s the million-dollar question you’re probably asking yourself. If all of this is factual, why isn’t it common knowledge? It’s all because of the movie industry. Back in the old days, the west was a place that was basically a desert. It was really hot out there until movie theaters opened up and started showing movies in air conditioned buildings.
The main reason people went to movies at that time, especially in the west, was to enjoy the air conditioning. The films being shown were cowboy flicks and according to Thomas Schatz, writer for the New York Times Magazine, he states in his article “Cowboy business” that from the silent film era to the 1950s, one out of every five movies made was a Western.
They were pretty popular which means other people from the west sold their stories to Hollywood and they were turned into Western classics. Westerns like McLintock, The Gunfighter, High Noon, and one that has recently been remade, the Magnificent Seven all tell the story of a classic good guy vs bad guy scenario where the bad guy always loses.
After over a century of western films, we think of the cowboy as a classic case of good guy who kills the bad guy. When it wasn’t the case at all. Real cowboys were simple workers who were not just white but also Mexican or Black. They were just trying to make a living.
Cowboys have always been interesting for a lot of people, and now that you know more of their history, you can maybe understand them better and see the cowboys from another perspective.
When viewing those movies, one should always remember that even though they are not historically accurate, it’s still okay to enjoy them.