Corazón Vaquero: The Heart of the Cowboy

it's definitely the Mexicans heritage to be a cowboy and they're very good at some of the greatest Cowboys and ranchers and Vaqueros that ever exist I have come out of Mexico people don't realize that there still is a frontier that still has these always I felt as if I was in the American West in the mid 19th century the Antigua Baja California has a very strong link with a new or Alta California necessarily do a la una pista we're seeing something pretty pure right here long time ago it started under the rock suspended in time as a civilization lost in its isolation from the rest of the world people living the way they have for 300 years of people whose methods are truly the roots of the American cowboy his roots are here deep in the mountains hours away from dirt roads his lifestyle is an inheritance without choice from father to son the traditions have been handed down since the Spanish the methods of horsemanship the methods of handling mules and burros and carving in existence in a wilderness deprived of water howdy I'm Gary McClintock I'm a saddle maker 35 years now I've been traveling in Baja California for over 25 I've had the pleasure of coming in the company of the real California Vaquero living the way he always had these California Vaqueros exist in an area very inaccessible in fact the only way we could get to see him was on the back of a mule the Cowboys of Baja are Laura California are the original Californians left behind as the Spanish move north into present-day Alta or upper California lower California is where they developed and where they have remained these Vaqueros or Cowboys do not exist in this way in any other part of Mexico Alta California for that matter anywhere in the world my name is Eve Ewing and I've had the privilege of photographing and exploring the mountain ranges of Baja California for over 40 years we're going into the heartland of the mountains because that is the heart of Baja California and the people that live there are the ranch families of the old Spanish Mexican frontier this ranch culture is the last surviving breath of the cowboy life and these mountain ranges is where I have found the heart of the cowboy 500 miles down from San Diego in the Sierra of San Francisco is Rancho San Gregorio Rancho San goryeo is five hours from the Pueblo of San Francisco and in order to reach though you have to go by mule back and these trails are ancient these are old Mission Trails that pass through these remote areas specifically for the source of water that was available very little rain falls on the peninsula you can go seven eight years without any rain sometimes you even have to get down to manipulate some of the real more difficult outcroppings of rock that exists in this area it's difficult doesn't a long five-hour ride slidin down the hill for us ting to want to pursue rancho san gregorio in particular is because of the methods that they have of living in such a remote area on a ranch that has no road their existence is so similar to the spanish existence that became california in the 1800s it's a very unique opportunity to take a look into our past the more isolated these places are with the fewest amount of roads are in places where you still see this lifestyle existing a lifestyle where no one ever had to put along on their door this is a different frontier it was a frontier of partnership not domination partnership with the land people were partnerships with each other partnership their animals with their religion there was a very different tone than what we think of his our frontier they are almost 80% 85% self-sufficient they need very little from outside they need from other ranch other products but in general the way of living and the economy of these people is still the same the same elements the last century two centuries ago almost with not different they has been living that way at least 300 years the mountain ranges are able to support about 3,000 of the Californios these people are producing everything they need for life and if they have an access then it's traded off for cash or for other commodities it's just now starting to enter a cash economy which they haven't really known it's been mostly just a trade economy so you're talking about people who are subsisting on the land they don't really know what it's like to live in a modern world they have contact with the rest of the world but they they haven't changed as a result of it their methods have remained the same you look at the houses of styles living I mean the dedication to the land that they live on taking care of the land people think the cattle men abuse the land but that lands not productive unless they make it so ten Toledo Ranchos normalmente AI Barrios actividad de fácilmente vagrancy rofo noona so la actividad pohchamp Lolo padrecito que son Agriculture's por que por que él economic event a la mayoría de lo Ranchos del sur por lo pronto depend a mucho de el cuñado tous podemos decir que lo rancheros oof when taken omeka es el la tierra el valor que tiene sino mucho tiene que ver con el valor del ganado Oh come on these Vaqueros are using every piece of this cow to its best advantage all the meat utilized on these ranches has to be dried and made into tasajo or beef jerky there's no refrigeration there's no electricity the only way to preserve it is to dry it not only is the meat valuable but the hides are needed to make leather the bark of the palo blanco tree has been the tanning agent for tanning leather for centuries instead of just killing the tree by taking all the bark he just takes pieces of the bark and the tree will continue to live and heal itself they use the old tanning vats the rawhide bats strung out in it in a frame and filled with water and then with tanning solution is age-old way of tanning you can read about that patent method all the way back into the old Spain these hides will have to cure in these tanning vats for at least four months before he can even start to make something out of it everything they did as they grew up is all adapted to going out and gathering what you could make tea with or chasing goats and knowing where they were because there's only certain places little support goats and they were simply acclimatized adapted they and the land were one as people in three urban days had to be they had no support group they didn't have a relative somewhere sending them supplies or money or whatever to to make it so they made it a lot of those wretches effectively were self-sufficient they were exporting whatever they could produce in exchange for what they needed the people were Spanish these horses were Spanish the cattle were Spanish the Californios were a pretty small enclave of people a few people cluster around the missions that spread out over time and over and over again the same name as if he if he sent COC as soon as the arcee's the Augie lard the quotas Memorial's Smith's would be an English family the Fisher's were a German family their ancestors had all jumped ship at one time it was a close-knit world where everyone knew everyone else everyone was related in some way or another there wasn't a very strong sense of individuality because no one could afford to be you couldn't afford posturing you were in partnership the land came the people as much as the people tame the land but they didn't break the land volodia our canola ah my enter come at a price come on Emil are you moving hangers yo I'm over here but I get a tambien these people is a very communicative they communicate because communication is life if you don't let your neighbor receive information you also would not have it they are familiar to work with people that probably they don't like it but they work together everybody needs the other and if you don't like somebody it's just you don't even buy coffee everyone they deal with his family sort of extended family and you don't profiteer off them basically they were a culture where honour was important dignity was important respect was important both of them have dirt floors but the level of their hospitality and their manners are exquisite it's a very civilized frontier I think it takes great pride in its manners great pride in its hospitality great pride in in the dignity of their self-restraint the ranchers took from the Jesuits owner ability the sir good Christian I will say people with values there are not people of excesses if they smoke there is one cigarette once in a while in general my point of view the rancher is a people they are honourable our people so not only are we looking at the last of the California frontier but in the last of the Spanish frontier all of California culture started with the Spanish as they moved into Baja California these Cowboys of Baja these are descendants of the old so Valdosta Quetta that were the soldiers working with the missionaries the Jesuit missionaries were the ones that were here first of all they were more horsemen more cattlemen more outdoorsman frontiersman and consequently so we're all the hands selected so lost a quarter that were brought to the peninsula there were chosen fellows there were people who were already good example for others the Jesuits were not looking for people who wanted to exploit the land and the people in different ways from their intent this filtration developed a character that was a great survivor in the wilderness if you can't cope with the land either die or you leave if I could bring them rain and water to give them a consistent diet of forage for their horses and mules and goats and everything their means of subsistence then that would be what I would bring them is water summer rains are the sometimes the only rains and summer rains by their nature are sporadic the missionaries had a saying where there is water there is no soil and where there is soil there is no water and that simply means that they couldn't even depend on droughts not being able to depend on drought it means every 10 years or so your bottom land is going to wash out the bottom lands the only place you can grow anything and it disappears in these floods these terrible floods and then you'll have another 10 years of drought there was no good soil in the Royal bottoms it's all sand and rock a breaking of a land is what we do with technology with bulldozers and tractors and taming of the land is taking a riverbed and creating a wall that separates part of that river bottom land from fear oil and then back filling the other side of that wall with soil bucketful by bucketful is brought down by a meal or a burrow it's back-breaking and it takes generation the fruits that the Spaniards brought with them and settled around their missions that became the backbone of the mountain garden ranches one has a big garden you know you walk past the orchards and you walk past orange trees and lemon trees and grapevines and pomegranates and guavas and mangoes all of that can grow there because they carried bucket full by bucket full one loves his garden he's in it every day he is an old man now but all his life he has loved his garden as much as his brother Francisco who lives in the house a little bit above him has loved the cattle and the goats Juan his passion is with the earth and a ground and you can seek his love for his garden is in the beauty of the fruit and the trees the hard work it took to create these pioneer ranches especially the garden ranches is really quite remarkable you can always tell a ranch where a woman is living because there will be flowers sometimes they're just in cans sometimes they're in the ground but there will be flowers and if you come into a ranch where there's bachelor-man you'll know that because there will be no flowers and you know the men never really talk much about the garden and the flowers but it's like an atmosphere has been created so when you're come home and you've been out in this dry rocky dusty country chasing cows and having a long hard day and you come home and there's shade and cool water and dinner and flowers it's a contrast a gentle world that they've created that makes it so pleasant for people to come and visit and there's that feeling of just concern and care that's being taken you the women get up early in the morning they'll probably get up sometimes at 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning everyone has some coffee and then they go out and milk goats and cows

Channel: WilderUtopia

Views: 714,203

Rating: 4.8012791 out of 5

Keywords: Baja California, Mexico, Corazon Vaquero, cowboys, Garry McClintock, Eve Ewing, Cody McClintock

Id: gycdok8tHZU

Length: 22min 31sec (1351 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 30 2013