THE VAQUERO TRILOGY
Vaqueros, Buckaroos and Paniolos
by filmmakers Susan Jensen & Paul Singer

The Vaqueros came with the Conquistadors to the New World and created a new style of handling cattle on the open ranges of Mexico. Their influence grew — to California, Nevada, Oregon and Hawaii — and other parts of the Western Hemisphere.

In each area, a tradition developed to meet the unique demands of the environment and culture. This is the story filmmakers Susan Jensen and Paul Singer are tracing through their Vaquero Series. The first three of these feature-length documentaries will be screened at the 2008 Elko Cowboy Poetry Gathering.

Tapadero, the first in the Vaquero Series, traces the story of the vaquero from Mexico to Alta California with the Spanish mission system. These missions had to be self-sufficient, and cattle raising was the only viable business in the remote and isolated country of California. It was here, in this gentle, mild climate that the vaqueros developed their artful method of training horses. This was the land of manana, where nothing had to be rushed — where you could take your time training a horse — from the hackamore, to the 2-rein, to straight up in the bridle. And the vaqueros became known as some of the finest horseman in the world.

The Remuda, the second installment in the series, follows the vaqueros to Nevada and Oregon. After the Gold Rush, farmers were fencing off the land. The large California ranchers sought new range in the wide open spaces of the Great Basin. Anglos blended in with the Californio vaqueros and since vaquero sounded alien to their ears, they anglicized it to Buckaroo. In this country, the ranches were larger, and the cattle wilder. It necessitated bigger strings of horses and bigger circles to ride. Each buckaroo has a string of 10 or 12 ponies, all in different stages of training. And when the cowboss assigns a horse for that day’s work, the buckaroo had better be able to ride him, no matter how green the horse might be.

The most recent addition to the series is Holo Holo Paniolo. In 1794 Ship Captain George Vancouver presented a gift of cattle from Monterey to the King of Hawaii. To help them multiply the king placed a taboo on killing the cattle. They grew in numbers and before long, they became a problem. In 1833 the King enlisted the aid of three Monterey vaqueros. They taught the Hawaiians how to ride horses and how to catch the wild cattle. The vaqueros called themselves Espanol. The Hawaiian cowboys, having no S in their alphabet, modified it and called themselves Paniolo.

Throughout each documentary, the filmmakers illustrate how the vaquero left his stamp on all these cultures and how it’s evident through the people who are living the life today.

Music has always been integral to the cowboy culture and these films are driven by the sounds of Ian Tyson, Dave Stamey, Mike Beck, Pedro Marquez, Christina Ortega, and the masters of Hawaiian slack key guitar.