Llano Vaqueros
Llano Vaqueros - fact Summary
Reflects Chicano Southwest Heritage
The poem contrasts rugged, old-style Mexican cattle and the hard, unglamorous work of llano vaqueros with modern, pampered livestock and show culture. The speaker rides a mare, resists cosmetic taming, and celebrates ancestral cowboys who handled animals with rough skill and pride. The piece situates physical labor and earthy pleasure as markers of cultural continuity tied to the speaker’s Chicano Southwest background.
Read Complete AnalysesPadilla unloads mangy herd of Mexican cattle in the field. Meaner, horns long and sharp for bloody battle, lean from a diet of prairie weed, looking more like cattle did years ago on the plains than cattle now– sluggish, pampered globs stalled year round for State Fair Judges to admire, stall-salon dolls, hooves manicured and polished, hide-hair blow-dried, lips and lashes waxed. I ride down the dirt road on Sunshine (my bay mare) and she smarts away from their disdainful glare– come in, try to lasso us, try to comb our hair. I admire my ancestors, llano vaqueros, who flicked a home-made cigarette in dust, spit in scuffed gloves, grabbed one by the horns, wrestled it down, branded it, with the same pleasure they enjoyed in a bunk-house brawl.
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