Myth And America's Love Affair With The Cowboy

Off on the horizon, a lone figure moves across the sparse desert landscape. Tall and strong, high above the earth on a bold and fiery steed, the figure has more of an aura of a mighty god than a whimpering man. For he alone controls rampant beasts and conquers all of the hardships the arid land he wanders in. This is the image of the cowboy. The figure of the cowboy has been regarded as the epitome of freedom, machismo, and individuality that Americans have not only come to identify with but increasingly try to glorify over the last century. The cowboy, the gallant hero of the West, has become a cultural icon. But this is not the cowboys’ true form. Myth and America’s love affair with the cowboy has blinded society to the reality of the
His broad, soft hat was pushed back; a loose-knotted, dull-scarlet handkerchief sagged from his throat; and one casual thumb was hooked in the cartridge-belt that slanted across his hips. He had plainly come many miles from somewhere across the vast horizon, as the dust upon him showed. His boots were white with it. His overalls were gray with it. The weather-beaten bloom of his face shone through it duskily, as the ripe peaches look upon their trees in a dry season. But no dinginess of travel or shabbiness of attire could tarnish the splendor that radiated from his youth and
Cowboys were poor and they dressed as such. They were day laborers and cattle drivers, not heroes saving towns and working for generous bosses. In fact most frontiersmen could do cowboy work, but they considered it beneath them. Horse wrangling in cattle drives was considered an entry-level position. Many workers in the west stood clear off of the cattle worn path and instead they ran stores, enforced laws, and ran small businesses within towns or would even try their hand at farming before hopping into the saddle. The cowboys were misfits doing the unwanted work, and the boss paid them accordingly. So while the cowboy was working anywhere between 12-18 hours a day making $25 a month, other laborers would make about an average of $30-$40 with less hours and in a far more comfortable and convenient living environment between 1860 -1890. Cattle driving and ranch work was dirty, and so were the cowboy’s clothes.
Nor were the real man who worked the cattle so utterly and exclusively Anglo American. One out of every 3 cowboys were Mexican or a least partly