Valley had share of home-schooled ‘vaqueros’

By RENE TORRES

The Valley still has its share of large, sprawling ranches, which makes South Texas an area one Western writer described, “As the place where the Mexican Vaquero and the Virginia Cavalier blended to make the American Cowboy.”

Most Valley ranches began with Spanish land grants, as the King of Spain decided that he wanted this region colonized.

One would not be shaken by their beauty as the land was dull and uninviting.

Beyond the life of Vaquero and his horse, one wonders about the children that roamed these dust bowl ranches.

Was educating them the number one priority? Perhaps not, but just like the kids that lived on the banks of the Mississippi, whose ambition was first to become a steamboat man, the ranch kids from the Valley had one permanent ambition, of course, to become a “vaquero”.

Education was not too far behind, as ranch owners made sure that their children were exposed to the three R’s. It was common for ranch owners to use a building on the grounds of the ranch as a school.

Since most ranch children were brought up mirroring each other, there was not a lot of variety in the curriculum; but rest assured, that it included the teaching of values and morals.

Perhaps credit should be given to those landowners and the early teachers for the concept of home schooling – a concept that is familiar today as was common then.

From 1850 to about 1880s, the first teachers, who taught Spanish moving from ranch house to ranch house, were from Mexico.

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