What is a Maverick?

The earliest mounted men herding cattle in the Western Hemisphere bear little resemblance to the romantic, dime store cowboy. By the middle decades of the sixteenth century, the proliferation of livestock in the New World had caused an overabundance of cattle. . . . Such large numbers ''gave rise to customary rights for killing the animals'' in many parts of the Spanish empire and helped create the gaucho (Argentina), vaquero (Mexico), llanero (Venezuela), and huaso (Chile) equestrian cultures. While such horsemen performed both legal and illegal activities, their status in Spanish society held constant. Vaqueros working on ranchos or missions were often individuals of mixed races (mestizos or mulattos) and, ''in the eyes of most . . . Spaniards, nothing more than a poor laborer on horseback''. . . .

The arrival of Anglos in Texas (and points farther west) after the 1820's produced a ''fusion'' of two cattle herding cultures. The union proved both fruitful and tempestuous. The Mexican-Anglo ranching marriage provided much of the know-how used during the cattle drives of the 1860's and 1870's, but the relationship destroyed the economic status and lifestyle of many rancheros in Texas and California. The replacement of one group by another at the pinnacle of the cattle industry fostered the myth of the ''purely'' American cowboy and cattleman.

Source: Iber, Jorge. ''Vaqueros in the Western Cattle Industry.'' In The Cowboy Way: An Exploration of History and Culture. Ed. Paul H. Carlson. Texas Tech University Press, 2000. 22-24.

wrangle (v.)

1377, from Low Ger. wrangeln "to dispute, to wrestle," related to M.L.G. wringen, from P.Gmc. *wrang-, from PIE *wrengh-, nasalized variant of *wergh- "to turn" (see wring). The noun is recorded from 1547. Wrangler "person in charge of horses or cattle, herder" is first recorded 1888; as a proprietary name for a brand of jeans, copyrighted 1947, claiming use from 1929.