This Saturday, July 26, San Antonio’s Briscoe Western Art Museum is celebrating National Day of the Cowboy with a wild round-up of free, family-friendly events. The theme is ” Western Roots, Island Vibes,” in celebration of all things cowboy — and the little-known historical link between Mexican vaqueros and the Hawaiian islands.
Dawn Robinette, director of marketing and communications for the Briscoe, told MySA the National Day of the Cowboy event will honor the cultural heritage of the American West (something not unfamiliar to Texans) but also show how it spread to Hawaii, which is “as far west as you can get when you’re talking about the American West.”
Robinette told MySA the story of the paniolos (or Hawaiian cowboys) starts when the islands were a stop frequented by British explorers in the 18th century. She said the English gifted 10 cattle to Hawaiian King Kamehameha, who then issued an edict that nobody could harm the animals. Robinette said that when the population quickly boomed to 25,000 cattle, problems with the animals eating crops and running wild started to arise. Another explorer, who happened to be a Mexican vaquero, visited the islands and was convinced to stay and help control the population, she said. Robinette told MySA that this explorer recruited other vaqueros, who sailed to Hawaii from Baja California to do the job…