Rodeo: Texas Tradition and Spanish in Origin

Rodeo comes from the Spanish word, "rodear" which means to encircle or to surround. To the Spanish in New Spain now Mexico in the 16 century, a rodeo was just a cattle roundup. It is probably necessary that a competitive and flashy climax to these roundups.It was a chance for cowboys to show off their skills breaking a wild bronco or swing their ropes as a roper. But it wasn't until the 18 century that these contests got organized into celebrations.

Texas would like to take credit for the first rodeo celebration: In the early 1880's in the West Texas town of Pecos, cowboys would get off work and come into town on the Fourth of July also known as Cowboy Christmas. They would ride down the streets roping steers and chasing the critters in the courthouse square. By some historical accounts, this was the birth of rodeo. Even though Coloradoans also claim that distinction, Texans did have something to do with one of the earliest rodeos, this one in Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1872. The occasion was the messenger of the weeklong Frontier Days still held in Cheyenne. As the story goes, a group of Texas cowboys arrived in Cheyenne and decided to celebrate July Fourth with an show off of their steer-riding styles. The event must have been successful, because the next year local cowboys chose to do a little bronco busting to celebrate Independence Day down the middle of one of Cheyenne's main streets.

Rodeos emerged from the workaday world of the cowboy along with America's growing fascination with the West: in 1882 Buffalo Bill Cody turned the west into lucrative entertainment with his first Wild West show. Cody used the term "rodeo" for these extravaganzas which included roping, riding, bronco-busting, and bull riding (always the thrilling finale). Sometimes as many as a thousand cowboys competed for prizes. By the 1890s rodeos were commonplace all over the cattle-raising regions of the West. Nowadays the rodeo has shifted away from its origins as a way for working cowboys to blow off steam: it is more of a show, and demands all the time and money a major theatrical productions might cost. An aspiring cowboy or cowgirl will have to compete in 80 to 125 rodeos a year, be well-subsidized (thousands and thousands of dollars can be spent on travel and entry fees alone, not to mention horses, equipment, and maintenance), and expect to spend at least 200 days a year o n the road.

Today's rodeos are glitzy affairs--and seem a far cry from the simple display of a cowboy's working skills. Of course, no self-respecting cowboy would appear on the range in some of the gaudy get-ups they sport in the arena. They have the women to thank f or the change in rodeo costuming: in the early years of motion pictures, winning a rodeo championship was almost a sure way for a woman to break into silent films. Often these skilled equestriennes were performers anyway--in their divided skirts and spang led shirts they could wow an audience bulldogging steers, busting broncos, or balancing on two horses as they spun around an arena. Women began wearing colorful leggings and red velvet skirts with lavishly embroidered hems; in later years bright trousers, silk shirts, and dashing neckerchiefs were popular. Cowboys had to capitulate to please their fans--and that's why most of them today look more like performers than like cowboys. Nowadays rodeos are a raucous amalgam of both America's oldest, and newest, icons: the roundup, the Wild West show, and the movies.