AOC Schools Marco Rubio on Cowboys, Ends Up Needing a History Lesson Herself

Yahoo ^ | 16th February 2026 | Terra Watts

[Cronos]

While criticizing a recent speech, Ocasio-Cortez took issue with what she claimed was Rubio’s statement that America’s cowboys came from Spain.

“My favorite part was when he said that American cowboys came from Spain,” she said in her criticism of Rubio’s speech. “And I believe the Mexicans and descendants of African enslaved peoples would like to have a word on that.”

The History Channel reports that America’s cowboy culture stretches back further than America itself, to the era of Spanish colonialism.

“Hundreds of years before there was the American cowboy, there was the vaquero,” it says, referring to expert horsemen who came after the Spaniards landed in 1519 in what is now Mexico.

The first vaqueros, it says, were “Indigenous Mesoamerican men who learned from their Spanish colonizers how to herd cattle on horseback.”

Independent historian Pablo A. Rangel, who has studied vaquero history extensively, says it is “a forgotten history of centuries of horsemanship in the Americas that roots the vaqueros in the colonial past.”

The word “vaquero” itself comes from “vaca,” which is the Spanish word for cow. As Spain extended its North American Empire into what are now Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California, the vaquero played a crucial role. The vaquero domesticated wild horses, braided ropes, constructed saddles, and learned to use a lasso expertly.

[TigersEye]

I think holding back on that is a good idea. Doorknobs are useful. :D

How about this; dumber than a Somalian who has never been to a learing center.

[spankalib]

Yes it is!

His google talk @ an hour long, is well worth the listen.

I learned I was "doing credit" alllll wrong!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlBeJ1Gu0yw