Corazón Vaquero: The Heart of the Cowboy

it's definitely the Mexicans Heritage to

be a cowboy and they're very good at it

some of the greatest Cowboys in ranch

and vicaros that ever exist have come

out of

Mexico people don't realize that there

still is a frontier that still has these

old ways I felt as if I was in the

American West in the mid 19th century

the anaja California has a very strong

link with the new oralta

California that's just the way they do

it Al Style

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we're seeing something pretty pure right

here long time ago it started

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suspended in time is a civilization lost

in its isolation from the rest of the

world people living the way they have

for 300 years a people whose methods are

truly the RO roots of the American

Cowboy his roots are here deep in the

mountains hours away from dirt roads his

lifestyle is an inheritance without

Choice from father to son the Traditions

have been handed down since the

Spanish the methods of horsemanship the

methods of handling mules and buos and

carving an existence in a Wilderness

deprived of water howy I'm Gary mlto I'm

a maker 35 years now I've been traveling

in Baja California for over 25 I've had

the pleasure of coming in the company of

the real California vakero living the

way he always

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has these California BOS exist in a area

very inaccessible in fact the only way

we could get to see them was on the back

of a

mule the Cowboys of Baja or lore

California are the original californos

Left Behind as the Spanish moved North

in the present day Alta or upper

California lower California is where

they developed and where they have

remained these Vos or Cowboys do not

exist in this way in any other part of

Mexico out to California or for that

matter anywhere in the world

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my name is Eve ying and I've had the

privilege of photographing and exploring

the mountain ranges of Baja California

for over 40 years we're going into the

heartland of the mountains because that

is the heart of Baja California and the

people that live there are the ranch

families of the old Spanish Mexican

Frontier this Ranch culture is the last

surviving breath of the cowboy

life in these mountain ranges is where I

have found the heart of the

cowboy 500 miles down from San Diego in

the Sierra of San Francisco is ranch of

San gorio

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brancho Soro is 5 hours from the peblo

of San Francisco and in order to reach

there you have to go by muack and these

trails are ancient these are Old Mission

Trails that pass through these remote

areas specifically for the source of

water that was

available very little rainfalls on the

peninsula you can go seven8 years

without any rain

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sometimes you even have to get down to

manipulate some of the real more

difficult outcroppings of rock that

exist in this area it's difficult there

a long 5H hour ride sliding down the

hill

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for us to to want to pursue Rancho San

Gregorio in particular is because of the

methods that they have of living in such

a remote area on a ranch that has no

Road their existence is so similar to

the Spanish existence that became

California in the 1800s it's a very

unique opportunity to take a look into

our

past the more isolated these places are

with the fewest amount of roads are the

places where you still see this

lifestyle

existing a lifestyle where no one ever

had to put a lock on their door this is

a different Frontier it was a frontier

of partnership not domination

partnership with the land

people were Partnerships with each other

partnership with their

animals with their religion there was a

very different tone than what we think

of as our Frontier

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they are almost 80% 85% self-sufficient

they need very little from outside they

need from other Ranch other products but

in general the way of living and the

economy of these people is still the

same the same elements the last century

two centuries ago almost with no

difference they have been living that

way at least 300 years

the mountain ranges are able to support

about 3,000 of the

californial these people are producing

everything they need for life and if

they have an excess then it's traded off

for cash or for other Commodities it's

just now starting to enter a cash

economy which they haven't really

known it's been mostly just a trade

economy so you're talking about people

who are subsisting on the

land they don't really know what it's

like to live in a modern

world they have contact with the rest of

the world but they they haven't changed

as a result of it their methods have

remained the same you look at the houses

the style of living I mean the

dedication to the land that they live on

taking care of the land people think

that cattle men AB use the land but that

land's not productive unless they make

it

so

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fore

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foree foree

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the foree

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these Vios are using every piece of this

cow to its best

Advantage all the meat utilized on these

ranches has to be dried and made into

Taho or beef jerky there's no

Refrigeration there's no electricity the

only way to preserve it is to dry it

not only is the meat valuable but the

hides are needed to make

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leather the bark of the Pao Blanco tree

has been the tanning agent for tanning

leather for centuries instead of just

killing the tree by taking all the bark

he just takes pieces of the bark and the

tree will continue to live and heal

itself they use the old tanning Vats the

Rawhide Vats strung out out in a in a

frame and filled with water and then

with tanning solution is an age-old way

of tanning you can read about that

tanning method all the way back into the

old Spain

even these hides will have to cure in

these tanning Vats for at least four

months before he can even start to make

something out of it

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everything they did as they grew up was

all adapted to going out and Gathering

what you could make tea with or chasing

goats and knowing where they were

because there's only certain places that

will support goats and they were simply

acclimatized adapted they and the land