Above: 2010 Vaqueiros / Brazil. The vaqueiros wear the handmade uniform of protective leather clothing necessary for roping cows amidst lethal thorns throughout the bush caatinga.

“Horsemen of the Americas”, is a personal study of a breed of man whose culture and relationship to its natural habitat has continued to adapt and evolve over 400 years. These working horsemen, though seldom recognized, have been a pillar of the economy and the history of the Americas since the time of the Conquest. In the United States and Canada these horsemen are called cowboys, in Mexico they are known as charros, in Ecuador as chagras, in Colombia and Venezuela as llaneros, in Peru as chalanes and qorilazos, in Chile they are called the huasos, Brazil has its pantaneiros and vaqueiros, and  Uruguay and Argentina’s the gauchos.

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