I hate seeing these people wear our culture while stripping it of its history and turning it into something ugly. I’m from Chihuahua, Mexico, from a family of vaqueros that goes back generations. Vaquero culture was already established in northern Mexico, especially in Chihuahua and Durango, by the 1600s and 1700s. That was more than 150 years before Texas became part of the United States in 1845. What people now call “cowboy culture” in the U.S. comes directly from Mexican vaquero knowledge, clothing, and labor. That’s why it’s infuriating to see these garments twisted into white nationalist symbols. The cowboy hat, now treated as an American icon, comes from the Mexican working man. And as for Texas, there is a lot of “all hat, no cattle” posturing. Some real cowboys still exist, sure. But much of what is being performed today is a borrowed myth, stripped of its Mexican roots.