The Controversy Surrounding Cowboy boots with no Horse

[00:00:00]If you see people like these two women dressed like cowg girls, you know, in cowboy outfit and they look good and then you you ask where's your horse and they say we don't have a horse. So why you dress like a cowboy if you don't have a horse? [laughter] Yeah. Apparently there's a um a uh controversy surrounding uh people dressing like cowboys or cowg girls when they go to horse events or rodeos. And um in uh if you go to Costa Rica uh a lot of people who are against a horse parade because of the asphalt, because of the way they treat animals also don't like the way a lot of people actually dress as cowboys. And they said there's just so little pretentious people trying to show that they are they are richer and better than us because of the way they're dressed. But the interesting thing about this is that um horse riding even in Central America, in other parts of the world, it's not cheap. Let's talk about that.

[00:01:00][music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> So, there's this idea that uh if you're dressed like a cowboy and you don't have a horse, you just don't belong. And then there are others who would actually don't have a horse, but they'll go to the horse event and they'll um have their cowboy hats, boots, and then the outfit and they look all nice and sharp and they're having a good time and they uh participate, but even then they get criticized because people are saying, "Well, you don't have a horse. You're just pretending to be a cowboy." And even if you do have a horse, they're just like, "Well, you're just trying to show off because you have money and you think you're better than us." all that good stuff. But there's something interesting about the outfit that a lot of cowboys actually do wear. And apparently it goes back to Mexico. And to understand this, you also need to understand how uh basically the idea of cowboys actually started.

[00:03:58]And uh so uh the whole basic principle is this that the uh peasants working for the lords in Mexico. You you work and you uh you heard cattle, you heard whatever it is there, horses, wild horses, mustang and all those people actually uh to survive riding hours on end uh hering cattle in the field. They would actually started to make uh outfit, leather outfits for their uh trousers to protect their trousers, the boots to protect their jeans and also the hat uh to protect their head. Uh you've got the sombrero which is a bit of an exaggeration where you have the big sombrero, the uh uh huge ones, ceremonial sombrero from the mariachi bands. You have those, but then you have the smaller ones that actually people wear uh on horse uh horse riders wear to protect themselves from the elements when it's raining or when it's just so hot and you need to protect your neck because you're in the uh in the field for such a long time. So all that evolved and later when some of the states that we now know as uh California, Texas and all the parts of uh the US that used to belong to the uh Mexico later became were annexed after the war and they became part of the US.

[00:05:22]So all the Europeans move moving west uh saw all these uh uh trades people living on the land that has now become um the USA. So they learned how to hurt cattle.

[00:05:37]Uh they learned how to dress like cowboys so that they can survive in the wild. And that practice later got uh polished a bit, commercialized to what we now know as cowboy outfits. And you know brands like was it Connor Stone or Ariata are very popular with cowboy outfits. And uh then the film industry came into the picture.

[00:06:06][music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> So when Hollywood came into the picture and apparently a lot of the people the the outfit that we know today were just worn by a group of people but then when Hollywood started making films things like Buffalo Bill, Wild West Show and uh all the you know the what's it called?

[00:08:15]You go to Tombstone the big films and they started to show all these people so-called cowboys dressed in a certain way and uh doing certain things being gunslingers just to basically showing them being cool. And then even the sheriff comes with his hat and uh you know his boots and then they've got those little rings at the bottom of the boots and everything. It just looks sharp. You know, they look mean and you know and you've seen any type of cowboy uh films, it just shows you that they just look rugged. And that fashion later became almost standard for all the uh events, rodeos, anything involving cettles and horses and shows and bull riding, it doesn't matter. And uh and now even if you don't have a horse, you can still wear that. And uh the the argument is this that why is it that people who go to stadium during the World Cup are allowed to wear the jersey? you could wear your Messi number 10 and be bappe uh jersey to go to the game and even if even if you can't kick a ball um even if you don't understand uh the laws of uh offside and free kick and all that stuff but you can still wear it and participate. So, what's then the problem with people criticizing uh fans of horse events and going to the events and then dressing up as cowboys and you see a lot of that in Central America, South America. But then the further down you go to South America or in some parts of Mexico, you see they they uh they don't wear the same set of cowboy hats. They uh have a sort of different versions of sombrero. And even then the reality is this that what Hollywood actually shows people about the cowboy uh outfit that it isn't standard. Hollywood just basically just created this idea. A lot of people wear whatever they have and uh the you know if you're Mexican, if you're Native American, you have your own sort of outfit and you dress in a certain way.

[00:10:24]It wasn't like a le leather jacket that was inspired by European fashion as we see it today. But anyway, but it it is interesting to see that even after the years a lot of people uh still follow the same sort of standard Hollywood presentation of what it means to be a cowboy. [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> There you cowboy.

[00:11:15][music] >> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> There you cowboy. Boy, [music] [music] [music] [music] I love There you cowboy.

[00:12:22][music] [music] >> [music] >> This also reminds me of the uh influence the film Hollywood James Bond had on the day of the dead in Mexico. So apparently uh Mexico City had never actually held a massive carnival style day of the dead before 19 uh 2015. And then James Bond came and it wasn't because the Day of the Dead did not exist. That existed.

[00:13:11]Face painting existed. The way people would dress as Katrinas that existed and people going to the cemetery to celebrate. If you've ever been to Mexico City and you see the celebration, it's quite massive. Every community uh neighborhood has its own celebration.

[00:13:26]But then James Bond came along and said, "Now we're going to film this scene in uh Spectre in 2015." And then the um opening and during the opening, you see James Bond coming out and then there was this parade going down uh the streets of uh Mexico City and he was doing what James Bond would do and um the festival it appeared as a parade when you see the film. It was absolutely uh interesting to see. And all of a sudden once that happened, Mexicans were like, I like that. And then after that, it was such a success that they said, we're going to organize it. And I remember being in Mexico City, the amount of people in the center and the parade and the costumes, it it felt you you just felt like you were in in a James Bond film. A lot of tourists were painting their faces and uh you know following the tradition and the parade. It was really interesting.

[00:14:29]So uh interesting is that the Mexican government saw the uh film as a sort of a tourist attraction and then they decide on October 29th, 2016, Mexico City hosted its first ever official Day of the Dead parade and it's been fun ever since. Now think about that. It reminds me of the same thing with when uh sort of fiction actually meets reality. Normally uh they say uh reality stranger to fiction or anyway. So the point is is this that when it comes to cowboy outfits uh Hollywood the way Hollywood has presented it the way we see it in in films in cowboy western spaghettis western as they call it um is basically not the true picture of the wild west. The Wild West according to history is more like what you see, you know, Mexican uh Mexican reality. But then once it gets to America and that those part of America became uh uh those part of Mexico became America then it just evolved and then the film just standardized it and now what you know is what you know [music] [music] Hey, hey, hey. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> [music] [music] [music] >> Hey, [music] hey, hey.

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