June 17, 2008: Who was the first cowboy in the New World? The answer may surprise you. If we look at historical evidence instead of Hollywood mythology, we learn that a century before the Pilgrims landed, Sebastian de Mendoza, a Spanish Jew, was the first man to appear in Conquista records as a vaquero or cattle driver. We know that de Mendoza was a passenger on the Diego Garcia that left Seville in 1513. And by 1545, according to a royal census, a quarter of the Spaniards in Mexico City were Jews. Many of the secret Jews who fled to Mexico became vaqueros who crossed the Rio Grande-- not the Jordan—as they drove cattle north to feed the early Spanish missions that grew up along the river...more. Also see "Mustang: The Saga of the Wild Horse in the American West" by Deanne Stillman.