My father, Ricardo Moreno Beasley, was a Vaquero, artist, poet, and writer, who devoted his life to capturing the Vaquero's spirit and way of life while working with some of the greatest Vaqueros in the rugged South Texas brush country from the 1930s through the 1960s. The Vaqueros, wild steers, mustangs, and other wildlife roamed this land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, and all came together as the inspiration he needed to capture the beauty and danger of the day-to-day Vaquero life. 

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I recall one early childhood memory with my father at the ranch while outside sleeping on cots by a fire, the night sky covered with stars, as he shared sketches and drawings with me recounting story after story of the heroic Vaqueros.  I also think back to a time in our kitchen when I was five years old, he sat a drawing up against the backrest of a kitchen chair, then asked me to study it. “What do you see Ricardo? How does that drawing make you feel?” I saw the fight against good and evil as two stallions reared up on their hind legs beneath dark clouds intertwined in battle. He knew that if a child could interpret that drawing he’d hit his mark. And, indeed he had.

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My father’s life calling, love, and deep passion were to document the Vaquero way of life through his art, poetry, and storytelling; he devoted his life to fulfilling his destiny every step of the way.  In a personal quote, he states “Yo naci para los Vaqueros. Cuando uno se pierde en un amor no le hechas menos al mundo. (I was born for the Vaqueros. When one loses themself in a love, you don't miss the world.)” Though his heart was that of a Vaquero his spirit was most aligned with the wild steers and mustangs where freedom meant everything.

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Days before my father's passing, I walked into his room and found him sleeping, his brush jacket strewn across the foot of the bed while a large sketch tablet rested over his chest, his pen still in hand. As I stood there taking in this picture I recall thinking to myself, he's an artist to the end. Always beginning never-ending...

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I celebrate my father and these great Vaqueros for having had the courage to live the life they chose. Through my father’s art, we today have the rich legacy he told in every drawing and every story.

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 “Tell me, what do you see? How do these drawings make you feel?”

 

Ricardo Garcia

Los Angeles, California