Sombrero
The sombrero jarano, also known as sombrero de charro, and simply as sombrero in English, is a popular and iconic hat, symbol of Mexican culture. It features, nowadays, an extra-wide brim used to shield the face and eyes from the sun, that is slightly upturned at the edge; a usually high, conical, pointed crown; and a chin strap to hold it in place. Traditionally made of wool felt, hare fur, or wheat straw, it can be adorned with embroidery, decorative trim, or ribbons, with varying regional styles. The crown often has a reinforced band for added strength in case of impact.
Originally a low crowned hat with a moderately sized brim and an essential accessory of the charro outfit, the wide-brimmed jarano or charro hat was first crafted and quickly gained popularity in the early 19th century on the haciendas of Puebla, Jalisco, the Bajío, and other regions of Central and Northern Mexico, and in what today is the American Southwest; evolving to its current, high conical shape, until the very late 19th century. Today, it is primarily worn by the mounted performers in charreria.
While it is believed that the hat has its origins in Europe or that it arrived in Mexico from there with its design already fully developed, this is uncertain, as there is insufficient evidence prior to the 18th century that shows how hats worn by vaqueros looked. Pictorial evidence shows that the hat began to take shape during the 18th century, with a wide variety of styles and forms; and it wasn't until 19th-century Mexico that it acquired its most recognizable characteristics, and finally, by the end of that century, its most familiar and stereotypical form. For many, the hat is a mestizo product of cultural blending, as it is believed to combine indigenous traditions with European elements to suit the needs of Mexican vaqueros.
Name and etymology
Although the proper name for the hat is jarano, derived from "jara", the name of a shrub from which it was originally made, the hat is simply known as "sombrero" in the United States and other English speaking countries. The term sombrero is Spanish for hat, any type of hat regardless of style, design or size. But Americans, having first encountered the word in Mexico or what is now the American Southwest, mistook the word to mean the actual proper name of the hat. Thus, for Americans, "sombrero" refers specifically to the Mexican jarano hat. The jarano hat is also known as sombrero de charro or "charro hat", it derived from the charros the inhabitants and workers of haciendas who performed their duties on horseback, working as vaqueros or cowherds or "cowboys".History and evolution
The origin, history, and evolution of the "charro" hat have been the subject of debate in recent years. The topic has been complex and difficult to research, as there is very little evidence to demonstrate how vaqueros and other rural people dressed before the 18th century, particularly during the early stages of cattle ranching in the 16th century. It is known that in pre-Hispanic Mexico, indigenous people wore wide-brimmed hats, as evidenced by paintings and artifacts from that era. It is also known that Spanish and criollo people, wealthy individuals not necessarily associated with rural occupations, wore luxurious hats, similar to those worn in Europe; hats that a herdsman or peasant would hardly be able to afford. Although he did not provide his supporting evidence, the American historian Philip Wayne Powell asserted that one of the prototypes of the Mexican charro can be found in the 16th-century horsemen, mostly vaqueros and foremen of mulatto and mestizo origin who made up the unofficial or irregular cavalry that fought in the Chichimeca War, and that these men wore "a wide-brimmed leather hat, reinforced with a steel band".The only evidence that might indicate what type of hat the first vaqueros or country people wore during the 16th century can be found on graffiti on the walls of the convents in Tepeapulco, an important cattle-raising center at that time in what is now the state of Hidalgo. These graffiti depict some horsemen, who could be vaqueros or similar figures—not necessarily caballeros—wearing a wide-brimmed hat with what appears to be a medium-sized, flat crown. This is perhaps the oldest evidence of what horsemen in the countryside wore as headgear to protect themselves from the elements during the late 16th century.
These wide-brimmed hats were apparently very common among this population for decades, as a similar hat appears again in an image from the early 18th century, in the "Chapa de Mota Codex" of 1703. One of the rustic drawings shows a mestizo or indigenous man, dressed in the attire of the charros of that time, lancing a bull during the festivities in Jilotepec to commemorate the centenary of the victory and end of the Chichimeca War. The hat depicted has wide, upturned brims and a low, flat crown. Whether this hat is of the same type as the one depicted in the Tepeapulco graffiti, or an evolution of it, or something entirely different, is difficult to determine. The origin of these hats is also uncertain. They could be local inventions based on indigenous designs or on some narrow-brimmed hats worn by the European elite, but adapted to the needs and circumstances of charros and other rural people; or they could have been an evolution of the French-origin "chambergo" hat, also known in English as slouch hat, introduced to Spain by Marshal Charles de Schomberg during the Reapers' War of 1640. In fact, the term "chambergo" became a generic name in Spain for any type of wide-brimmed hat. Based on this limited information, it could be argued that these hats may have served as the basis for the hats that would emerge in the 18th and 19th centuries.
18th Century
By the 18th century, we have more evidence regarding the clothing of horsemen in the country. Eighteenth-century iconography shows a wide variety of hats of different styles. All were small, with wide but short brims. As can be seen, they varied in the rigidity of the brim, some appearing to be flexible and drooping, while others were more stiff. The shape of the crown also varied; all were low, but some were flat and others rounded. They came in various colors, but light colors, such as white and gray, predominated. As for their decorations, the only notable feature was a small ribbon or band around the crown. Regarding the materials, it is difficult to know precisely, given the lack of information, but it can be inferred that some were made of palm fiber and others of finer materials such as felt. Due to this lack of more detailed information, the names of each of these 18th-century hat styles are unknown.19th Century
It wasn't until the 19th century that we have a greater amount of evidence, both textual and pictorial, about Mexican hats. This was the century when interest in national customs emerged, especially those of the Mexican rancheros or charros and their attire, as evidenced by the numerous articles, both national and international, on the subject. It was also in this century that the name "jarano" was first recorded, the proper name for the Mexican hat; strictly speaking, it was used to refer to any wide-brimmed hat, regardless of style or construction, and was synonymous with the Spanish word "chambergo" mentioned earlier.In the first decades of 19th-century Mexico, particularly after independence, the preference among charros and the wealthy for small hats continued. The major change was that the brims were now, typically, 6 inches wide and flat, with a very low crown, and the hat bands became more prominent and thicker, a style that would persist in subsequent decades. The most prominent "jarano" hats of this period were those with moderately broad, flat brims, made of wool or lined, with silver clasps to secure the chin strap. The finest and most prized were those made in the city of Puebla, called "Poblanos" or "jarano Poblano", meaning "Pueblan" or "Pueblan-style Jarano", with a moderately broad flat brim, usually worn slouched, and typically of a light, gray, or "aplomado" color, because these colors reflect light and heat. In an 1844 article detailing the customs of Mexican Rancheros in the magazine El Museo Mexicano, Don Domingo Revilla writes that: "The most elegant, sturdy, and suitable hat for charros is the one made in Puebla; it is lead-colored with a wide, flat brim."
One of the first descriptions of the charro costume by a foreigner, shortly after independence, was written by the British explorer and writer Edward B. Penney. In 1824, he provided a detailed description of the charro attire in Mexico City, noting that the hat was "low-crowned", with a wide brim, similar, he said, to the hats worn by Quakers:
Between the 1820s and 1830s, another style of charro hat emerged, larger in size, with a medium-height, flat crown, a wider, moderately flexible brim, and a very thin ribbon-like band, ending in tassels that draped over the brim. This style of hat fell out of use around the 1850s.
Around the mid-1840s, a new style of Jarano hat became fashionable; this style had a rigid, rather than flexible, brim, a medium-sized, flat crown, and a medium-width band resembling a sausage or snake coiled around it.
Standardization
In the 1850s, another change occurred; the design of the poblano-jarano hats began to be standardized. Until then, these hats had varied considerably in the rigidity of their brims, their colors, and the height and shape of the crown. The brims became rigid, no longer flexible, and varied only in width, some being of medium width and others very wide. The crowns were low and either rounded or flat, although the rounded ones were more common, and sometimes with a dent. The preferred colors were light or grayish tones, abandoning dark or very bright colors. The hatbands were large, thick, either sausage-shaped or braided, sometimes described as resembling a snake coiled around the crown. This standardization of the charro hat led to the disappearance of the previous designs by the 1860s and, to some extent, influenced the gradual evolution that occurred in subsequent decades, culminating in the major changes that would take place at the end of the 19th century, thus giving rise to the stereotypical charro hat of the last 120 years with the high conical crown.The French surgeon, Leon Cordet, one of the leading physicians in the expeditionary force during the French intervention of Mexico and head of medical services in the Veracruz hospitals, wrote about the charro hat of that era, its characteristics and benefits, in 1867: