My father, Ricardo Moreno Beasley, was a Vaquero, artist, poet, and writer who devoted his life to capturing the spirit and way of life of the vaqueros while working with some of the greatest vaqueros in the rugged South Texas brush country from the 1930s through the 1960s. Vaqueros, wild steers, mustangs, and other wildlife roamed this land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, and together they inspired him to capture the beauty and danger of day-to-day vaquero life. 
​
I recall one early childhood memory with my father at the ranch, where we slept outside on cots next to a flickering fire, the night sky filled with stars. He shared sketches and drawings with me, recounting story after story of the heroic vaqueros.  

I think back to another time in our kitchen when I was five years old; he set a drawing up against the backrest of a kitchen chair and then asked me to study it. "What do you see, Ricardo? How does that drawing make you feel?" I saw the fight between good and evil: two stallions rearing on their hind legs beneath dark clouds, locked in battle. He knew that if a child could interpret that drawing, he'd hit his mark. And, indeed, he had.
​
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 nací para los vaqueros. Cuando uno se pierde en un amor, no le eches menos al mundo." "I was born for the vaqueros. When one loses oneself in 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.
​
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 the scene, I recall thinking to myself, "He's an artist to the end." Always beginning, never-ending.
​
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 have today a rich legacy that he shared in every drawing and every story.
​
Tell me, what do you see? How do these drawings make you feel?
 
Ricardo Garcia
Los Angeles, California