A (, 'plainsman') is a South American herder. The name is taken from the Llanos grasslands occupying eastern Colombia and western-central Venezuela.
During the Spanish American wars of independence, lancers and cavalry served in both armies and provided the bulk of the cavalry during the war. They were known for being skilled riders who were in charge of all the tasks related to livestock and other ranch-related activities. The historical figure emerged in the 17th century until its disappearance at the end of the 19th century, with the Andean hegemony and the birth of the Venezuelan oil industry.
Its ethnic origin dates back to the union of the Arawaks, Andalusians, Canarians and to a lesser extent the slaves brought by The Crown during the Spanish colonization of the Americas. The way of working and being comes from the current Apure and Barinas states of the Venezuelans who adapted and modified Andalusian customs, and then exported them to the New Kingdom of Granada. Thanks to their mannerisms, ethnic origin, dialect, culture, and role in the Spanish American Wars of Independence, Venezuelan civil wars and in Montoneras it has been romanticized and idealized and become the Venezuelan national hero and mythos.
First settlements
In the sixteenth century, the first herd was introduced about twenty-five leagues from the city of Calabozo by Cristóbal Rodríguez along with eleven families from Tocuyo. He founded the town that he called San Luis de la Unión. From there the plains began to populate thanks to the mares and foals brought from the New Kingdom of Granada and the different Andalusian families from Seville, Almería, Granada, Cádiz, Jaén and Córdoba.
By the middle of the 17th century there were some 137,800 cattle in the most important hatos. The natives of the region, that is to say, the Achaguas, the Yaguales, the Arichunas and Caquetíos (Arawak family) were already almost destroyed by a war that lasted eighty years before the conquest, so that evangelization and its eventual miscegenation was given without much trouble. The indigenous component in the region was quite predominant, but today, it does not represent a third. For the sixteenth century the Spanish Crown prohibited amerindians, blacks or creole whites from riding an equine since it was only a privilege for the peninsular, however, the economy expanded to such an extent that they had to promote legal reforms so that the excluded classes may have this privilege in the short term.
Between 1640 and 1790 the black maroons lived in cumbes, a society of maroons. These ended up mixing with the over the years.
In the 18th century, the Cabildo de Santiago de León de Caracas issued the first law regulating the abuse of large hatcheries on the plain. From this date, the cuatreros who stole the cattle of the plains emerged, characterized by being armed robberies.
At the end of the 18th century, the region exported 30,000 mules a year to the Antilles and sacrificed meat for the 1.5 million slaves there and in Cuba. There were 1.2 million head of cattle in the area before 1815. Between 1916 - 1917 Bolívar Coronado indicates that
The
In the beginning, these riders lived in a semi-nomadic way, being hired by different herds to carry out their tasks; in these journeys there was always a cook, a doctor, and a physician apart from the team of cabresteros and baquianos. They practiced fishing, hunting, bartering, and trading with each other. Due to the hostile flora and fauna of the plain, these adapted to combat it, so it was frequent the taming of alligators, bulls and pimps with their different utensils such as rope and knife. Tall in stature, lean bodies and strong muscles, adapted to the tropical climate. According to Ramón Páez, the llanero had several physical characteristics that resembled the Arabic one. Bolívar Coronado said Always on horseback, sober, haughty and extremely manly. Black coffee drinker and chewer, a kind of tobacco. The llanero did both the male and female tasks. The great terrain of the plain forced them to be versatile when working so we have not only the , but the cheese makers, saddlers, and , each of them doing tasks that would be considered feminine for the time .His way of riding a horse is different from that of his American companions. Ramón Páez in his book Wild Scenes in South America; or Life in the Venezuelan Llanos makes two observations about the way of riding of these riders