Charro

Today, this name is given to someone who practices charreada (similar to a rodeo), considered the national sport of Mexico which maintains traditional rules and regulations in effect from colonial times up to the Mexican Revolution.

charrar, charra) was first documented in Spain in the book "Vocabulario de refranes y frases proverbiales" (1627) by Gonzalo Correas as a synonym of dumb or stupid person.

[4][5][6] More than one hundred years later, in 1729, in the first dictionary of the Spanish language edited by the Real Academia Española, the "Diccionario de Autoridades" charro was defined as: The uneducated and unpolished person, raised in a place of little policing.

[7] The first edition of the Real Academia dictionary published in 1780, kept that original definition, defining charro as: "the rough and rustic person, as the villagers tend to be"; but they would add a second meaning for the first time: "adjective that is applied to some things that are too laden with decoration and in bad taste".

[8] Thus, it was a derogatory term applied to country people because they’re perceived as ignorant, rough and unsophisticated, and to things that were too laden in decoration but in bad taste.

Synonymous with the English terms: yokel, bumpkin, boor, hick, gaudy and garish Spanish-English dictionaries like the "Diccionario Español e Inglés" (1786) defined Charro as: "rustic, country like".

[9] While the 1802 "A New Dictionary of the Spanish and English Languages" defined it as: "a clownish, coarse, ill-bred person" and "Gaudy, loaded with ornaments in a tasteless and paltry manner".

In Mexico, since the 18th century, the term charro was applied in a derogatory manner to the Rancheros, the inhabitants of the countryside and haciendas who carried out all their tasks on horseback, because, as country people, they were perceived as ignorant, crude and unsophisticated.

In 1850, the Spanish historian and writer based in Mexico, Niceto de Zamacois, defined what Charro was in Mexico, as:[14] Charros: gente del campo que se compone mucho para montar á caballo (country people who are very well formed to ride a horse).The Viceroyalty of New Spain had prohibited Native Americans from riding or owning horses, with the exception of the Tlaxcaltec nobility, other allied chieftains, and their descendants.

Prior to the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the distinctive charro suit, with its sombrero, sarape, heavily embroidered jacket and tightly cut trousers, was widely worn by men of the affluent upper classes on social occasions, especially when on horseback.

During World War II, an army of 150,000 charros was created, the "Legión de Guerrilleros Mexicanos", in anticipation of an eventual attack of German forces.

In Puerto Rico, charro is a generally accepted slang term to mean that someone or something is obnoxiously out of touch with social or style norms, similar to the United States usage of dork(y), (i.e gaudy).