Inaugural High School Essay Contest Winners
The winning entry was "How the West Was Won" by Emily Martinez.
The Salient is pleased to announce the results of our inaugural high school essay contest. Winning entries were selected by the editorial team and Professor Harvey Mansfield for their thoughtfulness, compelling rhetoric, and strong reasoning. Congratulations to the top three contestants:
1st Place: Emily Martinez, Annapolis Christian Academy, 11th Grade
2nd Place: Emmet Schuler, Yeshiva Schools of Pittsburgh, 11th Grade
3rd Place: Will Fermaglich, Bethesda Chevy Chase High School, 10th Grade
The winning essay, by Emily Martinez, is below. More information about the contest and its prompts can be found here.
How the West Was Won
By Emily Martinez
It seems to many that everything in South Texas was made to hurt, and it's nothing personal—that’s just the way it is here; most everything hurts. Nopales have spines that stick to your jeans when you brush up against them to gather their fruit in the fall, and the native mesquite tree has thorns that can grow up to three inches long; their deep roots absorb almost every drop of water there is to get, and what they don’t use, the wildflowers do, or the tall grass hiding rattlesnakes that won't even rattle anymore for fear the feral hogs will eat them. The land is drought-riddled, and more than one million acres of dry grass began to burn on February 26, 2024. By its containment in mid-March, the Smokehouse Creek Fire was the largest fire in the state’s history, and as of now, it affects the local economy—allegedly, those fires will only be a smudge on the horizon of my state’s cattle production, and won’t even touch America as a whole, but the damage is still substantial to many families; the Smokehouse Creek Fire and others, like Windy Deuce, have impacted their homes, incomes, and property. This kind of catastrophe that cannot be controlled certainly shakes those who depend on the land, depend on the grass and the rain and the early calving. This kind of catastrophe is part of the reason that the suicide rate among farmers and ranchers is the 6th highest occupationally.1 My family does not raise cattle. My family does not own 20 acres of native grass pasture. We have no horses, no tack wall, no stock trailer…we live in a suburb. What we do have is Cody Johnson; we wear boots to church, and we sit on the couch and watch Gus and Call on our television. Here lies the question; why does a life we don’t exactly lead mean so much to us, and every other family like us? Why do Texans, and Americans generally, care about the Cowboy, and why has he always given us so much hope?
As Texas poet Berta Hart Nance said, “Other states are carved or born, Texas grew from hide and horn.”2 Criollo cattle were brought to the Americas by Spanish monks and explorers and arrived in Texas sometime around the year 1493.3 Since that time, Criollo was developed and replaced by different breeds, but it is well remembered that much of cowboy culture, from the tack & technique to even the stock, comes from the vaquero culture that originated with the Spanish and Mexicans of Tejas. In the 1840s, around the time that Texas’ statehood was established, cattle drives were already being made to the Red River. From there, beeves (one head of cattle is a beeve) would be shipped to New Orleans for sale to other states; this happened at the same time that Ft. Worth, also known as Cowtown or Hell’s Half-Acre, was barely being founded.4 By the 1850s, the beef cattle industry was truly what had built Texas into what we see today, as large oil deposits and college football were untapped commodities in Texas until the 1890s.5 Around the American Civil War, the uncontrolled development of the Longhorn breed combined with the demand for beef in the North and South later led the state of Texas out of Reconstruction with a growing economy and job opportunities; the end of the War Between the States was the beginning of the Texas Cattle Drive Era.6 The cattle business has made Texas what it has been forever, but the cattle business has forever been made of the men who got dirty and simply did what they had to do to make a living. These cowboys would often travel over a thousand miles with everything they owned; their horse, saddle, and everything that sat atop them both were all that they needed to survive the unfenced plains. Due to the difficulty of every aspect of cowboying: horsemanship, equipment use/maintenance, weather tolerance, stressful and unsanitary work conditions, etc, the cowboy was recognized in his own time as a man of grit—that word appears time and time again. In America, we are losing our grit. In general, about 40% of parents, regardless of political affiliations, are worried about the success of their children. Young people struggle with employment, mental health, education, and even marriage and family building, and the prevalence of these issues is alarming. Whether the weakening of our children was caused by the denial of a moral standard, inequality, poor leadership, or any plethora of possible catalysts, the problem with resilience in young people—the ability to overcome—is something that affects every area of their lives.7
A long-time symbol and inspiration of American resilience, the cowboy works through drought, disease, fire, and flood. He feeds and clothes us, and has rightfully been a legend in his own time for 200 years. Every American can still see himself in the cowboy because he was an everyday man. He worked with all he had, alongside who he had, to get a tough job done for the greater good of others. In the words of the musician and working cowboy Gail Steiger,
I do what I can
that’s all I can do
the crew that I work with
they do the same too
And maybe someday
when they’re old and gray
they’ll think of me
and someone will say
He sure made a good hand
and we always did know
he would be there
when we needed him most8
I live between the historic King Ranch and the old land of Calvin “Cal” Allen. That being said, I know real cowboys personally, and they always stress that cowboying is a lifestyle—one they’re proud that God has blessed them with. Their lifestyle is important to me because it's mine in many ways, from the food I eat and the clothes I wear to the phrases I use and the music I play. This lifestyle has defined a culture I'm included in, and as an American, the cowboy’s modest yet exemplary perseverance makes me proud. As an adolescent, the young boys two centuries ago who rode a thousand miles overland to drive cattle north inspire me today; because of the cowboy’s toil in the past, I have hope that I can achieve greatness in the future. Because I see real cowboys in the present, and I literally hear spurs ringing at the heels of my friends’ boots, I know that, in our hearts, we Texans truly honor our illustrious legacy by continuing to teach America determination.
Murillo-Williams, Adriana, Fenton, Ginger D., “Why We Need to Keep Talking About Farm Stress,” PennState Extension, updated June 6, 2023, https://extension.psu.edu/why-we-need-to-keep-talking-about-farm-stress.
“Cattle, By Berta Heart Nance,” Cat Rotator’s Quarterly, posted January 8, 2020, https://almatcboykin.wordpress.com/2020/01/08/cattle-by-berta-heart-nance/.
“Corriente,” The Cattle Site, September 29, 2022, https://www.thecattlesite.com/breeds/beef/84/corriente#:~:text=The%20name%20%22Corriente%22%3A%20In,not%20just%20for%20the%20type.
“Cattle Ranchers,” The Bullock Museum, accessed April 7, 2024, https://www.thestoryoftexas.com/discover/campfire-stories/cattle-ranchers.
“Oil Production in Texas,” State Impact, NPR, accessed April 7, 2024, https://stateimpact.npr.org/texas/tag/oil-production-in-texas/#:~:text=The%20first%20economically%20significant%20oil,field%20while%20looking%20for%20water.
Carr, Amanda, “The Texas Tradition of Cattle Ranching Began in Tejas,” Texas Historical Commission, accessed April 7, 2024, https://thc.texas.gov/blog/texas-tradition-cattle-ranching-began-tejas#:~:text=After%20the%20Civil%20War%2C%20the,the%20Texas%20cattle%20drive%20era.
Reeves, Richard V., Smith, Ember, “Americans are More Worried About Their Sons Than Their Daughters,” Brookings, October 7, 2020, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/americans-are-more-worried-about-their-sons-than-their-daughters/.
Steiger, Gail, “A Cowboy’s Prayer,” track 4, The Romance of Western Life, CD Baby, 1999, CD.
Yes! I’ve only spent a little time around livestock; I’ve been both kicked by a cow and fallen off a horse only once, but I’ve found that there’s just something about the lifestyle that hits you in the heart…it makes you want to persevere through difficult moments and inspire others while you’re at it…as a Christian, I view the Cowboy as the American parallel to Christ, the Good Shepherd, for many reasons…this is just part of why the Cowboy lifestyle is so influential to me, and why I wished to share it with others. I’m glad you could resonate!
Only now, in my seventies, have I discovered the absolute joy of attending and photographing junior and "pee-wee" rodeos that so demonstrate this talented young author's message. To see a six-year-old bucked high off a small bull, hit the ground hard--then sometimes get trampled a bit--pause only long enough to regain the breath knocked from him (sometimes her), then jump to his feet, jerk off his helmet and hold it high as he grins and "whoops!" at the cheering crowd...gives one hope for the resilience of young Americans.