Sombrero | Calm Bedtime Reading For Sleep

Unwind with calm bedtime reading created to support sleep and ease insomnia as we explore the sombrero together. This calm bedtime reading offers a gentle, steady rhythm that helps quiet racing thoughts, inviting sleep while providing comfort for insomnia and restless nights as Benjamin takes a peaceful, educational look at the sombrero, sharing its history, meaning, and cultural significance in a soothing, unhurried way.

You’ll learn something new while relaxing, guided by a warm cadence with no whispering, just calm, fact-filled education designed to ease stress, soften anxiety, and help you drift off naturally at the end of the day. Settle in, press play, and let gentle curiosity guide you toward rest.

Happy sleeping!

Transcript

Welcome to the I Can't Sleep Podcast,

Where I help you drift off one fact at a time.

I'm your host,

Benjamin Boster,

And today's episode is about sombreros.

The sombrero jarano,

Also known as sombrero de charro,

Charro hat,

Referring to the traditional Mexican horseman,

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,

Hair fur,

Or weed straw,

It can be adorned with embroidery,

Decorative trim,

Or ribbons,

With varying regional styles.

The crown often has a reinforced band,

Pedradas,

For added strength in case of impact.

Originally a low crowned hat with a moderately sized brim,

And an essential accessory of the charro,

Cowboy outfit,

The wide brim jarano,

Or charro hat,

Was first crafted and quickly gained popularity in the early 19th century on the haciendas of Puebla,

Jalisco,

And Bajio,

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 mounted performers and charrería.

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.

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,

Literally shadower,

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.

The origin,

History,

And evolution of the charro hat had 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 the 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 Tepehapulco,

An important cattle raising center at the 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 at the 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 Tepehupuco 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 Schaumburg during the Reaper's 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.

By the 18th century,

We have more evidence regarding the clothing of horsemen in the country.

18th 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.

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 chauros,

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 chauros 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 felt or lined,

With silver clasps to secure the chinstrap.

The finest and most prized were those 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 chauros is the one made in Puebla.

It is lead-colored,

With a wide,

Flat brim.

One of the first descriptions of the chauro 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 chauro attire in Mexico City,

Noting that the hat was low-crowned,

With a wide brim,

Similar,

He said,

To the hats worn by Quakers.

The equipment of a chauro,

The name given to an amateur of the national dress of both himself and his horse,

Is very curious,

And well worth making a drawing of.

The sombrero is a low hat,

With a wide brim,

In the style of the Quakers,

Made of wool,

Dyed brown,

Green,

Black,

Or gray.

The shade is lined with gold lace.

The band is a thick cord of gold,

Terminating in a gold tassel,

Which plays upon the brim.

Between the 1820s and 1830s,

Another style of chauro 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 chauro 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.

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 hide 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 hat bands were large,

Thick,

Either sausage-shaped or braided,

Sometimes described as resembling a snake coiled around the crown.

This standardization of the chauro 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 chauro hat of the last 120 years with the high conical crown.

The French surgeon Léon Cordé,

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 chauro hat of that era,

Its characteristics and benefits in 1867.

We are familiar with the jarano hat,

With its wide braided brim and its voluminous hat band.

We know that it is usually made of gray felt of varying qualities,

And that light-colored felt has an emissivity and radiant power that surpasses its conductivity,

Thus eliminating solar heat before it reaches the skin through its thickness.

From this perspective,

This hat is advantageous in the high altitudes of Mexico,

Where the direct influence of the sun has formidable effects,

As we have mentioned several times.

Setting this aside,

One might suppose that this headpiece is problematic due to its weight.

But this is a misconception,

Since when the felt is thin and free of any superfluous adornments,

It weighs little more than our top hats,

As being wider,

Its height is less,

Which compensates for it.

The shape may seem a bit awkward at first,

But one quickly gets used to it.

For this discomfort to occur,

The felt must be very thick,

In which case it compresses the forehead,

Making it uncomfortable to wear.

The vents and perforations it usually has allow for easy air circulation over the head.

Under these conditions,

This hat is undoubtedly better than the wide-brimmed straw hat,

Which to be useful in the mountains,

Must be made of thick material and covered with white canvas.

The Mexicans know this well,

Since when they work in the countryside,

They rarely,

If ever,

Fail to line this straw hat with some kind of fabric.

And if asked why,

They reply that it is for fear of the sun,

Against which the straw does not offer sufficient protection.

The hat protects not only the head,

But also the ears,

Face,

And neck.

This is an undeniable advantage.

For this reason,

The officers and soldiers of the French Expeditionary Force made sure to wear it while marching.

In fact,

It is in this circumstance that its value can be especially appreciated.

In the city,

One is less exposed and can better protect themselves from the sun's effects.

Therefore a hat like this is not absolutely indispensable.

But in rural areas,

Things are different now,

And everyone feels the need to protect themselves from the sun when going out,

Wearing a large hat for shade.

In Mexico,

I recommend a light colored hat,

Preferably white,

Which helps to reflect the sun's rays,

Especially in situations like working in the country,

Or when walking or traveling.

The jarano hat,

With its wide,

Stiff brim and low,

Round crown,

Which became popular in the 1850s,

Became the standard chauro hat in subsequent decades.

This style of hat underwent a gradual evolution between the 1870s and 1880s.

The most notable change was in the crown,

Which transitioned from being low and round to a more prominent,

Tall,

And pointed shape.

This change,

As mentioned,

Was not rapid,

But gradual,

And it began to be noticeable in the late 1870s and early 1880s.

By 1890,

It had culminated in what would become known as the piloncillo,

Sugarloaf crown.

By 1893,

The tall crown,

Or piloncillo hat,

Was in use among charros in northern Mexico.

Further changes occurred in the first decade of the 20th century,

When the brim began to be rolled or folded upwards,

A practice that continues to this day.

This evolution led to the older hat designs being forgotten,

And the tall,

Crowned hat became a stereotypical image of the Mexican,

To such an extent that many people today are unaware of the earlier hat styles and their evolution,

Believing that the tall,

Crowned hat has existed since time immemorial.

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain this evolution of the charro hat,

And ultimately the adoption of the tall crown,

Or piloncillo style.

The charro historian,

José Ramón Ballesteros,

Argued that the change in the crown was made to increase air circulation,

And the brim was enlarged for greater protection from the sun.

Don Carlos Rincón Gallardo,

An avid horseman,

While not giving specific reasons,

Mentioned that his uncle,

Don Pedro Romero de Terreros y Gómez de Parada,

Was the first to wear the tall,

Crowned hat,

Describing him as not a great charro,

But as an extravagant individual.

A study published in the American Journal of American Folklore in 1896 suggested that the tall,

Conical,

Crowned sombrero was a Spanish modification of the straw hats worn by the Tlaxcaltec,

Tarascan,

And Otomi peoples.

The most unusual hypothesis proposed today is that of Humberto Carmona Cobo,

Director and curator of the Museum of Charrería in Mexico City,

Who argues without evidence that the tall,

High crown emerged to signify the social status of haciendados,

Hacienda or ranch owners,

As according to him,

It indicated that they belonged to high society.

The higher the crown,

The wealthier they were.

It is difficult to determine the exact reason for this evolution,

But it is most likely that,

Like many other changes in the charro outfit,

It was due to fashion and personal preference,

Rather than any specific practical purpose.

A short article published in 1900 in the newspaper El Mundo Ilustrado about the national costume and its evolution states that the fashion has indeed influenced the charro outfit,

Particularly the hat,

Which,

From a low crown style,

Evolved by 1900 in the high sugar loaf shape.

These extreme changes,

Which continued throughout the first two decades of the 20th century,

Were not always to the liking of alcharros.

Around that time,

Very tall,

Pointed crown hats with large,

Stiffened brims,

As well as very long chin straps ending in tassels,

Came into fashion,

But none of these were considered stylish.

The long chin straps were even considered anti-charro,

Because they interfered with winding the reata to the saddle horn and could get tangled with the reata,

And during the gallop or run,

The tassels would slap against the face,

Causing discomfort.

Today,

Any old pre-high crown hat with a low,

Round,

Or flat crown is mistakenly referred to as a chinaco hat,

Due to a historical misconception about what a chinaco was.

People mistakenly believed that chinacos were a type of horseman,

Different from the charros,

And that they were their predecessors of or gave rise to them.

This is due to the fact that the charro outfit,

Like the hat,

Has evolved and changed greatly in the last 250 years,

Something that is unknown to many.

Since the old styles of the outfit don't resemble the one used today,

They assume it's something distinct.

But chinaco was actually just a derogatory term for republicans or liberals,

Who fought against the French and the Mexican conservatives or monarchists,

Who supported them during the French intervention.

In that era,

The costume,

Including the hat,

Looked very different.

Because of this misconception,

The ancient charro costume is called chinaco costume,

And all its components are referred to as chinaco style.

The term sombrero is Spanish for hat,

Any type of hat regardless of style 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 and other English-speaking people influenced by American culture,

Sombrero refers specifically to the Mexican jarano or poblano hat.

Many early Anglo-Texan cowboys and other Anglo-Americans moving west or those returning from Mexico after the Mexican-American War adopted the Mexican jarano hat,

Which served as their first cowboy hat.

One of those Americans was John B.

Stetson,

Who encountered the Mexican sombrero jarano and most noticeably the higher quality,

Fur-felt jarano poblano imported from Puebla,

Which served as basis for his new idea.

In his Philadelphia shop,

He began making hand-crafted fur-felt jarano poblanos at a much reasonable price.

He named his first pattern as Boss of the Plains,

The first American cowboy hat.

The Boss of the Plains became a success and made Stetson synonymous with sombrero and jarano.

When fashion and taste changed the low-crown jaranos to the sugarloaf,

Conical jaranos in the 1890s,

They,

Too,

Became fashionable and influential in the United States.

According to a 1906 article in a Mexican newspaper,

The broad-brimmed,

High-crown jaranos were all the rage in Texas among both the working class and upper classes.

And people were flocking to buy them regardless of their price.

This new style of jaranos would serve as the basis for the high-crown 10-gallon hat,

Also manufactured by Stetson.

In the western United States,

The sombrero had a high conical or cylindrical crown with a saucer-shaped brim,

Highly embroidered and made of plush felt.

Sombreros,

Like cowboy hats,

Were designed in response to the demands of the physical environment.

High crowns provide insulation,

And wide brims provide shade.

Hot and sunny climates inspire such tall-crowned,

Wide-brimmed designs,

And hats with one or more of these features have evolved again and again in history and across culture.

For example,

The Greek petasos of two millennia ago and the traditional conical hat,

Widespread in different regions of Asia into modern times,

Incorporate such heat-mitigating features.

Designs specifically for riders on horseback with these details can be seen at least as far back as the Mongolian horsemen of the 13th century.

Reviews

Based on the comments I think I would have enjoyed hearing more of this but you put me right out! 😂😂
Thank you, Benjamin! 😻

Who knew so much could be said about a sombrero?! Muchas Gracias, Benjamino!

An iconic topic for a sleepy talk...... Well done Once again Ben

Muchas Gracious Ben!! I always love to hear you speak other languages as well as English- puts me out in minutes!!! 🙏🏼🥱😴😴😴