SUMMARY: Focuses on the cowboys of the Brazilian Northeast-the vacqueiros-describing their daily reality and investigating the motives behind their choice to live and work as they do. In the Brazilian northeast, cattle raising developed during colonial times as an economic activity secondary to the cultivation of sugar cane. It also became a cultural phenomenon supporting a "culture of leather." Like the cowboy in the U.S., the vacqueiro is a mythical hero and the subject of popular songs and tales
