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The sombrero jarano, also known as sombrero de charro ('charro hat', referring to the traditional Mexican horsemen), and simply as sombrero in English, is a popular and iconic hat, symbol of Mexican culture. It features, nowadays, an extra-wide hat 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, hare fur, or wheat 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-brimmed jarano or charro hat was first crafted and quickly gained popularity in the early 19th century on the haciendas of Puebla, Jalisco, the Bajío, and other regions of Mexican Plateau 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 the mounted performers in charreria.
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.
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 Tepeapulco, an important cattle-raising center at that 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 of that 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 Tepeapulco 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 Schomberg during the Reapers' 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.
In the first decades of 19th-century Mexico, particularly after independence, the preference among charros and the wealthy for small hats continued. The major change was that the brims were now, typically, 6 inches (15 cm) 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 chin strap. The finest and most prized were those made 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" ("lead-colored" hue) 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 charros is the one made in Puebla; it is lead-colored with a wide, flat brim."
One of the first descriptions of the charro 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 charro attire in Mexico City, noting that the hat was "low-crowned", with a wide brim, similar, he said, to the hats worn by Quakers:
Between the 1820s and 1830s, another style of charro 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 Jarano 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.
The French surgeon, Leon Cordet, one of the leading physicians in the expeditionary force during the French intervention of Mexico (1861-1867) and head of medical services in the Veracruz hospitals, wrote about the charro hat of that era, its characteristics and benefits, in 1867:
In his book, Souvenirs du Mexique: Things about Mexico (1908), the French colonel Éloi Lussan discusses this evolution of the Mexican hat, recalling that hats were very different forty years earlier during the French Intervention:
The gradual evolution of the Mexican jarano poblano hat (1860 to early 20th century)
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, a 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 hacendados (hacienda or ranch owners), as, according to him, it indicated that they belonged to "high society", the higher the crown they 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 fashion has indeed influenced the charro outfit, particularly the hat, which, from a low crown style, evolved by 1900 to the high, "sugarloaf" shape:
These extreme changes, which continued throughout the first two decades of the 20th century, were not always to the liking of all charros. 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 lasso 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 believe 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 is 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".
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-crowned jaranos to the "sugarloaf", conical jaranos in the 1890's, 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, "Ten-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.Carlson, Paul Howard (2006). The Cowboy Way: An Exploration of History and Culture. p. 102. .
During the second French intervention in Mexico, the French expeditionary forces, the Belgian Voluntary Troops, the Austrian Empire Voluntary Corps and the Chasseurs d'Afrique adopted not only the jarano hat but also the Charro outfit. Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, also adopted the Charro outfit and hat and would regularly wear it, even in formal events.
In the Philippines, due to the influence from Spain brought about by the Manila galleon trade, the term has been assimilated into the Tagalog language in the form of sumbrero and now refers to any hat – from Mexican sombreros (as used in the English language) to .
The galaxy Messier 104 is known as the Sombrero Galaxy due to its appearance. Similarly, Tampa Stadium was also known as "The Big Sombrero". In mathematics, the Jinc function is sometimes called the sombrero function and in physics, the Sombrero potential is a prescription for the potential energy that leads to the Higgs mechanism.
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