Men In Hats

After a bit of an absence it is time for another Men in Hats feature.
Having in the past covered the majority of types of hats worn in the United States and Europe it has become time to travel farther afield. For this edition we travel south of the border to Mexico to take a look at the sombrero, or as it is more properly know in Latin America and Spain, the sombrero mexicano.
Properly speaking, sombrero in Spanish means "hat." "Hat" meaning a head covering with a proper brim going around the crown of the hat and not a cap with just a bill in the front (or back or side if one is into the hip-hop nonsense).
The sombrero descends from the Spanish "grandee" hat -- a felt hat with a straight flat crown and a fairly large flat brim. One sees picadors in bullfights wearing such hats. The native Mexicans changed the hat to something with a much larger curled brim and a sugar-loaf type crown.
There are various styles of the hat ranging from the woven straw or reed hat, usually worn in the southern parts of Mexico, to the heavy felt and straw spangled charro version worn by Mexican vaqueros and frontera singers to the chaparral, in which the back of the brim is almost folded up flat against the crown somewhat like a bi-corn.
The most practical variation is the straw/reed type. It is fairly light, gives plenty of shade and the tall crown allows the heat of the head to escape.
Nowadays the hats are worn by country people and vaqueros and singers. At one time the Mexican Federal police wore them as part of their uniforms. And of course, Mexican revolutionaries wore them.
Who should wear a sombrero? A Mexican rural person, a Mexican cowboy, a Mexican country singer, and anyone on the beach on a hot day.