Charro: Confronting Prejudice to Save Tradition II
Charro: Confronting Prejudice to Save Tradition III
Charro: Confronting Prejudice to Save Tradition IVIn the United States, it is perfectly legal for a cowboy to perform all of his competitive rodeo feats, but illegal for América's first horseman, the charro, to execute some of his suertes charras or charro events, even when pro-animal rights advocates openly state that there is harsher treatment in the Western-style rodeo than in the charreada, Mexican-style rodeo.
The question that every Mexican American charro is asking himself is why politicians continue to practice a double standard policy, without regards to violating the principle of equal protection under the law.
In California, for instance, on February 12, 2008, by a 3-2 vote, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved a "study to reiterate" state law prohibiting cruelty to animals.
What disturbed the charro community is that, from its original intent, banning rodeos and circuses in unincorporated areas, the plan was carefully crafted, right before the audience eyes, so as to find only the charreada questionable and, apparently, in serious need of being closely examined.
Three suertes charras, to be precise, became the central subject of the "study:" colas wild bull tailing, manganas a caballo roping wild mares by the front legs from horseback and manganas a pie roping wild mares from on foot.
Manganas are better known to the average English speaker as "horse tripping," but equestrian literate people know thoroughly well these faenas tasks involve artistry, style and absolute concentration, for the goal is to bring the wild mare down safely and effortlessly, never to endanger the animal.
Colas, as vaquero writer Mr. Arnold El Jefe R. Rojas describes it in his book California Vaquero, "is to turn a running beast head over heels, by riding a horse after the animal, and when the rider is even with the tail, to grasp it, and by pulling throw the animal. This is a very difficult trick which requires a horse with a disposition for the game, one that will close with the steer when necessary, not break or crowd, and obey the reins when the vaquero is ready for the jerk."
Whether in the United States or México's land, the charro, vaquero and cowboy have used this highly effective method, principally when a steer breaks out of the heard during roundup or cutting out. Literature on the subject is not scarce. Like El Jefe, frontier author, Mr. Vincent Paul Rennert, faithfully documented colas in his book The Cowboy.
Throwing a running animal, without the aid of the reata, "was for the cowboy to come alongside the animal, reach over and grab its tail, twist it around the saddle horn, and then have his pony cut suddenly to the side and away from the direction the animal was moving," he wrote. "Almost without fail, the animal would go down with a grunt in a cloud of dust."
All three suertes charras, as well as the remaining six performed in a charreada, are directly based on native faenas carried out in haciendas, ranches and Catholic Missions erected all over Colonial América. Animal rights activists insist on calling them "bogus" or "cultural anachronisms that serve no purpose." But their assertion, next to empirical and logical verifiability, is purely nonsense.
Horses and cattle needed to be branded, castrated, dehorned, tamed and accounted for. None of this has ever been done for vanity purposes, like cropping the ears of a great dane to make him look aesthetically pleasing, especially nowadays for competing in sophisticated pure-bred dog tournaments.
Charro: Confronting Prejudice to Save Tradition II
Charro: Confronting Prejudice to Save Tradition III
Charro: Confronting Prejudice to Save Tradition IV
