28
Mar

The Charreada Challenge – Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexico (part 3 of 5)

Posted on March 28th, 2010 :: Posted in Events, Horseback Riding, Mexico, video

Before we take you to a charreada (Mexican rodeo) we need you to forget about rodeos you may have seen in the US or Canada. In Mexico (where rodeo was born), it’s a whole different animal.

For starters, it’s a team sport with each charro (Mexican cowboy) on the team competing on behalf of the team in the event or events in which he excels at the most.

Charreada is a team competition and a bit of a beauty pageant.

After the Mexican Revolution Mexicans began to worry that the charro traditions were being lost so official organizations were formed to foster and govern what it means to be a charro and to keep the charreadas alive. They’ve done a good job and today charros and charreadas are very well respected. This video will show you why:

The first event in a charreada is Cala de Caballo and it’s one of the toughest charreada events to master. Besides the sliding stop (shown below) riders must train their horses to pivot in a tight, fast circle on one back leg. Then do it in the other direction.

The first event of a charreada is Cala de Caballo, a reining and responsiveness challenge that (among other things) requires a horse to gallop at full speed, then slam on the brakes without lifting his back feet for the duration of the sliding stop which is judged on distance and definition.

Charros competing in a charreada are awarded points for graceful and skilled execution, but points can also be taken away for any one of a confounding minefield of infractions in each event.

The second event of a charreada is Piales en Lienzo, or heeling, which involves roping the back legs (heels) of a galloping mustang....

...then roping her to the ground. That smoke you see is the result of heat generated by the rope wound around the saddle horn actually burning through the horn.

Often called the national sport of Mexico, charreada has strict rules about what each competing charro must wear and carry on his saddle in order to participate. Forget even one item and you can be disqualified.

Another essential element is a Mexican saddle, characterized by an over-sized saddle horn. The extra girth is needed to withstand events like Piales en Lienzo during which a wild mare is roped and the rope is then wrapped around the horn which is used to leverage the rope until the mare is brought to the ground.

So much heat is generated by the straining rope that it would burn right through the petite saddle horns used on Western saddles in the US. Even the Mexican mega-horns sometimes need reinforcements. Most charros competing in Piales en Lienzo wrap many layers of twine around their saddle horns before competing as a level of protection between the rope and their saddles.

Our friend Juan Zermeno, a competitive charro and much sought-after horse trainer. Notice how delicately he holds the reins.

The third event of a charreada is Colas en el Lienzo, or Coleadero or steer tailing and it's aptly named in any language: a mounted cowboy at the gallop grabs the tail of a running steer, wraps it around his leg and flips the steer over. Elapsed time: about seven seconds.

A properly tailed steer should end up like this with all four hooves in the air.

Winning teams aren’t awarded any money at the end of a charreada–just bragging rights and, maybe, a trophy.

The fourth event in a charreada is Jineteo de Toro or bull riding. The bulls may be smaller than the ones they ride in the PBR but the hats are bigger.

Charreada events aren’t timed as they are in rodeos in the US and, honestly, sometimes there’s not much action in the action. On the other hand, slow moments give you ample time to go get another cerveza…

The fifth event in a charreada is Terna en el Ruedo or team roping. First the bull is ridden, then it's roped by the back legs then by the front legs. Fancy rope work punctuates this event which is more elegant than fast.

Everyone goes to their local charreadas–crooked old charros, young couples, gorgeous women dressed to the nines and, of course, families and aspiring charros.

Charrito!

The sixth event in a charreada is Jineteo de Yegua or bronc riding.

Probably the most dramatic event in a charreada is Manganas a Pie or forefooting in which a charro on foot ropes the front legs of a galloping wild mare, then uses his own body to stop her and pull her to the ground. They do this by (ready?) wrapping the rope around a part of their own bodies. Usually their thigh or their waist. Some charros, however, wrap the rope around their neck. The finishing flourish involves the charro digging his heels in to stop the mare then throwing himself on the ground to finish the job. It takes skill and guts and a dash of insanity.

The seventh event in a charreada is Manganas a Pie or forefooting which involves more fancy rope work before a charro on foot ropes a wild mare by the forelegs then stops her by wrapping the rope around part of his body and throwing himself on the ground.

The eighth event of a charreada is also called Manganas a Caballo or forefooting, but this time the work is done on horseback not on foot.

The ninth event of a charreada is El Paso de la Muerte, literally the Pass of Death. It involves a charro moving from the bare back of his own horse onto the bare back of a galloping wild mare then riding the bucking mare before dismounting. But you can’t just fall off. In order to earn maximum points (and avoiding losing points for incomplete execution) a charro in this event must land on his feet, Nadia Komenich style.

The ninth event of a charreada is El Paso de la Muerte, literally the Pass of Death. It involves a charro moving from the bare back of his own horse onto the bare back of galloping wild mare then riding the bucking mare before dismounting and (hopefully) landing on his feet for max points.

Mexicans love a fiesta and a charreada is the mother of them all because it

Some charreadas include a tenth event for female charros. Called escaramuzas, the women wear colorful, traditional, many layered dresses called Adelitas and they perform intricate choreographed patterns while riding sidesaddle.

[geo_mashup_map]

5 Comments - Join the conversation »

10
Jan

A Week in the Life – Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico

Posted on January 10th, 2010 :: Posted in Mexico

We apologize for not getting any new blog posts up recently but we’ve been even busier than usual. This is not a “the dog ate my homework” excuse. Really. First there was a wonderfully never-ending roster of holiday fiestas followed by a particularly hectic start to the new year with a first week in January that looked like this:

1. Hablamos Espanol (un poco)!

On January 4 we started an intensive Spanish language course at the IMAC school in central Guadalajara. Now our weekdays start at 8 am with a two mile walk to school followed by four hours of classroom instruction, a quick jaunt to the massive Mercado Independencia to grab a cheap and delicious lunch from one of the hundreds of food vendors, then back to school for individual computer tutorials and more studying before the two mile walk back home around 6 pm. to do homework. Where is home? We are incredibly lucky to be staying with our friend Iliana’s parents at their home in Guadalajara. It’s like having a Mexican madre y padre and we’re working hard to improve our Spanish enough to be able to really thank them for all of their overwhelming generosity and all of the ways they’re enhancing our stay.

2. Gone in 53 Seconds

On Tuesday, someone stole both of the side view mirrors off our truck which we stupidly left parked on the street. They just popped the mirrors right out of the housings and (thankfully) left the housings mounted on the truck. In the grander scheme of things this is not a tragedy. After all, it’s the very first time anything has been stolen from the truck in more than three years on the road and the thieves were kind enough to leave the mirror housings intact.

However, since the custom cargo box in the bed of our truck makes it impossible for us to see out the back window our side view mirrors are even more crucial than normal. Also, we don’t have hundreds of dollars to spend on replacing them through an authorized Chevy parts dealer. Solution? A street in Guadalajara called Cinco de Febrero, a multi-block-long clearing house for every imaginable part (most of them stolen) for almost any make/model of car.

Most Guadalajarans have made at least one purchase on Cinco de Febrero so we hit the street to see if someone had the mirrors we needed–there was even a good chance we’d end up buying back our own mirrors. The moment we turned onto the street guys began flagging us down trying to entice us to pull over at their “stores.” We ultimately followed a guy to a store stacked to the rafters with bits and pieces: headlights, rims, bumpers, emblems for every make and model under the sun, etc.

It did feel like dealing with the devil (was this the very same guy who stole our mirrors in the first place?) but he had the right mirrors (not ours) so we began haggling over the price. A motorcycle cop cruised by in the midst of the conversation but no one–not even the guys rolling joints on the sidewalk in front of the store–batted an eyelid.

We ultimately settled on 1,500 pesos (about $130) for both mirrors plus glued-on “security” rims around each mirror which theoretically make it harder (but not impossible) for someone to pop them out again. Some kid who said his name was Juan Carlos (yeah, right) even traveled with us to the nearby lot where our truck is now securely parked in and installed the mirrors and made sure they worked properly. We could tell “Juan” was taking an inventory of our truck (Mile Marker winch and heavy duty bumper, fancy PIAA lights, etc) and then he started pointing out all the ways our truck is incredibly vulnerable to even more catastrophic quick stripping (who knew the tailgate slides right off?). We were tempted to deepen our dealings with the devil and give this kid a few hundred pesos to tell us what we need to do to prevent future pilfering but we’d had enough of the underworld for one night.

3. Humans are Doomed

Last week we also went to see Avatar in IMAX 3-D at a Cinepolis theater in a fancy mall in Guadalajara (they truly LOVE their shopping in this town). The movie ticket was cheaper than in the US but the popcorn and soda cost about the same. Like everyone else whose seen this movie we marveled at the visuals and the technology, even if the story (human greed consumes the species after we fail to see the wisdom in other Buddha-like creatures’ ways) was less than fresh (the paralyzed/not paralyzed plot line was clever and unexpected, however). All of the Na’vi language conversations were subtitled in Spanish and we were thrilled that we had learned enough at imac to understand most of them.

At the end of the day Avatar is definitely a movie for your eyeballs not your brain, but after a week that included becoming serious students for the first time in many, many years and negotiating our way through the car parts black market of Guadalajara our brains needed a break anyway.

4. Liberace Mariachi

To cap off the week that was, we went out on Friday night with Megan and Barret, a cool couple that’s also studying at imac. The night culminated with a bottle of tequila at Bariachi, an enormous (and enormously popular) bar in Guadalajara that features live mariachi music and a rotating roster of guest performers. One of the special guests the night we were there was a singer who combined the camp of Liberace with the theatrics of Mariachi. Too bad there are no pianos in a mariachi band. And that, friends, is why we didn’t get home until 3:30 am. Hey, Friday isn’t a school night!

Fresh posts next week. Stay tuned!

[geo_mashup_map]

Leave a comment

10
Jun

Eat, Drink and Be Mexican – Arandas, Jalisco, Mexico

Posted on June 10th, 2009 :: Posted in Animals, Church, Food & Drink, Friends, Mexico, Music, Town, video

It all started near Guadalajara, where so many good things have happened for us. That’s where we met Pascual and Jakeline who generously invited us to hang out with them in their town, Arandas. A few days later we were there eating, drinking, seeing and enjoying the best that this unsung destination has to offer in the hands of two great guides.

Arandas has a huge gothis cathedral, and it towers abov e town. believe it or not, looking at it from a vantage point outside town it remided me of Chartres, the way it towers over the town.

The plaza in Arandas is dominated by a huge Gothic cathedral which looms large over the entire town remarkably like the much more famous cathedral in Chartres, Paris.

Not only were we treated like family (our eternal thanks to Jakeline’s family for being so generoso), but we had our first brush with politics during a hastily arranged meeting with the Presidente, or Mayor, of Arandas who was really nice and accommodating but short on time (he had to hurry off to attend the laying of the cornerstone for a new hospital), just like politicians everywhere.

We even had a meeting with the Presidente (Mayor) of Arandas - Karen, Presidente, our friend Jakeline & Eric

We ended up in a brief meeting with the Presidente (Mayor) of Arandas. Here's Karen, El Presidente, our friend Jakeline and Eric in the Presidente's office.

Arandas has something of a reputation for exquisite tacos, a food we’ve come to not only love but appreciate having eaten hundreds of the things by now. Jakeline and Pascual took us to Tacos Sanctuario where their buddies worked the grill and the brassier to produce really wonderful tacos. The el pastor tacos we had there were the most unique and most flavorful of any we’ve eaten in Mexico. So far.

We (heart) good tacos & the ones at Tacos Sanctuario are great.

We (heart) good tacos and the ones at Tacos Sanctuario are great.

As if there could be any doubt that a visit to any destination is always richer when you’re with a local, Pascual and Jakeline capped off our first perfect afternoon in Arandas with an evening visit to Hacienda Santa Maria which we wouldn’t have even known existed, let alone gained entry to, on our own. Their barn full of pure-breed stallions in training rivals many of the hotels we’ve stayed in. The stalls were so clean and airy we wanted to curl up in them ourselves! And there’s really nothing better than sipping tequila on the tailgate watching newborn foals learn what their legs are for as the sun sets.

A nine day old foal and its mother at Hacienda Santa Maria (aka horse heaven) just outside Arandas.

An evening stroll to the plaza is an excuse to do some snacking and Jakeline took us to her favorite churro vendor, Mario’s Churros where fatter and puffier than usual churros are churned out from the cleanest churro cart we’ve ever seen. Filled with cajeta (a thick concoction that’s halfway to caramel) and rolled in sugar, the things are deadly delicious.

Churros are found everywher, but Mario made the best we have had to date. Actually, we didn't have the heart to tell him that he was making fried bread and not churros.

Churros (basically deep fried bread) are found everywhere in Mexico but Mario made the best we've had to date.

Yes, we’re still eating.

Pig in almost any of its many guises is delicios, but nothing beats good carnitas, (except for bacon and braised Berkshee pork belly). the Carnitas at Carnitas Jaime's on the road into Arands made some of the best we've had.

Pig, in almost any of its many guises, is delicious but nothing beats good carnitas (except for bacon and braised Berkshire pork belly). Carnitas Jaime's served up some of the best we've had.

A shot of local tequila (more about that in our next post) and a rousing version of “Arandas”, courtesy of one of the Mariachi bands that troll Carnitas Jaime’s looking for customers, helped us digest a half kilo of pork.