My Father’s Charrería , My Rodeo: A paisa journey Author(s): Romeo Guzmán Source: Boom: A Journal of California, Vol. 4, No. 1 (Spring 2014), pp. 70-77 Published by: University of California Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/boom.2014.4.1.70 . Accessed: 06/03/2014 23:36 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp
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romeo guzm a´ n
My Father’s Charrer´ıa, My Rodeo A paisa journey
R
am´on Ayala and Los Bravos del Norte opened their set at Arena nightclub in Hollywood with ‘‘Que me lleve el diablo’’ on that night in 2004.11 As the heartwrenching lyrics and Ayala’s melodic accordion reached every corner
of the club, Adri´an F´elix, at the time my roommate at UCLA, motioned with his
eyebrows and index finger to two young women sitting at a table across the dance BOOM: The Journal of California, Vol. 4, Number 1, pps 70–77, ISSN 2153-8018, electronic ISSN 2153-764X. © 2014 by the Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. Please direct all requests for permission to photocopy or reproduce article content through the University of California Press’s Rights and Permissions website, http://www.ucpressjournals.com/reprintInfo.asp. DOI: 10.1525/boom.2014.4.1.70.
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floor. Before we had even asked them to dance, sweat accu-
ones that clearly dated themselves to the 1980s, though
mulated on my palms and a pool of moisture formed in my
they lacked paisa motifs. Aside from being made of silk,
lower back. I knew how to dance about as well as many
they had very little in common with the crema de seda shirts.
newly arrived Mexican immigrants are able to speak
From the corner of my father’s sock and underwear drawer,
English. Instead of striking a beautiful balance of smooth,
I dug out a shiny belt buckle featuring a man astride a buck-
graceful, and intentional movement, I awkwardly jerked my
ing bull. I was out of luck in the shoe department: my
partner forward, back, and to the side, occasionally bumping
normally cool-looking Adidas Sambas stuck out pretty badly
into other dancers. To make matters worse, the boots I bor-
on the dance floor. I attended a few backyard parties and
rowed from Adri´an were one size too large. The double
quincea~neras, but ultimately felt too awkward in my pseudo-
socks that I wore to rectify the situation only added to my
paisa outfits. In high school, I continued to listen to Banda
tenuous footing. My pants for the night, also his, were the
El Recodo, Banda El Limon, and the norte~no band Los
tightest I had ever worn, and the black Stetson hat and long-
Tigres del Norte, but at dances sported soccer jerseys and
sleeve button-down shirt were just a little too big. The only
T-shirts, always with the classic black-and-white Adidas
thing that was mine, by way of my father, was a shiny nickel
Sambas.
and brass belt buckle.
In both of these two periods and outfits, however, my
My first attempt to crossover into the regional Mexican
father’s belt buckle remained at the center of my clumsy
music scene was about a decade before my days at UCLA.
and piecemeal efforts to enter the Los Angeles banda and
I grew up in Pomona, California, a predominately working-
norte~no scenes. My father told me it was a gift. A friend
class neighborhood composed of African Americans and
had given it to him after he rode his first bull. But that was
migrants from Mexico, Central America, the Philippines,
about all I knew. For many years, I imagined him learning
Cambodia, and Vietnam. At school I played soccer on the
to ride bulls on a small ranch in Jalisco or in La Ceja,
playground, after school in the streets and our backyard, and
Zacatecas, where he grew up, under the mentorship of
on Sundays on worn, hole-filled soccer fields. I hung out
a wise old viejito, a charro guru. Maybe I, as his son, with
with children of Mexican migrants like me, who mainly
the belt buckle as my center of gravity, could conquer
spoke Spanish as well as those who preferred to speak
dancing, and through this movement claim for myself
English like I did. At home, I listened to my older brother’s
a direct connection to the Mexican countryside and thus
music: Green Day, Nirvana, and Stone Temple Pilots, as
Mexicaness.
well as classic bands like The Velvet Underground. It wasn’t
In 2007, as I prepared to leave California for graduate
until I entered junior high, in the early 1990s, that I actively
school, I asked my father more about the belt buckle. I was
sought out music and dances.
surprised to find out that he learned to ride bulls in Santa
Like many second-generation Mexicans in Southern
Barbara in the 1980s. A white man named Tom taught him.
California at the time, I fell into banda music’s raucous
Tom, as a gesture of friendship, gave him the belt buckle
embrace. Futboleros, rockeros, Morrissey aficionados, and
after he rode his first bull. The buckle, like Tom, is Amer-
even rappers like Akwid, donned paisa outfits and attended
ican. I placed the belt buckle in my suitcase and didn’t think
2
bailes. Both young men and women wore tight pants, cow-
much more about its history.
boy boots, cintos piteados, and leather vests adorned with
When my father passed away on 13 August 2013, the
regional hometown or home state identification as well as
buckle became the most significant object linking me to
paisa imagery—a cockfight, bull riders, horses. Usually silk
my father, to his past. I was consumed with a desire to know
crema de seda shirts, often intricate Versace knock-offs that
more about it and my father. I pored over photo albums in
incorporated paisa designs, were worn solely by young men.
the garage, watched American rodeo competitions on tele-
To complete the outfit, young people hung a correa, a miniature leather horsewhip, from their belt loops. Lacking
vision, asked my mother about my father’s bull-riding days, and read about American rodeos and charrer´ıa. I came to
money from a part-time job, I used all of my available
appreciate that the belt buckle’s narrative, including my own
resources to put together a passable outfit. In my father’s
imagined one, is a quintessentially migrant, Mexican, and
closet, I found solid-colored silk shirts and more stylized
Californian story. Let us start at the beginning: before the
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71
Nicholas Guzm´an, shown here in his blue goalie’s jersey, with his soccer team.
United States–Mexico border was erected, before the rise of
celebrated ‘‘anniversaries of saints, local traditions, pagan
the US and Mexican nation-states.
gods, special fairs and markets, and patriotic holidays’’ by
Rodeo’s roots go back to the Spanish conquest. Scholars
dancing, listening to music, gambling, drinking, engaging
aptly describe the conquest as an encounter between two
in sport, praying, and attending mass.4 In the sixteenth
distinct civilizations, noting the arrival of new diseases,
century, sporting activities included fighting on horseback
technology, and animals to the Americas. John Lockhart,
with lances as well as grabbing bulls by the tail and throwing
Caterina Pizzigoni, and other historians document the
them to the ground.5 The growth of ranching during the
movement of ideas and practices between Spaniards and
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries contributed to the evo-
3
72
indigenous populations. They highlight the transforma-
lution of charreria. As rules prohibiting non-Spaniards from
tion of language, the changing layout of indigenous
riding horses eased up and more and more indigenous and
homes, and perhaps most emblematically, the forging of a new Catholicism. These new practices, of course, took
mestizos began working on haciendas, a ‘‘uniquely Mexican sport’’ emerged: charreada or charrer´ıa, events that show-
place within a strict racial hierarchy and rigid monitoring
cased the skills of charros, the horsemen.6
of social practices, where Spanish priests often prohib-
Nueva Espa~ na, a colony of Spain, extended well into the
ited indigenous populations from practicing their own
present day US Southwest, with ranching reaching Califor-
religion.
nia by the mid-eighteenth century. As late as the 1860s, the
The collective practices known as charrer´ıa, notes Mary
culture of the charros maintained a strong presence through-
Lou Compte, are a product of this complicated and nuanced
out California. In Santa Barbara, the pastoral economy con-
dynamic, with the fiesta as its main source. Colonial society
nected classes and helped create community identity and
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Nicholas Guzm´an riding a bull, date unknown.
cohesion, argues historian Albert Camarillo.7 The MexicanAmerican War of 1848, dubbed La invasio´ n norteamericana
was solidified. During the 1860s and 1870s, the local pas-
by Mexicans, brought many changes, among them an influx
which produced new jobs in tourisms, construction, and
of white Americans. As Mexicans and white Americans
commercial agriculture. By the 1890s it was not uncommon
worked together on cattle ranches, the latter adopted many
to find entire Mexican families working in fruit canneries,
of the skills and techniques of Mexican charros or vaqueros. It
in the almond industry, and harvesting walnuts. Along
was during this period that white Americans began to host
with these changes came a loss of political power and the
events that ‘‘featured most of the very same contests that
creation of Mexican barrios. By the end of the century,
continued to be part of the traditional Hispanic celebrations,’’
90 percent of the Mexican population lived in a seven-
writes Compte, ‘‘including bull fights, bull riding, corer al
block radius between Vine and State Street, known as Pueblo
gallo, sortijas, picking up objects, steer roping, team roping,
Viejo. These changes, writes Camarillo, established the
8
toral economy slowly lost out to the capitalist economy,
and bronc riding.’’ The American cowboy was on the hori-
social, political, and economic conditions of the twentieth
zon, but the charro was still the main man in the arena.
century. With the onset of the Mexican Revolution in 1910,
From 1883 to 1916, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Shows
and especially World War I, newly arrived Mexicans entered
toured throughout the United States and presented Amer-
a segmented labor system and helped form a second barrio
icans with a romantic and gloried image of the American
on the lower eastside, between Milpas, Ortega, and State
cowboy. At the same time that the cowboy became ingrained
Street.9
in the American imagination, the political, social, and eco-
As the Santa Barbara that we would recognize today took
nomic decline of the Mexican community in Santa Barbara
form, the American rodeo moved away from its Mexican
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73
past and into the realm of sport. In 1922, the first World’s
Santa Margarita, a poor working-class neighborhood near
Championship Cowboy Contest took place at Madison
the city of Guadalajara. During this time, Jos´e Mar´ıa sup-
Square Garden in New York. By 1936, practices now asso-
ported his expanding family by working in the United States
ciated with rodeo were organized into a single sport and,
for a few months at a time. My grandmother recalls that he
according to Compte ‘‘promoted the myth that their sport
first migrated in 1958, as a contracted bracero. Like other
came directly from informal contests among Anglo cow-
men, he overstayed his contract and found other work. But
boys, ignoring the Hispanic influence along with the theat-
even with the dollars he sent south, his family struggled
rical.’’ 10 South of the US-Mexico border a similar
economically. Led by Manuel, the oldest son, they did their
consolidation took place. After the Mexican Revolution,
best to scrap together a living. Manuel sold insurance; the
there was an effort by the state, intellectuals, and citizens
younger boys sold gum on city buses and shined shoes just
to define Mexico’s past and present as well as to make
outside of Guadalajara’s Cathedral. Mar´ıa took in other
Indians, peasants, and other corporate groups into ‘‘good
people’s laundry and, along with the girls, maintained a tidy
Mexican citizens.’’11 In 1933, the same year as the founding
home.
of the Federaci´on Mexicana de Charros, President Abelardo L. Rodr´ıguez declared charrer´ıa Mexico’s national sport.
12
These were challenging times for the family, but the
As
boys, my uncles, have fond memories of their youth. There
the century progressed, the image of the American cowboy
was little that Manuel, Nicol´as, and the two younger broth-
and Mexican charro grew in strength while they grew apart,
ers, Lupe and Ismael, loved more that playing and watching
ensuring the divorce of American rodeo from its Mexican
soccer. They cheered for America, a Mexican national club
influence and past. By the 1990s, when I was in high school,
team from Mexico City, and the bitter rivals of Guadalajara’s
Clint Eastwood was an all-American cowboy and Vicente
Chivas. Indeed, their love for the game has transcended
Fernandez was Mexico’s favorite charro—and they had next
time and space, and imparted the new generation with
to nothing in common in my mind.
a poetic appreciation of the game and some skills to play
Nicol´as Guzm´an was born on a small ranch called Los
it. In our most-recent small-sided game, Maylo (short for
Pozitos in La Ceja, Garc´ıa de la Cadena, Zacatecas, in 1958.
Ismael) told us why my father decided to become a goalie.
He was the third child of Jos´e Mar´ıa Guzm´an Casta~ neda
During a hard-fought match at Estadio Jalisco, America’s
and Mar´ıa Arellano Prieto de Guzm´an. The family worked
goalie Prudencio Cortes made numerous saves, including
a small plot of land and subsisted by planting corn, beans,
a set of three consecutive shots on goal from close range.
and other vegetables. Like many other Zacatecano families,
Nicolas was hooked.
they migrated south, to the developing state of Jalisco.
His first goalie jersey was an American high school let-
In 1966 Jos´e Mar´ıa, his wife Mar´ıa, and their three chil-
terman sweater that his father bought at a second hand store
dren Santos, Manuel, and Nicol´as settled in the Colonia
in the United States. The goals he defended were all on hard dirt fields with rocks scattered throughout the pitch. At only 5 feet, 7 inches and 130 pounds, Nicol´as was not the strongest nor most athletic youngster. Luckily, in the goal, measuring and calculating one’s position is as important as one’s athletic ability. The difference between a save and a goal is often contingent on shuffling one’s feet no more than a foot or two before the opposing player takes a shot and then, of course, the actual dive. By diving at a slight forward angle the goalie can meet the ball early on in its trajectory, cutting it off before it moves farther and farther away from one’s body and hands. My father imparted these insights to me during drills and penalty kicks in our backyard, directly in front of a makeshift soccer goal that we
The Guzm´an family in 1982 with Nicholas wearing the belt buckle.
74
constructed using white PVC pipes. By his own admission
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At home in Pomona many years later, Nicholas Guzm´an wearing the belt buckle.
he never mastered diving at a slight forward angle. Yet the
Hardy, the international and trilingual star Jannette, Dan
careful observation and meticulous calculations required of
Fogelberg, Don McLean, John Denver, and others. Nicol´as
a goalie fit well with Nicol´as’s appreciation of math and his
did not know French or English, but this did not matter; like
often neurotic tendencies. Untied shoelaces, unmade beds,
others of his generation, he sang along, making up the
and carelessly scattered toys troubled his sense of, and need
meaning of each word, refrain, and chorus. His pants, like
for, order. I suspect this is why he enjoyed the responsibility
his hair were long, flowing out at their ends.
of being the last man and having a type of horizontal
This modern urban sensibility was coupled with a roman-
bird’s eye perspective of the field. From the goal, one can
tic idealism for the countryside. From his childhood,
see all the offensive plays develop and more importantly,
Nicol´as retained memories of large open spaces and a rug-
can yell out instructions to one’s fellow players. And of
ged simplicity. These visions of Zacatecas were layered with
course, he also enjoyed the acrobatics of being goalie. He
portraits of the American West from films, particularly
loved that whether he was diving up to block a shot near the
those of his favorite cowboy, Clint Eastwood, whom he
top of the cross bar or down to the ground, he had to
preferred over John Wayne. Nicol´as didn’t buy Wayne’s
consistently fight and defy gravity, all while ensuring a safe
portrayal of cowboy life, finding it inauthentic and Wayne
and soft landing.
himself a few pounds too heavy to be a ‘‘real cowboy.’’ In
During the week, Nicol´as spent his days and evenings
both the American West and rural Mexico, Nicol´as found
´ working at Musica Lemus, a record store in downtown,
simplicity, dignity, and directness. One of his most com-
Guadalajara. This provided him access to all the latest music
mon expressions, often evoked as a demand for clarity,
and a future playlist for his car, truck, and home stereo:
was ‘‘vamos al grano.’’ The English translation for grano
English giants like the Beatles, French divas like Francoise
is grain or bean, and the expression vamos al grano is
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75
The key to a successful ride lies in careful attention to detail, split-second decision-making, and purposeful and graceful movement as much as strength—much like guarding the goal in soccer. Great bull riders make this all look easy, but the various factors to consider are pretty daunting. Bulls use their speed, power, and movement to throw off a bull rider. They can change direction, buck and kick their legs in numerous directions, and drop the front of their body. To stay on, bull riders use their inner thigh muscles and legs to embrace the body of the bull, move their groin and upper body in response to the bull’s movement, and try to maintain a center of gravity. Hitting the ground, of course, is inevitable for every bull rider. As the cowboy saying goes, ‘‘There was never a horse that couldn’t be rode; there never was a man that couldn’t be throwed.’’13 Tom taught Nick, as they affectionately called him, the basics on small bulls in the open range and gave him the Romeo Guzm´an in 2013.
belt buckle after he successfully rode his first bull. Nick wore it to formal and informal bull-riding events throughout
76
understood to mean ‘‘let’s get to the point,’’ or ‘‘let’s get to
Santa Barbara County. On one occasion, with Jos´e Mar´ıa
root of it.’’
in the audience, he successfully rode a bull for eight sec-
In the summer of 1977, Nicol´as met Francisca. She was
onds, scoring the highest points and taking home a small
born and raised in Guadalajara, but had moved to Mexicali
pot of money. Nick rode bulls from 1979 to 1981, leaving
and then later to South El Monte in the San Gabriel Valley
bull riding when he took his wife and three children, includ-
near Los Angeles, where she completed the last two years of
ing me, back to Guadalajara.
high school. That summer, she, along with her siblings,
Although he never returned to bull riding, the belt buckle
lived in the Colonia Santa Margarita, just a few blocks from
remained a mainstay in his wardrobe. He wore it with reg-
the Guzm´an household. After only two weeks of going out
ular T-shirts, polo shirts, and long-sleeve dress shirts. For
and very much al grano, Nicol´as confessed to Francisca that
Nicol´as, the buckle was a point of pride, as it is for many
he wanted to marry her. After that summer, they sent doz-
rodeo riders. The history of rodeo buckles is relatively
ens of postcards and letters and visited each other in Gua-
recent, and tied to the recent history of rodeo. In the late
dalajara and South El Monte as often as possible. A year
nineteenth century, cowboys wore suspenders instead of
later, they got married in Guadalajara and a year after that
belts. With the rise of organized rodeo competitions, belt
migrated to Los Angeles.
buckles were awarded as trophies. As the twentieth century
Desperate for work and without much luck in Los
progressed, it became easier to mass-produce belt buckles,
Angeles, Nicol´as reached out to his father. At the time, Jos´e
increasing their popularity and use.14 Today, buckles con-
Mar´ıa was working for a landscaping company in Santa
tinue to be awarded as prizes at rodeo competitions and
Barbara pruning trees and living near Milpas Street, in the
worn inside and outside of formal events.
historic Mexican barrio of Santa Barbara. Jos´e Mar´ıa found
Approximately 2 inches in circumference and made of
Nicol´as a job working as a field hand on a ranch in Mon-
nickel giving it some heft, my father’s belt buckle has at its
tecito, a wealthy city near Santa Barbara. Nicol´as worked
center, in brass relief, a man on top of a bucking bull, the
alongside several white Americans, including Tom. It was
man’s right hand waving in the air. It can pass for Mexican,
with these white American men and not a Mexican vaquero
but more because of the great diversity of Mexican belt
that he learned to ride bulls.
buckles than for its own intrinsic qualities. Mexican belts
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and buckles vary in size, material, and imagery. One of the most common belts is the cinto piteado. Pita, a fiber found in the states of Oaxaca and Chiapas, is stitched into leather to
Notes ´ ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF ROMEO GUZMAN. 1
The literal translation is ‘‘may the devil take me.’’
2
Josh Kun, ‘‘California Sue~ nos,’’ Boom: A Journal of California 1 (Spring 2011): no 1, 62.
3
James Lockhart, The Nahuas After the Conquest: A Social and Cultural History of the Indians of Central Mexico, Sixteenth Through Eighteenth Century (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1994). Caterina Pizzigoni. The Life Within: Local Indigenous Society in Mexico’s Toluca Valley, 1650–1800. (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013).
4
Mary Lou LeCompte, ‘‘The Hispanic Influence on the History of Rodeo, 1823–1922,’’ Journal of Sport History 12 (Spring 1985): no.1, 22.
5
Compte. ‘‘The Hispanic Influence.’’
my father’s belt buckle, particularly where and how he
6
Compte. ‘‘The Hispanic Influence.’’
learned to ride bulls, fits well within what we know about
7
Albert Camarillo, Chicanos in a Changing Society: From Mexican Pueblos to American Barrios in Santa Barbara and Southern California, 1848–1930 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1979).
8
Compte, ‘‘The Hispanic Influence,’’ 33.
9
Camarillo, Chicanos in a Changing Society.
10
Compte, ‘‘The Hispanic Influence,’’ 21.
11
For an introduction to Mexican nation-building after the revolution, see Gilbert M. Joseph and Daniel Nugent, eds., Everyday Forms of State Formation (Durham: Duke University Press, 1994) and Mary Kay Vaughan, and Stephen E. Lewis, eds., The Eagle and the Virgin (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006). For case studies, see Christopher Boyer, Becoming Campesinos: Politics, Identity, and Agrarian Struggle in Postrevolutionary Michoac´an (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2003) and Alexander Dawson, Indian and the Nation in Revolutionary Mexico (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2004).
12
See Autry Museum’s online text for the exhibit ‘‘Art of the Charreria: A Mexican Tradition,’’ http://theautry.org/explore/ exhibits/charreria.html.
13
Quoted in Mody C. Boatright, ‘‘The American Rodeo,’’ American Quarterly 16 (Summer 1964): no. 2, part 1, 195–202.
14
Lauren Halley, ‘‘A Short History of Cowboy Buckles,’’ American Cowboy, http://www.americancowboy.com/gear/short-historycowboy-buckles.
15
See Autry Museum’s online text for the exhibit ‘‘Art of the Charreria: A Mexican Tradition,’’ http://theautry.org/explore/ exhibits/charreria.html.
form floral, charrer´ıa, prehispanic patterns and imagery, and individuals’ initials and hometown. This artisanal practice has its roots in Spanish leather handcraft, with noticeable Arab influences. Interestingly, the mecca for cintos piteados is Colotl´an, a small town at the northern tip of the state of Jalisco.15 Due the state of Jalisco’s strange configuration, Colotl´an, is 75 miles north of my father’s birthplace, Garc´ıa de la Cadena, Zacatecas, and about 125 miles north of the city of his youth, Guadalajara. In addition to the cinto piteado, there are large, oval, buckles, made from a variety of metals and sometimes the horn of a bull. The narrative I have now constructed about the origins of
Mexican migrants and migration. Yet, Nicol´as’s story also illustrates how much the lines between rural and urban and Mexican and American blur into and layer on top of each other. More importantly, my father and I, just like other migrants and children of migrants of our respective generations, used available resources—like the rodeo buckle—to connect with Mexico and identify as Mexican. I believe that bull riding was an expression of both my father’s romantic and idealist vision of American cowboy culture and his place of birth, La Ceja, Zacatecas. His vision of both these places was mediated through his experience as a young man in the urban city of Guadalajara. Some of the skills that bull riding required were fostered in the goal on dirt soccer fields. That he learned to ride a bull from a white American, speaks to the movement of people, popular culture, and everyday practices across the US-Mexico border. The belt buckle contains and represents this complex and nuanced narrative. This is why my father cherished it so much and why it has served me as a type of amulet. It came with me when I left California to attend Columbia University, in New York City, for doctoral studies in History. I wore it to my first graduate seminar, to the first lecture I gave on migration, and to my discussion sections with undergraduates. And, I wear it now, as I sit in a Mexico City coffee shop, writing out its history. B
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77
