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Thursday, June 7, 2007

Old-Fashioned Rodeo

By Harold Smith
Mountain View Telegraph
    Andres Mora is as much a part of the Escobosa landscape as the tall pines and scrub oak of the eastern foothills of the Manzano Mountains.
    "I was born out here, not in a hospital, but out here," said the 83-year-old patriarch, one of the founders of the Escobosa Riders Club some 42-odd years ago, give or take a year or two. "Me and some other guys, together we started a meeting and figured out how we could do it and formed the club."
    The Escobosa club held the first of four rodeos it will host this summer on Sunday. The competition— including sheep, calf, steer, bull and bareback horse riding— took place on land Mora owns, to the east of his home on the opposite side of N.M. 337.

Click to enlarge

    "My family came here around 1814, 1822; I can't remember exactly," Mora said. "And President (William) McKinley signed off on the homestead papers (in the late 19th century)."
    The rodeo isn't much different from the ranch events held in Mora's youth except for the electric guitars and amplifiers in the crow's nest.
    "Buenas tardes, prima," said a woman respectfully as she greeted another lady before the rodeo began. "How are you?"
    A couple of one-holer outhouses were nestled among the trees to the north of the arena chutes, and children, some chewing on pickles, scampered over the bleachers and through the forest in a gleeful roughhouse. The master of ceremonies, Cosme Pohl, announced that chicharrones were available at the concession stand.
    "I joined the club in 1973," said Aniseto Elwell, clad in the distinctive bright-white Western shirt and a red silk neckerchief called a mascadas, which identified him as a club member. "My dad (Serafico) was one of the original founders. This is the way our parents did it. My dad was a saddle-bronc rider."
    The Torreon-based band, "Los Garrapatas"— named for a flea that gets in the horses' ears and just keeps buzzing around in the cabeza— played music ranging from mariachi to Western and from '50s rock 'n' roll to Freddy Fender. Their latest CD is titled "Matanza Jam".
    "We mix it up for people," said band leader Leo Chavez. "We've been together like 35 years. We started the band to do this rodeo."
    Chavez's brothers, James and Gene, and his nephew, Marcos, also play in the band. Gilbert Lesperance helps the band set up.
    Youth reigned supreme inside Escobosa's arena, an oval of plowed-up dirt clods set in the midst of a meadow and contained by a rust-red metal corral. On a partly cloudy, somewhat humid day, Anthony Aragón, 20, won the bulls and bareback events, and 6-year-old Andres Gabaldon was the victor in sheep and calf riding.
    In the best mutton-bustin' ride, Gabaldon hung on as he gradually leaned to the perpendicular off the left side of his woolly mount. He maintained his grasp even as he slipped under the sheep's belly.
    "The calf was stronger," said the 3-foot-something, 56-pound cowboy, a first-grader-to-be from Belen's Rio Grande Elementary.
    Steer-rider Jacob Robertson, who will be in the eighth-grade at Rio Rancho Mid-High this autumn, said he stays with his father at his home near Escobosa every weekend.
    "I've been riding for three years," said the 13-year-old, who wore the "Stars and Bars" of the Confederate States of America emblazoned on the back of his shirt and on his belt buckle. "It's fun. It gives you an adrenalin rush."
    Aragón, who said his grandparents live in Chilili, ambled from one ride to the next, his arms swaying loosely and his head bobbing to the music.
    "It's time for you to put your hamburgers and beers down," said Pohl with a chuckle as he called for his fellow club members through the public-address system. "It's time to go do the chutes for the bulls."
    Aragón's winning bull darted out of the gate and made a beeline to the center of the arena. Then the brute abruptly stopped.
    Aragón, a construction worker and former Manzano High student from Albuquerque, simply dismounted, slipping his left leg over and then sliding off to starboard.
    After picking up his prize money, Aragón sauntered over to the bleachers.
    "You can put bulls down for me, too," he said.
    J.R. Chavez, who attended Estancia High before subsequently graduating from El Paso Andress High, smiled and shook his head after he was dumped from his bull.
    "I've been riding since I was 6 years old," said Chavez, a 21-year-old pipefitter from Torreon. "It's just such a rush.
    "My dad (Randy, a retired Army master sergeant) was born and raised in Estancia."
    The unofficial stick-to-itiveness award went to Bryan Brown, who said he lives north up the road, not far from Escobosa. Brown, 17, rode one bull in competition, then three more just for practice.
    "This was a very bad day for me," said Brown, who will be a senior at Manzano this fall. "I just couldn't get my grip. But this rodeo is pretty fun. It's just a small-town rodeo."
    Edgewood's Freddy Gallegos got first place in steer riding, said Eddie Elwell, the club secretary and the 26-year-old great-grandson of Serafico. Eddie Elwell said Aragón received $50 each for his bull and bareback wins, while the steers victor got $10 and the calf and sheep winners earned $5 each.
    "We didn't get as many (riders or spectators) as we had wanted," Aniseto Elwell said. "But we had fun. We enjoy this."
    The Escobosa Riders Club will also host rodeos on July 8, Aug. 5 and Sept. 2. For information on becoming an Escobosa rodeo sponsor, call club president Louie Martinez at 286-9755.