Permit us to share a story with you: When we were a bit younger, about 18 or so, we’d ride out on Saturday’s with a gentleman in his fifties, one of the few men we have admired and respected in this lifetime that includes Winston Churchill. He could ride and rope with the best of them but this authentic caballero was more than a charro. He was “Un hombre de a caballo.” He trained horses Haute Ecole, played polo, spoke three languages and was instructed in classical piano. He would invite us out after early morning coffee accompanied by four or five vaqueros, some illiterate, the remainder with no more than a first grade education. Each of them would be in charge of una punta of about 25 or 30 vacas and the corresponding sire and offspring. And from the moment we left the Casa Grande until early afternoon when we returned from the rodeo he would grill each of his employees with questions as if he didn’t know or had forgotten what was happening on his hacienda; “How many cows did you say you have?” “How many calved this week?” “What was the mothers name and number?” “Was she the cardena clara or the cardena obscura bragada?” “Is that the one with the horns viscos or brochos?” And on and on, week after week, month after month. And we never understood until…years later. If one wishes to succeed in an enterprise one must be persistent, never reluctant and that is why - “We’re baaaack!” with the second and last (ain’t life wonderful?!) installment of our article: 

“Save a Horse…Ride a Cowboy!”

“Es nuestro placer poderle anunciar que durante el LXIII Congreso y Campeonato Nacional Charro de 2007, AQHA una vez más entregara como premio, un remolque para el propietario registrado del Caballo Cuarto de Milla…El evento tomará lugar en Morelia, Michoacán, México del 10 al 28 de octubre. AQHA estará presente durante el evento para ayudarle con los trámites de los papeles de sus Caballos Cuarto de Milla. Así que prepárese y alístese para otro año de competencia, emoción y premios de AQHA. Hebillas serán otorgadas para los ganadores que compitan…en los eventos de Colas y Calas. Arriba Morelia!”
American Quarter Horse Association’s Spanish portal – September 2007

Let’s cut to the chase: In our last episode we mentioned that during a recent Charro National Finals all the horses used for manganas were Quarter Horses. We now read from a press release sent out by the executive president of the organizing committee that during this years Finals in Morelia of the 400 horses to be lassoed 118 or 30% will be registered ¼ horses. Not only that but as outlined these cuarto de milla have been imported from California, Texas, Illinois, New Mexico and Oklahoma – all states where manganas are banned. We strongly believe that before this event takes place the American Quarter Horse Association should either retire its sponsorship in Mexico or file a disclaimer with the animal activist organization International Fund for Horses and similar that pontificate that the AQHA is against the charro and his manganas. As Bush has said about allies; “You’re either with us or a’gin us!”

“Quarter Race Horses were primarily work horses, their owners common men, and they had little place in the heady world of Thoroughbred racing. The settlers of the west bred their horses to the Spanish mares of the area, who were already known as tough, hardy, independent range horses unequaled for cow-sense and endurance.” The Quarter Horse – Michelle Staples

As all the charros living north of the Rio Bravo know during and immediately following the Finals in Morelia they will be inundated with visits, letters, e-mails, phone calls and political PROMISES from the candidates who seek their suffrage to be elected the next president of the Federacion Mexicana de Charreria (FMCh) for the 2008–2012 term. If we were them and paid annual quotas to become or remain a member of the FMCh (we aren’t and we don’t) we would insist on receiving a statement of purpose on what these vote seekers have planned for action against the animal rights activists who continue to plague charreria in that country. This does not mean passing the buck onto Vice-president Marcos Franco representing the FMCh in the USNA leaving him to fend for himself with only his riata in hand as Santino “Sonny” Corleone would have said. This is what the hermanos charros who live in Mexico and are on the board of directors including El Presidente will personally achieve through a detailed, aggressive and long overdue program. In 1994 the Federacion did nothing, ZERO, as in NADA. In April of 2004 through one of our editorials we alerted the Mexican vaquero community of the pending legislation to ban colas in Florida. The FMCh had no idea, no clue. If it were not for the subsequent determined intervention by then VP Ramiro Rodriguez who read our article Florida would have been the first domino to fall against another charro event just as the mangana debacle started in California in 1994. Remember, you have the right to vote not the obligation. If there are no competent candidates - BOYCOTT THE ELECTIONS.

“As Cesar Chavez wrote to me in 1990, ‘Kindness and compassion towards all living things is a mark of civilized society. Conversely, cruelty, whether it is directed against human beings or against animals, is not the exclusive province of any one culture or community of people. Racism, economic deprival, dog fighting and cock fighting, bullfighting and RODEOS (emphasis by recipient) are cut from the same fabric: VIOLENCE (emphasis by us.) Only when we have become nonviolent towards all life will we have learned to live well ourselves.’ Words to live by. Copies available upon request. Si se puede!”
Eric Mills, coordinator and sponsor of AB 1614 (and many others) – President of Action for Animals

“Si se puede???, Si se puede!!!” Who does this guy think he is anybuey for Heavens sake an Aztec God? He writes in castellano using quotes from people like Chavez, Assemblyman Coto and Senator Figueroa among many others with a Spanish surname to solidify HIS agenda. Don’t you get it? READ MY LIPS; he’s using YOU. Por Dios!! All we need now is for Mr. Mills to show up at the next Gay Pride Parade with his famous sign “Queers for Steers” wearing a sombrero instead of his Stetson! Please take special note that Mr. Chavez does NOT mention in his letter to Mr. Mills charreria, a CULTURE that does not promote racism, economic deprival, dog fighting, cock fighting, bullfighting, rodeo or violence. Apples and oranges. We can’t explain with any certainty in response to what or in what context this American workers rights leader wrote the aforementioned missive. What we can guarantee is that the apple and orange, grape and lettuce pickers and other farm workers that Mr. Chavez is said to have defended were the same men that established charro associations in California and the southwest of the USNA. Hombres de campo camino a hombres de a caballo. We must say that Mr. Chavez became a vegetarian and an animal rights advocate but late in life. However, did you know that he was against undocumented workers? That in 1973 the United Farm Workers organization that he established and was leading at the time prevented with PHYSICAL VIOLENCE Mexican immigrants from entering the United States of North America in order to stop them from breaking a strike and that he reported these replacement workers or those who refused to unionize to the Immigration and Naturalization Service? Ahhh verdad!!! Why did Mr. Mills fail to mention these facts? Politicians tell you what you want to hear. Mr. Mills tells you what he wants to hear. Listen, we have no issue with any workers rights icon unless we are provoked. We are passionately for Mexican culture that is charreria and will do anything within our limited sphere of influence to conserve and protect it.

An aside: We received a few penetrating comments with regard to our previous remarks about Mr. Mills’ preferred partnerships. Frankly we don’t give a flying chit what his private and personal life involves - what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas or ““Don’t ask, don’t tell.” We are not homophobic gay bashers. We did not pull him out of the closet. We did not take his photograph participating in parades much less publish them. We have had very close (but no cigar) relationships with colleagues and good friends who are homosexual. We’ve toiled over projects, had lunch and diner together, enjoyed a few laughs, shared a few too many tequilas. But, mi amigo, as the sun set in the west we all went home to our selected better halves. We respect them, they respect us. Take for instance our hairdresser, barber, whatever; Alex exhibits a long bleached blond ponytail, flaunts something like a training bra and wears just enough makeup to be noticed but not enough to cover-up his six-o’clock shadow. When we walk into his salon he gives us an abrazo and pecks both of our cheeks (facial) very European, very Middle-Eastern, very chic you know?! We sit down, he styles our hair while his assistant does our nails and she authentically fills a real brassiere with real flesh and blood 36C’s (Scout’s honor we don’t peek or peck!) He jokes about machos we joke about maricas. We get up to leave, another abrazo, peck peck and our wife pays the bill with a handsome tip. As was the case with Sir Winston, rumors have flown of our unmanly tendencies because of our unconventional companions, nails, pink shirts, pocket squares, an occasional flower in the lapel, even our jalisiences have been scrutinized. Al Capone had his nails done and died of syphilis. Enough said. We have used Mr. Mills as a kind of proverbial burr under the charro’s montura in order to provoke a reaction, ya’ know like the Lone Ranger triumphant over an onslaught of Machos Mexicanos. We also thought it was good press. Apparently not. Mr. Mills should be tickled pink that our efforts to win a victory have been met with defeat - we are ignored while he is still ridin’ high in the saddle – “Ride ‘em cowboy!”

“…the elegance, daring, skill, dignity, and exotic nature of charreria is neither threatening nor challenging to the dominant society. On the contrary, it bears an obvious similarity to the U.S. cowboy tradition and rodeo performance and posits a cultural kinship through the vaquero influence on both the charro and the cowboy equestrian styles. It is, in fact, a means of overcoming prejudice and eliciting appreciation for Mexican culture.” Charreria Mexicana: An equestrian folk tradition; Kathleen Mullen Sands – 1993

Mr. Mills begins his activist career after going to his first American style rodeo in 1986 and was justifiably horrified and appalled when a calf being chased by a cowboy twirling a nylon lariat outran a Quarter Horse plowing head first into a steel tubular fence fracturing its face to the extent that, according to Mr. Mills, its muzzle could be raised to its forehead. We weren’t there so we won’t argue the point although in all our years around ranchos, arenas, lienzos, herraderos, destetaderos, mulada, ganado and caballada we have never seen such an injury. Now, we apologize for being repetitive but; why has the only change in calf roping been in the name? Why after 21 years of Eric’s animal rights crusade “tie down” is flourishing while manganas are banned in 9 states and counting? What would you call this – discrimination? What is the future of charreria in the USNA? Will Mr. Mills and his band of merry men get their wish to outlaw colas thus virtually eliminating the charro culture in “their” country? Will the charros Americanos expose their weak side giving in without a fight? Will any state PUA, charro association or the Federacion Mexicana de Charreria, A.C. itself take up the “Sandoval Initiative” and / or help Senator Martin Sandoval with Dn. Jose Lopez-Yanez to overturn SB 1066 that bans manganas and piales in Illinois? Will the hundreds of Mexican-American and Latino lawmakers throughout the United States get the message that charros might not be machos pero si muchos and can and will be influential in their future political campaigns? Are there not allies out there in the Hispanic caucuses, Mexican-American lawyers associations, the AQHA, the PRCA, the FMCh, stock contractors that rent their animals to the charros and, why not, members of animal rights organizations that have a serious not superficial agenda to solve the REAL problems regarding the inhumane treatment of God’s creatures? Mr. Mills’ passion is rodeo animal rights. Our ardor is charreria – n’er the two shall meet. We will never convince him that charros are animal lovers. He will never convince us that the Grupos de Animales that he leads throughout the United States of North America are not racist – it’s mutually exclusive. However, it is our intention that articles like these may alert politicians of the great injustice being committed against Mexican culture and how they are being used and abused by animal rights lobbyists of the likes of Mr. Eric Mills and his posse.