I am a professional journalist who comes from a proud lineage of authentic Mexican and Mexican American charros-caballeros, horsemen-gentlemen. I do know my cultural heritage from verbal and written accounts, first hand experience, historians and respectable scholars, who have consecrated years of their precious life to the study of Charrería, known in English as Mexican equestrianism or the arts and traditions of the charro. As you must know, Charrería’s central element, the charreada, has been established as América’s first rodeo. 

With all due respect, professor Jean Kim, but your scholarly piece, entitled MULTICULTURALISM GOES IMPERIAL: Immigrants, Animals, and the Suppression of Moral Dialogue, is both filled with copy and paste, misleading anti-charro rhetoric, and a clear example of what have been fighting against during the last decades. 

The charreada has become quite a feast for self-appointed animal rights activists, politicians and irresponsible, unethical individuals who have cero or incorrect knowledge about our centuries old equestrian patrimony. With your article, professor Jean Kim, you have proved to my beloved charro community and your own honorable scholarly community that it is quite alright to substitute easily corroborated facts for hypotheticals, fallacies or opinions based on unreliable, unprofessional sources. 

“In the Mexican charreada, practiced since the 1950s in numerous states across the United States by Mexican immigrants and their descendants, three of the nine suertes (contests) involve horse tripping. Manganas a caballo, for example, involves a charro (cowboy) on horseback chasing a galloping horse around a corral and then lassoing the horse's front legs as she runs, sending her crashing to the ground on her face or neck, or sometimes flipping her over. When charros practice for this event, they might trip the same horse over and over until she is too injured to run. The horses used suffer broken necks, legs and shoulders, lacerations, and sometimes death. They are usually rented for a day while on their way to slaughter, and if they survive the charreada, they are shipped to slaughter upon its conclusion. Charros train hard to hone their skills and take great pride in continuing this centuries-old Mexican tradition that grew out of the ranching practices of the hacienda system.” 

Most of this absurd, inaccurate information was spread in the early 1990s by Ms. Christine Lund, from KABC TV Los Angeles, and Cathleen Doyle, president of the California Equine Council. I’m assuming, since you did not attribute it to anyone, that you agree entirely with it. 

Kindly allow me, professor Jean Kim, to correct you. 

a) The charreada has been a part of my Mexican American community since at least the Colonial period, a time when most of the Southwestern United States belonged to México (professor Olga Nájera Ramírez). A brief study on the cowboy rodeo would reveal exactly what professor Mary Lou LeCompte said in the Journal of Sport History in 1985: the five standard events of contemporary Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association rodeos, which are bareback bronc riding, saddle bronc riding, bull riding, steer wrestling and calf roping, had long been a part of Charrería, and were, in 1922, organized and conducted much as they have been in México for hundreds of years. It is, however, in the 1950s and 1960s when the United States charreada registers, as an organized sport-tradition, with the Mexican Federation of Charrería. Please consult your local Californian Catholic Mission for specifics involving the Mexican charro and the vaquero’s contribution to the American society. It is imperative that you get this fact right, so next time you write about our charreada do not make it appear as if it were a recent, imported “immigrant” tradition. If anything, it would show a little respect towards our rich, Mexican and Mexican American history and cultural patrimony. 

b) Did you ask the Mexican Federation of Charrería for a proper English translation of Manganas? Manganas, or foreleg horse catching, involves two of the nine Suertes Charras, yet you managed to come up with a third one. What separates the work of scholars, such as Kathleen Mullen Sands and Olga Nájera Ramírez, from typical, bovine scatology rethoric, is their years of study, research, conducted interviews, witnessing live charreadas and double checking information. This is the reason why they are an authority on Charrería. 

c) If you have never seen or been to a live charreada, from beginning to end, I must ask you not to use hypotheticals or compare our tradition with “live-animal sales/consumption,” which you did, unfortunately, throughout your piece. Ethics in your field of expertise should mean something. We do not mistreat animals and we certainly do not use them until they are “too injured to run.” We abide by existing local, state and national animal welfare laws and our own Charro Rulebook and Code of Ethics, which clearly condemn animal cruelty. Have you read any of our rules and regulations? Every charro knows that without strong, healthy animals he would not be a charro. We love and treasure our animals. There is no intentional animal cruelty in the charreada nor do we take pleasure in injuring a horse or a bull. Anyone who has ever been at a live charreada will find your comparisons, especially the one referring to the on-site killing of animals for consumption, to be incredibly illiterate, absurd, unfair and malicious. 

d) Indeed, charros do “train hard to hone their skills and take great pride in continuing this centuries-old Mexican tradition that grew out of the ranching practices of the hacienda system,” but we do it because we have the right to maintain our genuine cultural traditions in the United States, particularly those of us who were born in the Southwestern territory. We do not do it because we want to inflict pain and suffering upon animals, as you seem to imply. As Mexican and Mexican Americans, we feel it is our duty to preserve, protect and advance our equestrian cultural tradition. 

I suppose, professor Jean Kim, that I could rebut each of your points and “facts,” but allow me to concentrate instead on the essence of your piece: the double standard argument. 

“Immigrant advocates make a second and related argument, derived from multi-culturalist discourse, that their critics are demonstrating racism, ethnocentrism, or cultural imperialism.” 

Last year, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors adopted a plan that called for a “study to reiterate” state law prohibiting cruelty to animals. But, from its original intent —banning rodeos and circuses in unincorporated areas—, the initiative was carefully narrowed down before the audience to basically finding only the Mexican charreadas questionable, even after Mr. Greg Van Wassenhove, director of the Santa Clara County Agriculture & Environmental Management, acknowledged publicly that he had cero reports of accidents relating to charreadas. 

What this latest case illustrates, professor Jean Kim, is just one pattern: condemn and mutilate the charreada, but save the cowboy rodeo. To date, it has made no difference that leading pro-animal rights advocates, such as Mr. Eric Mills, from Action for Animals, and Mr. Alfredo Kuba, from Defend Animals Coalition, have declared publicly that they have seen far more “harsh” and “abusive” treatment in the cowboy rodeo events of steer wrestling and calf roping than either colas or manganas. 

“In the past 30 years I’ve spent many hours at all three of these questionable ‘entertainments,’” stated Mr. Mills in the San José Mercury News after the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted to single out the Charreada back in February 2008. “Charreadas certainly have their problems (e.g., steer tailing and horse tripping). But I’ve seen far worse abuses in both circuses and rodeos. These two inherently cruel industries should not get a pass from the Board. It’s highly unfair to criticize only the Mexican rodeos. Some would say it smacks of racism.” 

Since you, professor Jean Kim, took the liberty to write a scholarly piece about my cultural tradition without actually interviewing or having any direct contact with any members of our charro community, including official representatives from the United States and México, I must ask you to rethink, thoroughly, your prima facie. We do not object to any form of constructive, objective criticism. We have never asked for special concessions simply we are members of an ethnic minority preserving a cultural tradition in a white majority. We have not tried to deviate the attention from the false and serious accusations of animal cruelty by playing the race card, as you so eloquently claim. What we have done, indeed, is to oppose and denounce being singled out for practicing a family-oriented tradition, from which the white, cowboy rodeo originated. In execution, there is not much difference between these two cultural traditions. How then, professor Jean Kim, can anyone justify any measure that singles out the charro, time and again, but excludes the cowboy, time and again? 

In effect, it has been our charreada the one getting condemned by politicians and animal rights activists alike, without regard to violating the principle of equal protection under the law. We have been disrespected and treated as second class citizens. There is not a single, independent study that shows our charreada is more or less rough on animals than any other forms of sports where animals play an indispensable role, such as polo, horse racing, steeplechase and the cowboy and indian rodeo, to name a few. As of today, none of these sports, and especially the cowboy rodeo events, have been affected by any laws, at least in the Southwestern United States . The charreada, on the other hand, has been censured and crippled, and its reputation continues to be unfairly and seriously damaged, all thanks to ridiculous assumptions and irresponsible narratives such as yours, professor Jean Kim. 

From its inception, the primary mission of Charrería has been to preserve, protect and promote the arts and traditions of the classic charro and his family in a healthy, friendly-oriented environment. We have almost 500 years of equestrian and cattle history. We all know that without animals there would be no charros. So, our mission is to continue taking proper care of our animals so we can maintain alive our tradition. What is your mission, professor Jean Kim? 

I can only tell you that a personal quest should never take precedent over the preservation of a community’s rich, beautiful and beloved cultural heritage. Never. 
 

Cordially, 
Guillermo Gracia Duarte 
Associate Editor 
CharroUSA.com