Rodeo Days

Rodeo de Taos and National Day of the Cowboy

A couple of things prompted this visit to rodeos past. First, the annual Rodeo de Taos will happen on Saturday and Sunday August 8 and 9. And the segue from the Blessing of the Horses in San Martin de Terreros last week to the Taos rodeo and the National Day of the Horse at the Mortenson Ranch south of Santa Fe is a natural. The cultures of rural Mexico and rural New Mexico are very much intertwined since New Mexico was part of Mexico until 1848. That’s when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo made the New Mexico territory part of the United States. The effects of that occasion had profound consequences for the Hispano population whose land was stolen despite agreements to the contrary. It was a monumental landgrab felt to this day in El Norte. Resentment still percolates beneath the surface of our three-culture community which remains majority Hispano but just barely.

When I first visited Taos in 1958 as part of a high school service organization the proud town fathers told us that, “We are Spanish not Mexicans.” There’s a basis for that claim since the Spanish conquistadors did in fact reach Taos. They conquered the indigenous people twice and other than the conquistadores themselves there hasn’t been a pure Spaniard in northern New Mexico for 300 years.

My sheep rancher acquaintance Andre Archuletta of Conejos, Colorado and formerly of Chamita, New Mexico emphatically proclaims that,” We are Mexican.” Andre is right.

As with the Blessing of the Horses the Rodeo de Taos and the National Day of the Cowboy celebrate the horse and rider. Both transport us to a simpler time and to the rural roots of New Mexico. Out come the Wranglers, the semi-official jeans of real cowboys and cowgirls everywhere, and the boots and hat that make a pretender like me feel like a real cowpoke. I’ve played cowboy nearly all my life. Somewhere in the archives are pics to prove it. When I was a camp counselor in upstate New York in the early Sixties, I was Tex to the happy campers.

Head ‘em up and move ‘em out, buckeroos.