The Queens of Charreria

Samantha Mayorga Castillo, center right, wears the queen´s sombrero during

the gala ceremony and dinner where she was named Queen of La Villa

charreria rodeo club.

Charreria clubs across Mexico select a new ¨queen¨ every year.

Instead of a crown she wears an elegant sombrero, and becomes the club´s social and cultural representative. It´s work and an honor.

This year Samantha Mayorga Castillo is one of the hundreds of horsewomen to take on the job at her local rodeo club, in her case at La Villa in Mexico City.

Like many of Mexico´s women of charreria, she was born into a charro family and has been riding on escaramuza teams since she was 15.

A charra and charro dance in their wheelchairs at the gala where Mayorga

was named queen of La Villa.

Mayorga, a 26-year-old chemical engineer who works in Mexico´s oil industry, says she most wants to promote and support paracharreria : rodeo performed by horsemen and women who are incapacitated in some way.

Below is a short audiovisual from the ceremony where she became queen, in which Mayorga tells us what it means for her.

For English subtitles, after clicking ¨play,¨then click the CC at the bottom right of the youtube window.

Escaramuza: Soul, Life & Heart

One of Mexico City´s first escaramuza fairs of 2014 showcased young riders and teams that had just recently formed. This audiovisual brings you some of the sites and sounds from the event, hosted by the escaramuza team Santa Rosa de Lima at their lienzo Charro del Peñon. A rider explains why she loves her sport so much, and the announcer talks about the women´s soul, life and heart over the speaker system.

The courage and enthusiasm of these young horsewomen was palpable. To close the event, they gathered inside the arena for the awards ceremony, but it was clear to all that the most important thing to them was their love for their charreria sport : Escaramuza.

For English subtitles, after clicking ¨play,¨then click the CC at the bottom right of the youtube window.

The Connection - Horse and Rider

Lorena Bass at an Escaramuza Fair in Mexico City.

Lorena Bass tells us about a special connection that escaramua riders have with their horses in this audiovisual.

The Art of the Escaramuza spoke with her at a recent Escaramuza Fair in Mexico City where she performed with her two sisters and mother on the same team, Rancho Sovilo from Guadalajara.

Don't miss Lorena's mother explaining why she couldn't help but joint the team!

For English subtitles, after clicking ¨play,¨then click the CC at the bottom right of the youtube window.

Rolando Veraza - Painter, Sculptor, Muralist, Architect

Rolando Veraza poses with his painting of galloping horses.

Titles : Fantasia de Carnaval I, left, and Portentoso.

Rolando Veraza says there came a point in his life when it was high time he did what he really wanted to do : paint and sculpt. He was a full time architect then.

The Art of the Escaramuza discovered Veraza at the "World Equestrian Gathering" in Mexico City in July 2013 where an Escaramuza Fair was happening.

He was a warm fellow, with a gift for making one feel welcome in his artist circle of friends at his gallery-booth filled with his paintings and sculptures. People from other stands gravitated to his, sharing food, drink and a good laugh.

When we asked about his painting of an escaramuza team, he says it's SOLD.

Horse lovers will appreciate his images of this graceful animal galloping across his canvas.Check out his online gallery for more of his work, and don't miss his Pegasus.

When we asked about his painting of an escaramuza team, he says it's SOLD.

Contact

www.rolandoveraza.com
Facebook 

E-mail: rolveraza@hotmail.com

cell +52.155.1384.4541

nextel 46192233

+52.55.5485.7750

Xochimilco, Mexico

Gladys Roldan de Moras - Painter

Here's an artist who lets us peep into her studio and watch the evolution of her work. Gladys Roldan de Moras' Facebook page What's on my Easel exhibits her paintings in a series of photographs taken at different points in time. Here she invites you to see how her paintings mature, using a style she describes as "representational impressionism," from charcoal sketches into colorful masterpieces.  

While raised in Monterrey, Mexico by her Mexican mother and Colombian father, it was her charro grandfather who introduced her to her nation's sport of charreria. But it wasn't until decades later after moving to San Antonio, Texas that she fell in love with this female charreria sport and started putting it on canvas. Roldan de Moras says she was especially drawn to the riders' dedication to their training, their horses' skill and everything about their dresses.

Her grandfather Ernesto M. Olivares Villarreal in Monterrey
on Christmas Eve 1933.

"I know that he would have enjoyed to know that despite the tradition of charreria did not continue on with his own sons, it did somehow find its way into my art."

Roldan de Moras is a full time artist who teaches oil painting at the Coppini Academy Of Fine Arts in San Antonio. She has also illustrated children books.  Every summer she returns to her home in northern Mexico, offering workshops and taking back inspiration for her next painting.

The above painting, titled "Escaramuza in San Antonio," won her the Best of Show prize at

the American Impressionist Society's national juried show in 2012 and a $15,000.00 award.

For more on this artist
Website roldandemoras.com
Facebook What's on my Easel

Rocio Sandoval - Painter

This former escaramuza rider has combined her love for charreria and horses with her artistic talent for over four decades in Aguascalientes, with dozens of exhibits worlwide. She says it's the horses' free spirit that she admires and tries to capture.

Escaramuza Reencuentro Sanmarqueno carry a banner designed by Rocio Sandoval, whose daughter rides on the team.

Banner detail

Sandoval's work was recently spotted on a banner used by an escaramuza team during the opening parade at an escaramuza fair, seen in the pictures at left and above. 

She didn't grow up in a charro family, but fell in love with charreria and married a charro who was also an escaramuza team instructor.

After years of riding with escaramuza teams, she passed the tradition on to her two daughters who are active escaramuza riders and team instructors in Aguascalientes.

Title : Rumbo Fijo (Straight Course)

Sandoval is best known for her paintings of Our Lady of Guadalupe and for the spiritual references she incorporates throughout her work.  For example, her paintings of Mexico's patron Saint are surrounded by ancient Indian codices that hark back to Mexico's indigenous religious history, a tribute to mother earth, known as "Tonantzin" by the Mexicas (or Aztecs) before the Spanish conquest. In all her work, she incorporates images of the four elements, the four cardinal directions and codes from the Nahuatl language, one of the most widespread ​​prehispanic languages alive today in Mesoamerica.

 Rocio Sandoval poses with her paintings of Our Lady of Guadalupe, that include ancient Indian spiritual symbols.

 

Title : Retorno a lo Sagrado (Return to the Sacred)

Sandoval, who gives art classes to all ages from her studio in Augascalientes, is also an authority on various Mexican traditions. She speaks at conferences about the Virgin of Guadalupe, the tradition of The Day of the Dead and the "Huehuetlatolli," or 'The sayings of the old,' or wisdom that was passed down from generation to generation in the Nahuatl language.

 Contact

Rocio Sandoval 

Aguascalientes, Mexico

E-mail : rociosandoval11@hotmail.com

 Home : 001.449.914.0684 (telcel) 

Cell :045.449.111.66.45

Escaramuza Fairs

A tourist's jaw drops when she sees an escaramuza team for the fist time. After all, the women are mounted sidesaddle wearing colorful dresses and Mexican sombreros. It's a site from what would seem like from another age.

Escaramuza fairs are an untapped mine for tourists in Mexico, and not just for foreigners but for the local folks too. It outranks most options for families and couples looking for something fun and affordable to do on the weekends. Aside from the spectacle of  the horse riding performances, they're full of good food, good music, hospitality and a down home atmosphere.

How to find out when and where to see an escaramuza performance in Mexico? They can be found on the events page of this blog, as well as the blog Escaramuzas Damas Charras and the calendar page of De Charros.

The video below is from an escaramuza fair (meaning 10 or so teams perform) at a charro club in Mexico City. We asked a rider why she choose this sport. If you don't read Spanish, that's okay, there are captions in English (click the "cc" option at the bottom of the youtube window).

For English subtitles, after clicking ¨play,¨then click the CC at the bottom right of the youtube window.

If you're interested in learning how the escaramuza sport came to be, check out this video below.

For English subtitles, after clicking ¨play,¨then click the CC at the bottom right of the youtube window.

Maria Fernanda Perezgrovas Martinez - Photographer

Maria Fernanda Perezgrovas Martinez was riding her horse Benito when contacted by The Art of the Escaramuza for an interview. She said he's her first horse, purchased just half a year ago. That's when she decided it was time to learn to ride, and lucky for her, Benito's previous owner was an escaramuza rider.

The Pachuca native began taking pictures of charreria in 2011 when an ad agency commissioned her to photograph charros for a calender. The client fell through but her photographs were honored by Mazatlan's International Photography Symposium (SIF).

After moving to Mexico City to study communications at the Panamerican University, and later to Florida to experiment with digital photography at the city's Art Institute, she moved back to Pachuca and started her professional photographer career.

Perezgrovas' most exquisite work are what she calls "photo-paintings," like the images of Amazon riders in this post.  Her next solo exhibit, titled "Mexican Charreria Tradition," opens at the end of March at the University Salle in Pachuca.  

For inquiries into the sale of her work, to hire her for a shoot,  or to keep up with her photography, she can be reached at the following contacts: Facebook / mafergrovas@gmail.com / Cell: (+52) 772.736.4184

60 Year Anniversary of the Escaramuza!

Don't miss this Escaramuza Fair celebrating the sport's 60th anniversary, hosted by the very charro association where the discipline was founded back in 1953! It's on April 20 at 12pm at the Rancho del Charro Javier Rojo Gomez in Mexico City.

This poster was created by Mexican graphic artist Emilio Garcia Salazar, whose work is available for sale. To get in touch with him, read our profile on Salazar's work.

Coco Camacho - Founding Member of the Escaramuza

Coco at age 14  in 1957. Here she's at a charreria before dancing Jarabe Tapatio.  Just to her left is Graciela Ruiz Loredo, fellow founding member of the first escaramuza. The girl standing second from the right is Susana Mondragon, who joined the escaramuza after the boys left the team.

Coco Camacho in 2009

Guadalupe Camacho Elorriaga, known by her friends as "Coco," was one of the six little kids who had no idea they were going to be part of something big back in 1953.

She and her two brothers, Antonio and Jose, took horse riding lessons with three other kids, from the Ruiz Loredo family, at the Rancho Charro, today's National Charro Association, in Mexico City, and performed a short choreographed version of what they had learned during a charreada, or Mexican rodeo, inadvertantly creating the first "escaramuza."

Almost 60 years later, the escaramuza is no longer co-ed, but a female discipline within charreria, officially recognized as an offical sport within traditional mexican rodeo in 1991, which hundreds of women across mexico and the U.S. proudly call their own.
 

"You could say it's like rain on a field that's been dry. When the escaramuza comes, it refreshes." 

 - Coco Camacho

   

The above video is made up of historical photographs of all six founding members, featuring an interview with Gudalupe "Coco" Camacho Elorriaga. Below, watch a documentary about the evolution of the sport and where it is today.