Don Garron : a charro of many trades

Don Garron wears many hats. First, he´s 100% charro. He is also a vet. He´s a chef of traditional Mexican food. He´s also a photographer.

The Art of the Escaramuza discovered Don Garron dishing out tacos at rodeo events around the capital city, dressed in his signature charro suit and being his warm, hearty self with his patrons.

Meet Don Garron in this short audiovisual made during an escaramuza fair in Mexico City where the escaramuza was born : El Rancho Charro, or the National Association of Charros.

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

Girlfriends of charreria

Fierce competition among the athletes is natural, but they all share a love for the same sport, in this case: the escaramuza.

María José Peña, a Mexican female horse rider who is part of the escaramuza team Rancho La Joya, explains the atmosphere that pervades the competitions and the role of women in charreria, Mexico´s national sport.

The below audiovisual was made at the rodeo club La Tapatia in Mexico City where team competed to qualify for the national charreria competition, charreria´s highest event of the year.

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

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.

Cristina Alvarez Tostado Pena - Fashion designer

Amazona & fashion designer Cristina Alvarez Tostado Peña.

This fashion designer knows her clientele: she's an escaramuza rider herself.

Cristina Alvarez Tostado Peña designs and creates the adelita uniforms for not only her own team, Los Olivos from Guadalajara, Mexico, but for teams across the nation who are part of Mexico's national sport of charreria.

Tostado Peña says she takes after her grandmother who worked in the fashion industry in the U.S., and today runs her own business : Ac Vestidos Disenos

This designer's dresses show great attention to detail, like these layered ruffles.

Cristina Alvarez Tosdado Peña.

Contacts

Email: acvestidos@gmail.com

Facebook: Ac Vestidos Disenos

Celular: 33.1469.3168

Nextel: 92*796131*6

 Guadalajara, Jalisco.
Mexico


To read more about fashion designers, click here.

A rider from her team Los Olivos, from Guadalajara, Mexico, wears a design by Cristina Alvarez Tostado Pena.

Saddlers - Traditional Leather Artisans

This saddle maker has been in the business for over 50 years, making saddles for escaramuza and charro teams alike. Alfonso Oviedo Perez learned from his father while growing up in Guanajuato, and has passed down his know-how to his son Juan.

"My dad started by making huarache sandles." 

The father and son can be found at a their workshop at Pedregal's charreria facilities in Mexico City, custom making every leather good known to charreria for both female and male riders across Mexico.  Not just saddles!

Watch this audiovisual where Alfonso and his son Juan tell their story.

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

Contacts

Within Mexico : 55.5606.9593

From the US +52.55.5606.9593

Email : talabarteriaoviedo_df@hotmail.com

Soledad Caldera - Escaramuza Fashion Designer

Soledad Caldera began running her own dress making operation in 1997 when she decided to start working for herself.

Out of a tiny studio in her city of Jerez de Garcia Salinas in Mexico's Zacatecas state, she started churning out her own clothing designs for the men and women of charreria, or Mexican rodeo.  Today she has a succesful business and operates her store Confecciones Caldera.

As a little girl Caldera started sewing clothes with her mother who made their family's everyday wear on her grandparent's ranch: Rancho Los Aparicios.

It was her upbringing on that  farm that inspired her to specialize in charro fashion. When she was a teenager in 1978, her family moved to the city where she started working as a seamstress for a store that specialized in cowboy wear. After 17 years, she struck out on her own.

Today Caldera travels all over Mexico and even as far as the U.S. to take the measurements for escaramuza teams that hire her to design their uniforms. She also designs quite a few charra wedding dresses and charra quinceaneara dresses.

Website : Confecciones Caldera

Facebook

Address

Francisco Villa 105

Jerez de Garcia Salinas

Zacatecas, Mexico

MAP

Phone Numbers

 Called locally : 494.945.0504

Called from outside Jerez but within Mexico : 01.494.945.0504

 Called from the U.S.: 011.52.494.945.0504

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

Mariana Rodea Rangel Pasante - Photographer

Mariana Rodea Rangel Pasante is a budding photographer based in Toluca, Mexico. At the ripe age of four her grandparents introduced her to riding horses, and she went on to join her first escaramuza team as a teen. 

Rodea aspires for a career in documentary photography, starting with the subject of charreria. Her first pictures were of landscapes and product shots for advertising.

Rodea is finishing up her graphic design degree in 2013 at the Mexico State Autonomous University (Universidad Autonoma del Estado de Mexico) at the school's architecture college. 

Her thesis? Naturally, related to charreria and photography, titled : "Photographic abstract, cross country, the old fashion way at Buenavista Ranch, Villa Victoria."  

Rodea says her thesis takes an anthropological approach to the national sport, and concentrates on the sport outside the charro arena, which she got a close look at while living in the town of Villa Victoria near Toluca for 13 years.

"I'm an escaramuza rider because Mexico needs to bolster the female side of its traditions, of sacrifice, faith and courage, and fills us with pride."

 

Above: The escaramuza team Las Peñitas de Villa del Carbón performs a second time during the Escaramuza Fair of Temoaya, in the state of Mexico, on Sept. 15, 2012. Instead of wearing their team's escaramuza uniform, they are wearin Apache Indian costumes, and mounted bareback. This style is not considered part of the escaramuza sport, but requires horse true horse riding skill and is usually a hit with the public.

Contacts:

E-mail : marianarodearangel@gmail.com

Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/MarianaRodeaFotografia

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

Jose "Pepe" Camacho - Founding member of the escaramuza

Photo was taken in October of 1953 at the Rancho del Charro, today's National Charro Association, in Mexico City.

1954: Lilia Lopez Becerril & Rosalia Ranzanz join the team.

Jose Camacho Elorriaga, affectionately known as "Pepe" had the good fortune of riding on the first escaramuza in the history of the sport.

As a boy, he took horse riding lessons with his brother Antonio, sister Guadalupe, known as "Coco," and three other kids from the Ruiz Loredo family : Arturo, Graciela and Maria Eugenia.

Fate put them in the middle of the arena one afternoon in 1953 as a group, showing off their skills during a break at a charreada, or Mexican rodeo. They performed a basic and slow synchronized routine. That day, the escaramuza was born.

Thirty-eight years later, the discipline became an officially recognized sport of charreria in 1991, recognized by the Mexican Federation of Charreria when Carlos Enrique Pacual Lopez led the organization.

Pepe left the original team after a few years, along with his brother Antonio. They had other charro sports to practice, leaving the door wide open for other little girls to join the team. Since then, the escaramuza sport has been a female affair.

Pepe on his horse at the National Association of Charros in 2009, photo by Leslie Mazoch.

Below are historical photographs of the first and second generation of escaramuza teams, including Jose, narrated by interviews with his sister Coco and brother Antonio.

Maria Eugenia Ruiz Loredo - Founding Member of the Escaramuza

This photo was taken in October of 1953 at the Rancho del Charro, today's National Charro Association, in Mexico City.

Maria Eugenia Ruiz Loredo is one of the first "amazonas" to ever ride in an escaramuza team. Alongside her sister Graciela and brother Arturo, she learned basic horse riding skills in a class with three other kids from the Camacho Elorriaga family at the Rancho del Charro in Mexico City.

 

The kids' parents decided to show off their choreographed exercises during a break at a "charreada," or Mexican rodeo. That was in 1953. The crowd loved it and the escaramuza was born. Today escaramuza teams are made up of exclusively female riders, who earned their place as athletes within the tradition of charreria in 1991 when their sport was declared an official charreria sport by Mexico's Charro Federation.

Maria Eugenia Ruiz Loredo rides on the first escaramuza team in 1953 at the Rancho Charro in 1953.

Below is a video of historic photographs of the first escaramuzas, with an 

interview by one of the other girls on the team, Guadalupe "Coco" Camacho.

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.

Arturo Ruiz Loredo - Founding Member of the Escaramuza

Arturo Ruiz Loredo on Oct. 18, 1953

Did you know that boys rode in the first escaramuza ? In fact, the first team was evenly split between boys and girls: three girls and three boys.

Who would have imagined that back in 1953 a charreria performance was co-ed. It didn't last long however, just a few years, as the boys began practicing other charreria sports, like roping and tumbling cattle over. 

That left room for more girls to join and that's when the escaramuza became a female affair.

Arturo in Tepeji del Rio, Mexico. 2009

Today a professional horse trainer in Tepeji del Rio, Hidalgo, Mexico, Arturo Ruiz Loredo was just 5-yeras-old  when he rode alongside his two sisters Graciela and Maria Eugenia. The three other kids were from the Camacho Elorriaga family. Arturo reflected back on how it all started, with this comment:

"The escaramuza was not something that was preconceived, it wasn't  an idea that any particular person had who said we're going to do this and that, something planned. The escaramuza evolved like life." 

- Arturo Ruiz Loredo

Arturo at his horse training center in Tepeji del Rio, Mexico. 2009

The following video is an audio-slide show about the Escaramuza sport, featuring an interview with Arturo, by photographer Leslie Mazoch.

The below video is a collection of historical photographs of this first team, paired with an interview of Guadalupe "Coco" Camacho, one of the three girls on the team.

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.

 

Graciela Ruiz Loredo - Founding Member of the Escaramuza

Graciela Ruiz Loredo gives a riding class in Oaxaca, Mexico in July 2012.

Graciela Ruiz Loredo was seven-years-old when destiny put her and her two siblings in the first escaramuza team.

That was back in 1953, alongside her younger sister Maria Eugenia and little brother Arturo, with three other kids from the Camacho family..

Graciela's parents also encouraged them to bullfight! The style done while mounted on horses, called "rejoneo."

Graciela is still a horse lover. In Oaxaca, Mexico, she gives private classes to those who want to learn to ride.

Graciela, 7, left, Maria Eugenia, 6, center, and Arturo, 5, pose for photos at the Ex-Hacienda de Cuapa on the south side of Mexico City in 1953, the same year the escaramuza was invented.

Watch the following video featuring historical images 

of the first escaramuza, 

narrated by fellow founding member

Guadalupe "Coco" Camacho Elorriaga.

Art Exhibit: Caballus - Passion in Movement

Artist: Espartaco                                                                                        Artist: Emilio Garcia Salazar

Artist: Jose Parra. Title: Portrait of Madame McGraph

Paintings, 

sculptures, and 

photographs 

crafted by 

horse loving artists 

are on exhibit at 
Tlalpan's Cultural Center 

in Mexico City, 

near the Lienzo Charro 

de Pedregal. 

Artist: Consuelo Bustillo

The

Fine Art Gallery of Mexico
organized the show.

 Below is a video 

of the inauguration 

on Nov. 24, 2012.

Historical Photographs of the First Escaramuza

Historic 1953 photograph at left: Three girls and three boys ride in the first escaramuza at the Rancho del Charro (today the National Association of Charros) in Mexico City in March 1953.

Below, is a video-gallery of  still images taken in the 1950's of performances by the first escaramuza teams.

You will hear the voices of the six founding members: Guadalupe "Coco" Camacho," her brother Antonio, and Arturo Ruiz Loredo, sharing what it was like back then (with English subtitles).