Jim Kane - J P S Brown (24 page)

Dan Gibson grabbed Kane gently by the arm.

"
Let's go, Jim. I think that's enough. We'd
better get out of here now. "

Kane turned to Mulligan. I'm going now, Shorty."

"
OK, Jim," Shorty said.

"
You tell bigshot when he comes back that if
anything happens to me or my friends because of this he's going to
get worse. But tell him he's paid up now."

"
OK, Jim."

"
I sure don't ever want me to apply this to you,
Shorty."

"You don't need to worry, Jim."

"That"s a relief, Shorty. You come back to
Rio Alamos again sometime. I've enjoyed doing business with you. I
like the way your partner pays off."

"
OK, Jim."

"
Come on, Jim. Let's get out of here," Dan
said. They left the room.

"
I'm going to Rio Alamos just in case he don't
wake up," Kane said.

"
Boy, let me shake your hand. You really savaged
him," Dan said.

"Yeah, I sure did," Jim said. "I'd
rather have the money but I'm going south, money or no money."
 

BOOK TWO

17
The
Charreada

The
vaquero
is the Mexican cowboy. When someone calls a
man a "
vaquero"
he
is paying him a compliment. He is saying the man is more intelligent
than the animals he handles. The
vaquero
knows how to treat his charges with gentleness
as well as sternness. He will stay out in the dust, sun, brush, and
harsh elements until he has cared adequately for the animals he looks
after. And when he plays he often looks to his animals for his
entertainment.

A
charreada
was
being held on a Sunday afternoon at the hacienda of Don Tomás
Piedras, the father-in-law of Juan Vogel. The
charreada
is the rodeo of
charros
and Juan Vogel invited Kane to go with him to the
fiesta. On the way to the hacienda Juan Vogel told Kane that Don
Tomás had been a
charro
all
his life. He was a very distinguished member of the oldest
charro
association in Mexico.

The
charro
associations are dedicated to the preservation , of the
traditions of the
charro
.
Traditionally, the
charro
was
the
vaquero
, the man
who worked cattle, but he has evolved into one who stylizes the work
of the
vaquero
.
Members of the
charro
associations
are amateurs. They show the art of working cattle in pictures they
make for people to see while they handle cattle with horse and rope.

The
charro
wears
the traditional big-winged sombrero tied under his chin; the
butterfly-knotted tie adorning his breast; the leg-fitting trousers
and leather leggings; the waist jacket with thin lapels held by one
button over the breast. He uses the heavy-shanked, spoke-roweled,
silver-mounted, blue-steel spur. He rides the naked-treed,
wide-homed, charm saddle. These saddles have big cantinas, or
saddlebags, behind the cantle. The stirrup leathers have no fenders.
They are straight straps, narrower than a man's leg, to a small,
square stirrup. On the bridle of his horse the charm uses a short,
looped rein and the severe spade bit.

The Piedras hacienda was in the flat brush country
west of Rio Alamos and close to the coast. Kane saw the dust of the
fiesta rising from the arena long before he and Juan Vogel drove up
to the hacienda. Cars and pickups were parked around a keyhole-shaped
rock arena and people were watching the
charreada
from their cars.

Juan Vogel stopped at a
mezquital
by a clear pond where women were serving steaks that had
been roasted on mesquite coals; kid that had been barbecued in
coal-bedded pits; flour and corn tortillas;
huacamole
;
and
frejoles
charms,
the whole, richly spiced beans in their sauce. Canned beer lay iced
in big tubs. Kane and Juan Vogel walked into the shade of the
mezquital
and began
availing themselves of the food. A young
charro
,
brown and dusty, hat on the back of his head, curly hair plastered
with sweat on his forehead, walked up to them and handed them cans of
beer. Juan Vogel introduced him as his brother-in-law, Mariano
Piedras. The boy shook hands with Kane.

"
How are you doing in the competition, Mariano?"
Juan Vogel asked.

"
No competition today. We are just playing. The
first turn of the tailing is over. I won it. We are holding the bull
riding and the team roping
suertes
,
events, now."

They walked from the
mezquital
to the rock wall of the arena and stood between two cars
in the sun with their arms resting on top of the wall. A big gate
separated the straight part of the keyhole from the round part. When
the gate was closed, the round part, called the
ruedo
,
resembled a bullring. The inside of the
ruedo
,
where the action was now taking place, was encircled by a board
barrera
the same as a
bullring. A stocky, bowlegged man in a fine white shirt, now dusty,
brown
charro
hat, and
worn leggings stood at the head of his horse in the center of the
ruedo
. His brown face
was intent on a wrinkled piece of paper in his hand. His goatee was
pure white.

"
That is Don Tomás, the father of my wife and
Mariano," Juan Vogel said.

"
My father is
mayoral
of the fiesta today," Mariano said. "He
supervises and keeps order in the arena. He is also judging the
suertes
."

Hacienda
vaqueros
working
at the bucking chutes in the
ruedo
were having trouble with a bull. The
charreada
had been suspended for a few minutes while the bull was
prepared for the next rider.

"
Papá," Mariano called to Don Tomás.
"Papá."

The man turned toward his son. He looked over at the
bucking chutes and saw that the bull was not in the chute yet. He
walked across the dust of the arena to Kane, Vogel, and
Mariano.

"Are you ready to rope your bull in the
terna
,
hijo
?" he asked
his son.

"
Sí, Papá," Mariano said. "Will my
father permit me to use the black mare in the
terna
?"

"Yes, but be careful with her, she is new,"
Don Tomás said.

"
Yes, Papá," the boy said and left them.

"
This is Jim Kane, Don Tomás," Juan Vogel
said.

"
Ah," Don Tomás said. "I asked
Juanito to invite you here to show you what true Mexican hospitality
is. I understand that Juan was not capable of extending hospitality
to you. I have been wanting to meet the man who stood up and pounded
my
bronco
son-in-law.
You are welcome here. Pound him whenever you feel like it, with my
permission
, Juan Vogel
took it in good humor. Don Tomás mounted his horse and rode back to
the bucking chutes.

A band of
mariachis
was playing in the back of a truck by the bucking
chutes. Mariano Piedras and another
charro
rode into the
ruedo
.
They built big loops in their
maguey
ropes and sat their horses facing the bucking chutes.

The bull and rider were ready.
The
mariachis
struck up "
El
Muchacho Alegre
," "The Happy Boy,"
and the bull was turned out. The bull was a white, humpy Brahma. The
rider held on with both hands to a rope around the bull's girth
behind the hump. The rider had good balance and was spurring the bull
well up in the neck. The bull bucked straight and shook himself and
twisted sideways in the air after each lunge. He bucked across the
arena and did not falter when he got to Mariano and the other
horseman but lowered his head and charged between them and tried to
jump the
barrera
in
front of Kane and Vogel. He bounced off the
barrera
and fell back on his side in the arena. He came up with
the boy still on his back. He bucked around the arena close to the
barrera
and strewed
vaqueros
out of the
arena over the
barrera
.
He bucked around again to where Mariano and his companion sat their
horses. He stopped. The rider spurred him to start him again but he
just trotted around with his tongue out trying to hook at the
spurring feet.

Mariano's companion, an old man with long heavy
mousetaches, rode his big sorrel gelding over to the bull. The bull
whirled and faced him but did not charge. The man reined away giving
the bull the horses hind end for a target. He made two passes at the
bull in this way and the bull stood his ground. On the third pass the
old man swung his loop overhead and approached the bull from the
front. He released the loop in a downward swing by his left stirrup.
The wide loop fanned up behind him, climbed higher than his head, and
came down and settled exactly around the bull's neck. The old man
rode away, took up his slack so that the loop caught only the horns,
dallied on the saddlehorn, and led the stiff-legged bull away from
the
barrera
. In the
center of the
ruedo
,
the rider untied his rope and dismounted from the bull. He received
his applause from the people and the
dianas
,
the short tune of fanfare, of the mariachis, saluted with his hand to
his
sombrero
, and ran
out of the arena.

Mariano Piedras rode his mare to the left side of the
bull and threw his loop over the hind end of the bull. The big loop
caught on the hips and whipped around in front of the hooks and under
the belly from the other side, building a trap for the hind legs. The
bull lunged and did not step into the trap. Mariano backed his mare
off and started again with a small loop which he spun back and forth
by his side from the mare's head to her tail. When the loop was large
enough he flattened it parallel to the ground, the loop spinning like
a wheel, brought it under the mare's neck, around the other side,
around the mare's hind end, and back around the mare again as he rode
up behind the bull. He snapped the rolling loop perpendicular to the
ground, brought it around his horse again, and let it go. It yawned
and rolled straight to the bull's hind legs and wrapped around them.
When the bull lunged. this time both hind legs were caught in the
loop. Mariano jerked his slack, turned his mare away from the bull,
took a dally on the saddle horn, let the dally run on the horn as he
rode away, and stretched the white bull full-length in the arena.

"Beautiful!" Kane said.

"Yes. That is the
pial
con floreo
, heeling with a flowered loop,"
Juan Vogel said.

"
Can you do that, Juan?"

"
No, but I'm dangerous a
la
vieja
."

"
What kind of loop is that?"

"
That is the loop you might throw in the same
manner as you would throw a rope to your old lady."