Lakesiders will have a rare opportunity to catch an authentic Mexican-style rodeo contest featuring top-notch charro horseman, and lend support to local firefighters to boot.
The Gran Competencia de Charreria scheduled for Sunday, March 10, noon at Chapala’s Lienzo Charro Jesus Gonzalez Gallo will showcase the reigning national champion charro team Puente de Camotlan from Nayarit lined up against Charros de Jalisco and Charros del Norte.
Charreria is a uniquely Mexican sport that is rooted in animal husbandry practices of the colonial era that gave rise to competitions between ranch hands who worked the hacienda agricultural estates. The modern day charreada evolved to preserve those customs as hacienda were disbanded on the heels of the Mexican Revolution.
Nowadays a complete charreada comprises challenges in nine distinct reining, roping and riding suertes (tricks) presented in an established order, with three teams of horsemen competing against one another. Contestants are scored on style and execution in each suerte, accumulating points to determine the winning team.
Puente de Camotlan captured the 2012 title last Novembers at the LXVIII Campeonato Nacional Charro held in Zacatecas. Nayarit has been selected to host this year’s championship, running over three weeks from mid-October through early November.
Funds for firefighters
The local competition is being run as a benefit for the Chapala Fire Department, principally to collect funds for repairing and upgrading its rundown fleet of emergency vehicles. Admission to the arena is 100 pesos per person. Mariachi Fletes de Cocula and Banda Cuexquitos will provide a lively musical backdrop to action in the ring. Immediately preceding the spectacle competing charros will led an equestrian parade on a full loop along Avenida Madero, starting at 11 a.m.
According to Fire Department chief Arturo Rivera, his staff is operating with equipment that has fallen into terrible disrepair due to years of strapped finances at city hall. Only a single rescue truck and the 1983 MAC tanker-pumper, acquired when the fire department opened in 1998, are in working order. Several other vehicles stand idle in need of major overhauls.
The men are also stuck with second-hand outfits and safety gear donated by U.S. firefighters more than a decade ago that should have been replaced after three years of use. For example, Rivera says most of the firefighters’ compressed air-packs are so worn out they can’t be salvaged. The jaws-of-life hydraulic cutter, employed to rescue highway accident victims, is also broken and out of commission.
Meanwhile, Rivera is building close ties with the Houston Fire Department, the Ajijic Rotary Club and other organizations that have shown interest in helping him overcome the deficiencies that hamper the fire department’s vital services to the community.