Back to the pampas. Argentine pampa and gaucho history of the conquest of the pampa

The unique role of the cowboy myth is not related to history, but to the psychology of America, which Remington was able to portray. His best work became an American icon and earned a place in the Oval Office.

The America where Chekhov's Chechevitsyn dreamed of fleeing was a country where "they drink gin instead of tea", where "the earth trembles when a herd of buffalo runs through the pampas", where "mustangs kick and laugh."

Mine Reed discovered all this for Russian children, Westerns for American adults. Long before they appeared not only in cinema, but even in books, artists, more precisely, sculptors, took up the image of the Wild West. The Bronze Age of the Western, predating the paper and celluloid, became the subject of an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Unlike the monumental sculpture that adorns (or frightens) squares and squares, the bronze statuettes were chamber-sized. Allowing for a relatively inexpensive replication of the original, they proved to be an indispensable part of a decent atmosphere in nineteenth-century American apartments. Like birds in a cage, such sculptures did not live outside, but inside, representing a domesticated part of virgin nature. Each composition served as a tabletop memorial to the West with its Indians, bison, cowboys and freedom to the horizon.

This myth differed from Chechevitsyn's America in that it was more or less true. That is why it was so difficult to capture it for immigrants from the Old World. The masters who passed the European (usually Italian) school did not know the language that was suitable for describing the fresh reality of another, as if it had fallen from the sky, of another continent, not yet trampled by art. Faced with a new challenge, the artists were forced to retreat into the distant past and dress the Wild West in an antique outfit.

“Having discovered America,” declared art, “we went backward in our own history. The Far West is a tunnel into the past. Through it we can fall to the origins of our world. The Indians are the Achaeans of the Iliad. Mighty, fearless and sad, like all epic heroes, they once again leave the arena of history. The task of the American artist is the same as that of Homer: to capture the appearance of a disappearing world for the edification of future generations. It must be admitted that the sculpture did not cope with this task. Its Indians are more reminiscent of museums than prairies. Perfect as ancient gods, they are combed in the Renaissance fashion, shoot from a bow like Apollo, hunt like Artemis, fight like Achilles, and die like Hector.

Better than the aborigines, European sculptors succeeded in the animals of the New World, especially the bison. And it is clear why: they amazed the imagination. One day, while driving along the northern outskirts of New York State, I saw steep snow-capped hills wandering along the fence of a farm that was trying to breed them for meat. Up close and in the open air, the bison seemed to be prehistoric creatures. Like dinosaurs in a cowshed, they didn't fit into agriculture. This is how the sculpture portrayed them. Discarding the sleek antique models, the artist created an expressionist portrait of the Indian West, for which the shaggy mountains of bison served as a temple and idol.

Only after exterminating native America did the country discover new heroes for itself - cowboys. The most famous of these was Theodore Roosevelt, although few were less suited to the role. Coming from an old Dutch family, the future president was born in New York, on 14th Street. In this house, which has become a museum, everything betrays a well-established, respectable, completely bourgeois everyday life: crystal, a piano, a bust of Plato. Roosevelt, however, fostered his political ambitions, went west and started a ranch. A stranger in this environment, he suffered from ridicule: because of his glasses, he was called "the four-eyed cowboy." Defending dignity, Roosevelt participated in cowboy duels. But even having achieved recognition in the West, he carefully guarded the secret of the 20-kilogram chest where he kept his favorite books. It is unlikely that real cowboys would approve of the habit of reading the same Iliad at night.

Having carefully chosen his mask, Roosevelt fell in love with it. One of the first to create literary westerns, he announced that it was in cowboys that the ideal American character is embodied: independence of behavior, independence in judgments, stubborn perseverance in achieving goals, the ability to survive, relying only on himself.

The first cowboys appeared in Texas at the beginning of the nineteenth century, when there, as, indeed, now, there were many free pastures for cattle. Experienced riders were hired to drive huge herds, usually Mexicans, mulattoes or blacks. For each herd of 2,500, there were a dozen cowboys who led a difficult nomadic life that seemed romantic only to the townspeople on the East Coast.

At first, there was nothing specifically American about the cowboy figure. The same character in similar conditions arose in South America, in the endless pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. These are gaucho shepherds with their colorful folklore and peculiar attire (ponchos, soft boots, a bright belt with a container for mate tea fastened to it). Moreover, cowboys were also in the Old World. I saw them on the southern outskirts of France, in the Camargue. Wild white horses, direct descendants of the prehistoric horse, have survived in this still uncrowded area of ​​the salty marshes of the mouth of the Rhone. These European mustangs are circled by Provençal riders who call themselves "guardians". They consider themselves the first cowboys to export this look, along with all its attributes, to the New World, including the famous blue jeans.

In other words, the unique role of the cowboy myth is connected not with history, but with the psychology of America, which the most famous artist of the West, Frederick Remington, was able to portray in textbook sculptures. His best work became an American icon and earned a seat in the Oval Office of the White House.

Ronald Reagan liked this half-meter composition most of all. An excellent rider, he knew how to appreciate the bronze dance of a man with a horse, which the artist himself called "Buster Bronco." In semi-Mexican cowboy slang, bronco is a word for a horse that has not yet known a bridle. The same can be said about a cowboy circling a stallion. Lean and cheeky, they look alike even in appearance. Both are caught by the author at a moment of dynamic equilibrium, which may end in the fall of both.

The pose, awkward for sculpture, reveals the secret meaning of the masterpiece. The Wild West metaphor stands on two legs, and both are horses. If the bronze Indians are elegiac (the decline of the race), then the cowboys live in a short present, in an intermediate state between reckless will and inevitable civilization. Not surprisingly, the horse reared up.

The horse is one of the most ancient symbols of the unconscious, elemental. Only by curbing this powerful and obstinate principle, a person subdues the destructive forces both in the external and in the internal world - in himself. Exceptional geographic circumstances - the youthfulness of American destiny - have overturned the archaic myth into modern history. In its context, the myth of the cowboy plays out in the vastness of the Wild West the mystery of the birth of order out of chaos. As every Western fan knows, single cowboys make the best sheriffs.

But in addition to the historiosophical interpretation, the plot of the "man in the saddle" also has a very specific, everyday meaning. The sculpture of Remington, who studied the life of cowboys in Montana and Kansas, tells everything about horse riding that you wanted to know but did not dare to experience.

I realized this only when I got acquainted with the Icelandic mustangs. Introduced 1000 years ago by the Vikings, they never left the island. In summer, Icelandic horses live unattended in the mountains, in winter they languish in stables and are happy to go out for a walk - on their own, not ours. Not knowing about all this, I climbed into the saddle for the first time and immediately regretted it. From the side and on the screen, it seems to you that you can hold on to the reins, controlling the animal like a bicycle. In fact, the harness is needed in order to connect a person with a beast, rather, by electrical or telepathic communication. It allows the rider to transmit impulses, which in my case were exhausted by fear. Realizing this instantly, the horse went at a gallop and into the river, which was not frozen only because of the frantic current. Enjoying their freedom, both did not pay attention to me and did the right thing, because I still did not manage to find out how to intervene in the process, let alone stop it. Left to myself, I tried to just sit in the saddle. It was as difficult as dancing in a canoe. Any movement caused an unforeseen reaction with equally dangerous consequences. Through horror (and thanks to it!) It dawned on me that horse riding is not violence, but a symbiosis of two wills. The parity of a man with a horse is not harmony, but a unifying struggle, like the poles in a magnet.

The Moment of Truth brought me back alive to the stable and helped me deal with the bronze western.

A cowboy needs an unbroken horse to harness the energy of freedom, and a sculptor needs to capture the zenith of the West. Still wild, he attracted those who civilized and killed him. A brief respite from progress gave us a chance to relive the excitement of a prehistoric battle with nature. A cowboy on horseback, like a matador without spectators, fights with her alone and on an equal footing.

The excitement of this second century fight feeds the world with raw emotions. But if the myth of cowboys turned out to be durable, then they themselves did not last long. The railroad and barbed wire robbed them of their jobs, except, of course, that given by show business.

It was meat, not gold and silver, that brought wealth to Argentina. And such that at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries a saying appeared in Europe: “rich as an Argentine”. Argentina ranks sixth in the world in terms of cattle, fifth in per capita meat production and first in meat consumption.
In all directions from Buenos Aires, the pampas stretch for a hundred kilometers. The pampas are fertile steppes where the wealth of the country is forged, where the farms, and they are called in Argentina - estancia, work gaucho - the descendants of the Spanish conquistadors and Indian women.

Estancia El Calibri

The word estancia means stop. In Russian, it corresponds to - stanitsa. That is, it is an estate with adjacent land. They have played an important role in the history of Argentina. Farming has always been profitable in Argentina. The Spanish Empire, not finding the expected gold here, relied on agriculture. Initially, the first settlers were given vast tracts of land on the terms that they would grow crops on this land near the capital or livestock far from it. Farmers were required to report to the Spanish crown on the results achieved by holding an aptitude test. Those who succeeded were given ownership of the land. Losers ended up homeless. However, having money, in Argentina you could always buy both estancia and respect.

Now estancia are initially built as hotels. Twelve years ago, the owner of the estancia El Calibri went to Argentina to hunt, and saw a completely different target in the sight of a gun - which he informed his wife about. He said - let's move to Argentina. First, a husband left Europe with three dogs, then a wife arrived with three children. It was a strange decision to leave Europe not to California, but to the hinterland of Argentina, to the pampas. Argentina is considered to have a difficult climate: hot summers and cold winters.

The owner of estancia explains her decision in the following way: “We have noticeably improved the quality of life here. Here, in nature, it is better to raise children. In Courchevel and Saint-Tropez, where we lived, it was, of course, beautiful, but it is difficult to instill in children the correct values. In order to relax as we live now, you have to work hard in Courchevel. What an open space in Argentina! Different country, different mentality. We ourselves do not work on the farm, but we hire people. But you also need to be able to do this.
In the past, when buying estancia, the owners worked together with the gaucho. But this did not last long. It should be noted that initially there were no livestock in Argentina. Therefore, he was brought by ships. Farmers quickly got on their feet and allowed themselves to rent out estancia and live for six months in London and Paris. They bought race horses there and bred them in the pampas. The trip to Europe was long, and they took chickens and pigs with them to eat their own, Argentinean, homemade. Local Indians got used to horses, which were not there before and became better riders than the Spaniards themselves. They began to steal livestock from the farmers. Estancia owners began to build special towers around the perimeter of their farms, hire gauchos to look out for enemies and protect the farms from attacks.

The meat in Argentina is good and famous all over the world. Farmers attribute this fact to good genetics, excellent herbs, and lack of chemistry. It is very popular in production and consumption - liver, meat from ribs, fillets and rump. The main characters of the pampas are gaucho. Three centuries ago, they were vagabonds who terrified people. But having received a permanent job, they became "hard workers". On any farm, horses are the king of all animals. Argentine horses are called Creoles here and are the country's national pride. They are looked after and loved more than all pets. A popular entertainment for Argentine aristocrats is polo on horseback. It attracts thousands of spectators not only from aristocratic circles, but also from the inhabitants of numerous estanzias.

For reference: The horse was and remains not only a means of transportation in Argentine culture, and even more so in the pampas. She is a companion and friend. The gaucho or Argentinean cowboy is a romantic symbol for the Argentine people. He represents the Argentine tradition and confronts corruption. The gaucho has always had a freedom that the inhabitants of cities that lived within the walls of buildings and laws never had. The Gauchos were nomads and roamed throughout the Argentine countryside. They had their own laws, and instead of a roof over their heads, they had stars. But most of all in life they loved and love horses, which they treat as their close friends. The horse has become a symbol of the gauchos themselves, because the Criollo breed is mixed, like the blood of the Argentine cowboys themselves. Therefore, the rider and the horse are one in the Argentine pampas culture.

The material is taken from the program “Planet without prejudice. Travel with Irina Bazhanova "
Photo: Frazer, Hugh "sBlog, SarahBoland, and also from the Internet. For authorship questions, please contact our office

Tours in Argentina

The word "rodeo", as a rule, evokes associations in the genre of the western: jeans and lassos, angry bulls and unbridled mustangs, which any decent cowboy must hold on for at least eight seconds. All this is indeed present in the American version to this day. However, the only country in the world where rodeo is declared a national sport is Chile, and there it looks very different.

Of course, bulls and horses also participate in the Chilean rodeo, but here no one tries to lasso or saddle them on the go. In the program there is no milking of wild cows, no spectacular lasso throws, no other picture tricks performed by dashing American cowboys. At first glance, everything is simpler here: two riders - performances always take place in pairs - must stop the bull running at full speed. And the Chilean cowboys themselves - guasos - also look more modest: they do not wear sharp-toed boots, jeans and scarves. Their only decoration and obligatory attribute is a patterned chamanto cape - a cross between a poncho and a blanket.

In the Chilean rodeo in a round arena, a crescent-shaped area is fenced off with a special fence, in which a narrow "loophole" is left. To begin with, the bull is released into the second half of the arena - and there the riders take a position that should not change during the entire performance: one behind the animal, the other on the side. The bull, squeezed in this way "in a vice", must not break out of them. Raising clouds of sand, this tightly welded trinity needs to get into a narrow passage in the fence and "roll out" to the "crescent".

Further, one of the riders drives the bull in an arc along the barrier, preventing him from slowing down or going back. The task of the second is to keep the horse strictly parallel to the driven animal, and then, in a certain place, direct it with his chest directly at the bull, literally throwing him onto a section of the barrier specially designed for this. Then the riders change places, and everything is repeated in the other direction. And back again. That, in fact, is all. Thrill-seekers will shrug their shoulders in disappointment: "In a Mexican rodeo, such a half-ton bull is" overwhelmed "by pedestrians with their bare hands ..."

But not everything is so simple. The subtlety of the Chilean version is that the riders demonstrate not so much personal courage, as in the North American rodeo, as the ability to work "in a bundle", adjusted accuracy of movements to the millimeter and masterly possession of the horse. What matters is not so much the result as the details of the execution. The judges give points (from 0 to 4 for one "run") depending on which part of the bull's body was hit by the horse's chest. Participants receive the highest score - 4 points - when the horse knocks the bull down with a blow to the back of the body, because this is the most difficult - in this position, the animal has more chances to get ahead and elude the blow.

A couple can score a maximum of 13 points for an error-free exit (three runs of 4 points each plus an additional point for correct entry into the arena). Glasses in the Chilean rodeo are removed much more readily than they are given: for a wrong turn of the horse, for the fact that the bull was stopped a few centimeters before or after the intended place, and for a thousand more things. So 13 points are rare. However, points began to be calculated only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the rodeo finally turned into a show. Previously, the matter was limited to a simple recount of bulls: after all, the Spanish word rodeo (from rodear - to surround) literally means "driving the cattle".

Features of national cattle breeding

For a long time, grazing livestock in the vast, underdeveloped and very restless expanses of the New World was a difficult and dangerous business. Special people were engaged in it, who in different parts of it were called differently: charro - in the Mexican highlands, gaucho - in the Argentine pampas, cowboy - in the Wild West, in the central valley of Chile - guazo. Their tasks were similar: to drive the owner's herd to graze, and then drive it back.

In the summer, Chilean guazos led cows from sun-dried valleys to pastures in the mountains. Clumsy animals now and then strove to fend off the herd or fall into the abyss, and only the dexterity of the shepherds-riders allowed them to preserve and increase the livestock. Overcoming mountain paths and rocky passes, by winter the guazos lowered herds into the valleys, where the most delicate and difficult work awaited them. Having driven the cattle into one place, it was necessary to sort them by owners, to put brands on the offspring, to castrate young calves. This was called the rodeo.

On February 12, 1557, the governor of Chile and a great horse-riding enthusiast García Hurtado de Mendoza ordered that the rodeo be held in the main metropolitan square and on strictly defined days - during the feast in honor of the Apostle James, July 24-25. The whole city was going to see this spectacle. The hard work of the guazo was rewarded with popular recognition and ended with noisy festivities - with dancing, food and young grape wine - chicha. So the cattle-breeding practice turned into a mass celebration, and the governor of Hurtado de Mendoza received the unofficial title of "father of the Chilean rodeo."

Roughly the same thing happened with the neighbors, and today rodeo in one form or another exists in almost all countries of South and North America. Moreover, in each of them, the shepherds have developed their own methods and techniques. In Venezuela, for example, a bull is knocked to the ground, grabbing it at a gallop by the tail, Mexican riders are able to change on the go to an unbroken mare, in Cuba and the United States they try to stay on a wild bull without a saddle. In the Chilean version, as you already know, the main thing is clear and precise work in pairs.

In the 1880s, barbed wire, patented in 1868, began its triumphant march across both continents. This invention drastically changed the American way of life. In the Great Plains, in the pampas of South America and in the foothills of the Andes, wire fencing of pastures has become common, making traditional herding activities meaningless. Cowboys, gauchos and guazos were out of work. The end of their era was inevitable, but by that time the brave shepherds had already firmly entered the history and folk culture of their states. Over time, in Chile, the word "guazo" began to call any peasant. And the rodeo holiday continued to be massive and sometimes the only available entertainment for the rural population throughout the country.

About the attitude towards horses

An obligatory part of any rodeo, including the Chilean one, from the first days of its existence was a demonstration of horse dressage. Those describe eights, make multiple turns around their axis and other tricks "for evaluation." Moreover, the criteria for this assessment are special here. In the United States, the cowboy riding style even became the basis for an independent equestrian sport - "Western". Chilean riders do not like the American style too much, opposing it with their own school. And their horses are also special, their own.

According to local horse breeders, Chilean horses trace their genealogy from the very 75 individuals of Spanish blood that crossed the Andes with the discoverer of Chile Pedro de Valdivia. The argument in favor of the purity of this breed is that, unlike in other American countries, horses were never kept in herds here, which prevented the mixing of breeds.

However, when in 1992, on the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, the Chilean guazos undertook a symbolic trip to the former metropolis to demonstrate the art of rodeo, the Spaniards did not recognize their horses. They seemed very small to them: when they were taken away, they seemed to be bigger. Indeed, the height of a thoroughbred "Chilean" does not exceed 142 centimeters at the withers (for which in some classifications it is referred to as a pony).

Short-legged and broad-chested, Chilean horses are ideally suited for mountain conditions. Thanks to their thick skin, they are not afraid of the cold and are extremely hardy. It is to this endurance that the Chilean cavalry owes its successes during the Pacific War at the end of the 19th century, when it crossed the waterless Atacama Desert. Later, scientific and technological progress saved people from the need to use these animals for household and other needs, and the breed was threatened with extinction.

The grateful military rescued the Chileans. General Carlos Ibanez del Campo, becoming president of Chile in 1927, included a special clause in the rodeo rules: at least two races must be attended by horses of only Chilean breed. Today, the rule of breed purity is even stricter - in the Chilean rodeo, horses that are not registered with the National Horse Breeders Association, in which all purebred "Chileans" are members since 1946, cannot participate in the Chilean rodeo.

The publication

At the beginning of the twentieth century, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Chile's independence, celebrated in 1910, the country's leadership turned to rodeos in search of roots and symbols of national identity. The uncouth and rough guazo was "combed" and released into the arena in the central metropolitan park named after Kousinho (now the park named after O'Higgins). The townspeople liked the idea, and the rodeo became fashionable, and most importantly, patriotic entertainment. Since 1931, the best rodeo rider (according to the "Gil Leteiler" club) has been entrusted with the most honorable mission - the opening of a military parade on Independence Day. Moreover, before the start of the passage of troops, he personally presents the president of the country with a cow horn filled with chicha.

In the wake of the revival of the glorious rodeo traditions in the country, several dozen arenas were built, the main one in the city of Rancagua in 1942. Since then, it is on her that the sports season (from September to April) ends annually with the All-Cecilian rodeo championship. But this did not stop there: on January 10, 1962, the Chilean Olympic Committee, by Decree No. 269, declared rodeo a national sport.

At the same time, the rodeo was strictly regulated and, for reasons of political correctness, women were allowed to participate in it. And if until recently women's participation was limited to the beauty contest "Queen of Rodeo", then in 2009 for the first time in history the title of champion was won by rider Elia Alvarez, who performed in tandem with a man.

The appearance of women in the rodeo gave the muzhik national sport some glamor - the costumes of the riders for the championship were developed by the well-known Chilean fashion designer Millaray Palma, in whose outfits local TV presenters and participants in beauty contests flaunt. And the men's chamanto became the national dress par excellance, which is now customary to present as a souvenir to distinguished guests.

However, the most appropriate chamantos still look on broad-shouldered guasos in combination with a straw hat, a red wide belt, leather leggings to the knees and long shiny spurs. They made such an impression on Darwin at one time that he wrote: “The main pride of the guazo is its ridiculously large spurs. I measured one, and it turned out that the wheel is 6 inches in diameter, and on the wheel itself there are over 30 spines. The stirrups are of the same scale; each carved from a rectangular piece of wood, hollowed out, but still weighing 4 pounds (about 1.5 kg). " Massive wooden stirrups, similar to shoes without heels and covered with highly artistic carvings, are still the pride of guazo. But with spurs there are problems. This attribute provokes protests from animal advocates: horses suffer greatly from it. But, despite all the protests, the rodeo does not lose, but only gains supporters. In recent years, it has attracted even more attention in its homeland than the traditionally most spectacular sport, football.

The word "rodeo", as a rule, evokes associations in the genre of the western: jeans and lassos, angry bulls and unbridled mustangs, which any decent cowboy must hold on for at least eight seconds. All this is indeed present in the American version to this day. However, the only country in the world where rodeo is declared a national sport is Chile, and there it looks very different.

Of course, bulls and horses also participate in the Chilean rodeo, but here no one tries to lasso or saddle them on the go. In the program there is no milking of wild cows, no spectacular lasso throws, no other picture tricks performed by dashing American cowboys. At first glance, everything is simpler here: two riders - performances always take place in pairs - must stop the bull running at full speed. And the Chilean cowboys themselves - guasos - also look more modest: they do not wear sharp-toed boots, jeans and scarves. Their only decoration and obligatory attribute is a patterned chamanto cape - a cross between a poncho and a blanket.

In the Chilean rodeo in a round arena, a crescent-shaped area is fenced off with a special fence, in which a narrow "loophole" is left. To begin with, the bull is released into the second half of the arena - and there the riders take a position that should not change during the entire performance: one behind the animal, the other on the side. The bull, squeezed in this way "in a vice", must not break out of them. Raising clouds of sand, this tightly welded trinity needs to get into a narrow passage in the fence and "roll out" to the "crescent".

Further, one of the riders drives the bull in an arc along the barrier, preventing him from slowing down or going back. The task of the second is to keep the horse strictly parallel to the driven animal, and then, in a certain place, direct it with his chest directly at the bull, literally throwing him onto a section of the barrier specially designed for this. Then the riders change places, and everything is repeated in the other direction. And back again. That, in fact, is all. Thrill-seekers will shrug their shoulders in disappointment: "In a Mexican rodeo, such a half-ton bull is" overwhelmed "by pedestrians with their bare hands ..."

But not everything is so simple. The subtlety of the Chilean version is that the riders demonstrate not so much personal courage, as in the North American rodeo, as the ability to work "in a bundle", adjusted accuracy of movements to the millimeter and masterly possession of the horse. What matters is not so much the result as the details of the execution. The judges give points (from 0 to 4 for one "run") depending on which part of the bull's body was hit by the horse's chest. Participants receive the highest score - 4 points - when the horse knocks the bull down with a blow to the back of the body, because this is the most difficult - in this position, the animal has more chances to get ahead and elude the blow.

A couple can score a maximum of 13 points for an error-free exit (three runs of 4 points each plus an additional point for correct entry into the arena). Glasses in the Chilean rodeo are removed much more readily than they are given: for a wrong turn of the horse, for the fact that the bull was stopped a few centimeters before or after the intended place, and for a thousand more things. So 13 points are rare. However, points began to be calculated only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the rodeo finally turned into a show. Previously, the matter was limited to a simple recount of bulls: after all, the Spanish word rodeo (from rodear - to surround) literally means "driving the cattle".

Features of national cattle breeding

For a long time, grazing livestock in the vast, underdeveloped and very restless expanses of the New World was a difficult and dangerous business. Special people were engaged in it, who in different parts of it were called differently: charro - in the Mexican highlands, gaucho - in the Argentine pampas, cowboy - in the Wild West, in the central valley of Chile - guazo. Their tasks were similar: to drive the owner's herd to graze, and then drive it back.

In the summer, Chilean guazos led cows from sun-dried valleys to pastures in the mountains. Clumsy animals now and then strove to fend off the herd or fall into the abyss, and only the dexterity of the shepherds-riders allowed them to preserve and increase the livestock. Overcoming mountain paths and rocky passes, by winter the guazos lowered herds into the valleys, where the most delicate and difficult work awaited them. Having driven the cattle into one place, it was necessary to sort them by owners, to put brands on the offspring, to castrate young calves. This was called the rodeo.

On February 12, 1557, the governor of Chile and a great horse-riding enthusiast García Hurtado de Mendoza ordered that the rodeo be held in the main metropolitan square and on strictly defined days - during the feast in honor of the Apostle James, July 24-25. The whole city was going to see this spectacle. The hard work of the guazo was rewarded with popular recognition and ended with noisy festivities - with dancing, food and young grape wine - chicha. So the cattle-breeding practice turned into a mass celebration, and the governor of Hurtado de Mendoza received the unofficial title of "father of the Chilean rodeo."

Roughly the same thing happened with the neighbors, and today rodeo in one form or another exists in almost all countries of South and North America. Moreover, in each of them, the shepherds have developed their own methods and techniques. In Venezuela, for example, a bull is knocked to the ground, grabbing it at a gallop by the tail, Mexican riders are able to change on the go to an unbroken mare, in Cuba and the United States they try to stay on a wild bull without a saddle. In the Chilean version, as you already know, the main thing is clear and precise work in pairs.

In the 1880s, barbed wire, patented in 1868, began its triumphant march across both continents. This invention drastically changed the American way of life. In the Great Plains, in the pampas of South America and in the foothills of the Andes, wire fencing of pastures has become common, making traditional herding activities meaningless. Cowboys, gauchos and guazos were out of work. The end of their era was inevitable, but by that time the brave shepherds had already firmly entered the history and folk culture of their states. Over time, in Chile, the word "guazo" began to call any peasant. And the rodeo holiday continued to be massive and sometimes the only available entertainment for the rural population throughout the country.

About the attitude towards horses

An obligatory part of any rodeo, including the Chilean one, from the first days of its existence was a demonstration of horse dressage. Those describe eights, make multiple turns around their axis and other tricks "for evaluation." Moreover, the criteria for this assessment are special here. In the United States, the cowboy riding style even became the basis for an independent equestrian sport - "Western". Chilean riders do not like the American style too much, opposing it with their own school. And their horses are also special, their own.

According to local horse breeders, Chilean horses trace their genealogy from the very 75 individuals of Spanish blood that crossed the Andes with the discoverer of Chile Pedro de Valdivia. The argument in favor of the purity of this breed is that, unlike in other American countries, horses were never kept in herds here, which prevented the mixing of breeds.

However, when in 1992, on the 500th anniversary of the discovery of America, the Chilean guazos undertook a symbolic trip to the former metropolis to demonstrate the art of rodeo, the Spaniards did not recognize their horses. They seemed very small to them: when they were taken away, they seemed to be bigger. Indeed, the height of a thoroughbred "Chilean" does not exceed 142 centimeters at the withers (for which in some classifications it is referred to as a pony).

Short-legged and broad-chested, Chilean horses are ideally suited for mountain conditions. Thanks to their thick skin, they are not afraid of the cold and are extremely hardy. It is to this endurance that the Chilean cavalry owes its successes during the Pacific War at the end of the 19th century, when it crossed the waterless Atacama Desert. Later, scientific and technological progress saved people from the need to use these animals for household and other needs, and the breed was threatened with extinction.

The grateful military rescued the Chileans. General Carlos Ibanez del Campo, becoming president of Chile in 1927, included a special clause in the rodeo rules: at least two races must be attended by horses of only Chilean breed. Today, the rule of breed purity is even stricter - in the Chilean rodeo, horses that are not registered with the National Horse Breeders Association, in which all purebred "Chileans" are members since 1946, cannot participate in the Chilean rodeo.

The publication

At the beginning of the twentieth century, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Chile's independence, celebrated in 1910, the country's leadership turned to rodeos in search of roots and symbols of national identity. The uncouth and rough guazo was "combed" and released into the arena in the central metropolitan park named after Kousinho (now the park named after O'Higgins). The townspeople liked the idea, and the rodeo became fashionable, and most importantly, patriotic entertainment. Since 1931, the best rodeo rider (according to the "Gil Leteiler" club) has been entrusted with the most honorable mission - the opening of a military parade on Independence Day. Moreover, before the start of the passage of troops, he personally presents the president of the country with a cow horn filled with chicha.

In the wake of the revival of the glorious rodeo traditions in the country, several dozen arenas were built, the main one in the city of Rancagua in 1942. Since then, it is on her that the sports season (from September to April) ends annually with the All-Cecilian rodeo championship. But this did not stop there: on January 10, 1962, the Chilean Olympic Committee, by Decree No. 269, declared rodeo a national sport.

At the same time, the rodeo was strictly regulated and, for reasons of political correctness, women were allowed to participate in it. And if until recently women's participation was limited to the beauty contest "Queen of Rodeo", then in 2009 for the first time in history the title of champion was won by rider Elia Alvarez, who performed in tandem with a man.

The appearance of women in the rodeo gave the muzhik national sport some glamor - the costumes of the riders for the championship were developed by the well-known Chilean fashion designer Millaray Palma, in whose outfits local TV presenters and participants in beauty contests flaunt. And the men's chamanto became the national dress par excellance, which is now customary to present as a souvenir to distinguished guests.

However, the most appropriate chamantos still look on broad-shouldered guasos in combination with a straw hat, a red wide belt, leather leggings to the knees and long shiny spurs. They made such an impression on Darwin at one time that he wrote: “The main pride of the guazo is its ridiculously large spurs. I measured one, and it turned out that the wheel is 6 inches in diameter, and on the wheel itself there are over 30 spines. The stirrups are of the same scale; each carved from a rectangular piece of wood, hollowed out, but still weighing 4 pounds (about 1.5 kg). " Massive wooden stirrups, similar to shoes without heels and covered with highly artistic carvings, are still the pride of guazo. But with spurs there are problems. This attribute provokes protests from animal advocates: horses suffer greatly from it. But, despite all the protests, the rodeo does not lose, but only gains supporters. In recent years, it has attracted even more attention in its homeland than the traditionally most spectacular sport, football.

Photo by Rodrigo Gomez Rovira

“Unconditional sincerity at all times is one of the hallmarks of true art. And maximum perfection! " - said Mukhina.

Sofia Rudneva

The word "rodeo", as a rule, evokes associations in the genre of the western: jeans and lassos, angry bulls and unbridled mustangs, which any decent cowboy must hold on for at least eight seconds. All this is indeed present in the American version to this day. However, the only country in the world where rodeo is declared a national sport is Chile, and there it looks very different.

Of course, bulls and horses also participate in the Chilean rodeo, but here no one tries to lasso or saddle them on the go. In the program there is no milking of wild cows, no spectacular lasso throws, no other picture tricks performed by dashing American cowboys. At first glance, everything is simpler here: two riders - performances always take place in pairs - must stop the bull running at full speed. And the Chilean cowboys themselves - guasos - also look more modest: they do not wear sharp-toed boots, jeans and scarves. Their only adornment and obligatory attribute is a patterned chamanto cape - a cross between a poncho and a blanket.

The crescent-shaped barrier of the Chilean rodeo arena, along which a bull is chased, is often painted in the colors of the national flag

In the Chilean rodeo in a round arena, a crescent-shaped area is fenced off with a special fence, in which a narrow "loophole" is left. To begin with, the bull is released into the second half of the arena - and there the riders take a position that should not change during the entire performance: one behind the animal, the other on the side. The bull, squeezed in this way "in a vice", must not break out of them. Raising clouds of sand, this tightly welded trinity needs to get into a narrow passage in the fence and "roll out" to the "crescent".

Further, one of the riders drives the bull in an arc along the barrier, preventing him from slowing down or going back. The task of the second is to keep the horse strictly parallel to the driven animal, and then, in a certain place, direct it with his chest directly at the bull, literally throwing him onto a section of the barrier specially designed for this. Then the riders change places, and everything is repeated in the other direction. And back again. That, in fact, is all. Thrill-seekers will shrug their shoulders in disappointment: "In a Mexican rodeo, such a half-ton bull is" overwhelmed "by pedestrians with their bare hands ..."

But not everything is so simple. The subtlety of the Chilean version is that the riders demonstrate not so much personal courage, as in the North American rodeo, as the ability to work "in a bundle", adjusted accuracy of movements to the millimeter and masterly possession of the horse. What matters is not so much the result as the details of the execution. The judges give points (from 0 to 4 for one "run") depending on which part of the bull's body was hit by the horse's chest. Participants receive the highest score - 4 points - when the horse knocks the bull down with a blow to the back of the body, because this is the most difficult - in this position, the animal has more chances to get ahead and elude the blow.

A couple can score a maximum of 13 points for an error-free exit (three runs of 4 points each plus an additional point for correct entry into the arena). Glasses in the Chilean rodeo are removed much more readily than they are given: for a wrong turn of the horse, for the fact that the bull was stopped a few centimeters before or after the intended place, and for a thousand more things. So 13 points are rare. However, points began to be calculated only at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the rodeo finally turned into a show. Previously, the matter was limited to a simple recount of bulls: after all, the Spanish word rodeo (from rodear - to surround) literally means "driving the cattle".

Features of national cattle breeding

For a long time, grazing livestock in the vast, underdeveloped and very restless expanses of the New World was a difficult and dangerous business. Special people were engaged in it, who in different parts of it were called differently: charro - in the Mexican highlands, gaucho - in the Argentine pampas, cowboy - in the Wild West, in the central valley of Chile - guazo. Their tasks were similar: to drive the owner's herd to graze, and then drive it back.

Riders who are not dressed in traditional costume cannot take part in official competitions: chamanto and felt hat, which can be changed to straw in summer

In the summer, Chilean guazos led cows from sun-dried valleys to pastures in the mountains. Clumsy animals now and then strove to fend off the herd or fall into the abyss, and only the dexterity of the shepherds-riders allowed them to preserve and increase the livestock. Overcoming mountain paths and rocky passes, by winter the guazos lowered herds into the valleys, where the most delicate and difficult work awaited them. Having driven the cattle into one place, it was necessary to sort them by owners, to put brands on the offspring, to castrate young calves. This was called the rodeo.

On February 12, 1557, the governor of Chile and a great lover of horseback riding García Hurtado de Mendoza ordered that the rodeo be held in the main metropolitan square and on strictly defined days - during the feast in honor of the Apostle James, July 24-25. The whole city was going to see this spectacle. The hard work of the guazo was rewarded with popular recognition and ended with noisy festivities - with dancing, food and young grape wine - chicha. So the cattle-breeding practice turned into a mass celebration, and the governor of Hurtado de Mendoza received the unofficial title of "father of the Chilean rodeo."

Roughly the same thing happened with the neighbors, and today rodeo in one form or another exists in almost all countries of South and North America. Moreover, in each of them, the shepherds have developed their own methods and techniques. In Venezuela, for example, a bull is knocked to the ground, grabbing it at a gallop by the tail, Mexican riders are able to change on the go to an unbroken mare, in Cuba and the United States they try to stay on a wild bull without a saddle. In the Chilean version, as you already know, the main thing is clear and precise work in pairs.

In the 1880s, barbed wire, patented in 1868, began its triumphant march across both continents. This invention drastically changed the American way of life. In the Great Plains, in the pampas of South America and in the foothills of the Andes, wire fencing of pastures has become common, making traditional herding activities meaningless. Cowboys, gauchos and guazos were out of work. The end of their era was inevitable, but by that time the brave shepherds had already firmly entered the history and folk culture of their states. Over time, in Chile, the word "guazo" began to call any peasant. And the rodeo holiday continued to be massive and sometimes the only available entertainment for the rural population throughout the country.

The usual rodeo lasts

like a good wedding,

two full days -

Saturday and Sunday.

Hardy spectators

spend on their

places for 8 hours

About the attitude towards horses

An obligatory part of any rodeo, including the Chilean one, from the first days of its existence was a demonstration of horse dressage. Those describe eights, make multiple turns around their axis and other tricks "for evaluation." Moreover, the criteria for this assessment are special here. In the United States, the cowboy riding style even became the basis for an independent equestrian sport - "Western". Chilean riders do not like the American style too much, opposing it with their own school. And their horses are also special, their own.