December 31, 2024
December 24, 2024
December 22, 2024
Spanish Fork City park monument
A couple of weeks ago I went for a Sunday drive.
(Remember those, Sunday drives? When I was a kid Dad made us turn the TV off on Sunday afternoons and made us pack into the car and he'd take us for a drive somewhere.)
Anyway, I headed to Spanish Fork. I wanted to see what this monument/plaque said in the Spanish Fork City park, I had seen it from a distance many times but wanted to get a closer look.
Turns out it was commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Dominguez Escalante Expedition from 1776.
The monument could use a good cleaning and restoration, the top of the monument is starting to fall apart and it almost looks like it could break apart at any moment.
But I took some time and read what the plaque said. I found it interesting that whomever wrote it speculates that if the Spanish had returned to settle the area that Provo may look similar to Santa Fe New Mexico and that the Mormon pioneers may never have settled in the Salt Lake Valley.
Not sure if they are lamenting the fact that the Spanish did not return or just making an observation.
The Dominguez and Escalante Expedition
(nps.gov)
When stopping near the Monument’s entrance sign, visitors sometimes notice a small stone marker that simply reads, “Escalante Crossed Here 1776.” Though usually coming to see the dinosaur fossils, many are surprised to learn that the area has a much more recent history. This sign at the monument's entrance marks the first known European expedition in what is now called the Uinta Basin. The journal recorded along the route is the best known document describing western Colorado, Utah, northern Arizona, and New Mexico at that time. It gives a surprisingly accurate and detailed picture of both the landscape and the people groups found there.
The expedition was organized in Santa Fe, NM with the goal to find a northern route to the newly established missions in Monterrey, CA. A Franciscan friar named Atanasio Domínguez was placed in charge and set about organizing the party. To aid him in this endeavor, Dominguez enlisted the help of fellow friar Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, who was familiar with the tribes on the northern frontier. Many give Escalante the credit for leading the expedition since he kept the journal that recorded daily events. However, Dominguez was the one who made most of the difficult decisions along the way and was ultimately the person to which everyone on the expedition answered. The two friars recruited a small group of men with the intention of securing guides from local tribes to lead them through unknown country. It was very small scale, and this made the journey all the more dangerous. They brought few weapons, and the Utes they encountered early in the expedition warned the friars that they would need them as they ventured further from settled areas.
The expedition began in Santa Fe on July 29, 1776 and traveled through Colorado, observing and naming obvious landmarks. While many of the names given by the expedition are no longer in use, a few still retain the original mentioned in Escalante's journal. For example, Canon Pintado or “painted canyon” is just south of Rangely, CO and refers to the pictographs left on the canyon walls that can still be seen today. Along this route the group would encounter the Utes, whom they referred to as Yutas, several times and were able to convince two to join them as guides. They gave the two guides Spanish names: Silvetre and Joaquin, after members of the party. Silvetre and Joaquin were invaluable to the group’s success, guiding it from present day Colorado to Utah Valley. Remarkably, Joaquin was only twelve years old at the time of the journey.
In the middle of September 1776, the party arrived in the area around Dinosaur National Monument, killing a bison somewhere near the Yampa Plateau. From there they continued on a path following Cliff Creek, very close to the present route of US 40, observing Blue Mountain and Musketshot Springs, which they recorded as being “a musket shot apart from each other.” On September 13th, the expedition ventured inside the current Monument boundaries and described the area in great detail. The Friars were impressed by the Green River, which they named the San Buenaventura and wrote that the river flows “between two lofty stone hogbacks which, after forming a sort of corral, come so closely together that one can barely make out the gorge through which the river comes,” a very apt description of Split Mountain Canyon as seen from the south.
They continued until they made camp on the bank of the river about a mile from where they intended to ford and camped by a big stand of cottonwoods where one of the members of the party carved “year of 1776.” Cottonwoods are fairly short-lived trees (under 100 years), so the exact tree is no longer present, but there are still several cottonwood stands in the area. On September 16th, the group managed to kill another bison and crossed the river within sight of the current Quarry Visitor Center. Escalante described the landscape where they forded the river as “a chain of small bluffs of loose dirt, some lead colored and others of yellow hue.” Now known as the Mancos shale, these bluffs at the river’s edge are among the first things visitors see when they approach the Quarry Entrance of Dinosaur National Monument.
The group would eventually continue into the Uinta Basin and travel through what are now the communities of Jensen, Roosevelt, Duchesne and Myton, extolling each as an excellent place for settlement. Upon arriving in Utah Valley and finding friendly Utes there from the same band as their guides, the group remarked at their good fortune and quickly made promises to return within the year, settle the area, and preach the gospel. Unfortunately, this is where their luck ran out. The new guide they had asked to lead them abandoned the party when he witnessed the punishment of a servant, and the expedition had no way of knowing which way to continue. This, combined with the fact that winter was beginning to set in, caused a great deal of trepidation. The members of the expedition drew lots to see if they would continue toward Monterrey or head back towards Santa Fe. After a bit of resistance, the party turned back toward Santa Fe, traveling over unknown territory. The most arduous part of the journey lay ahead. Without a guide, the expedition had to navigate the maze of canyons along the Colorado River, losing a month of valuable time before they found a place to cross it. This ford became known as the “Crossing of the Fathers,” and the descent to it was so treacherous that they had to carve steps into the stone to ensure the livestock could make it down to the river. Today, this ford sits beneath the waters of Lake Powell.
In order to survive, the expedition ate many of their horses, the only provisions left to them. Nevertheless, the two friars did return safely to Santa Fe thanks to supplies generously given to them by the Hopi, and they were able to present their journal to Spanish Authorities. Although they failed in their ultimate goal to make it to Monterrey, the Dominguez-Escalante expedition succeeded in describing and mapping huge areas of the American west, opening it up to future exploration and trade.
https://www.nps.gov/dino/learn/historyculture/the-dominguez-and-escalante-expedition.htm
Las claves de 2024: Román y ‘Escondido’, de Santiago Domecq, un indulto para la historia de Valencia
(mundotoro.com 12-19-24)
Si la temporada 2024 ha dejado momentos para la historia, uno de ellos es sin duda alguna el indulto del toro ‘Escondido’, de la ganadería de Santiago Domecq, de manos del matador de toros valenciano Román Collado en la pasada Feria de Julio de Valencia.
Hay que remontarse al pasado mes de julio, en la última corrida del serial valenciano, para rememorar uno de los hechos más importantes acontecidos en el coso de la calle Xàtiva, siendo el cuarto indulto que se produce en esta plaza tras los de ‘Gitanito’, de Torrestrella, ‘Harinero’ de Fuente Ymbro, y ‘Pasmoso’ de Domingo Hernández.
Román, en una faena de pura entrega y rotundidad, logró estar a la altura del exigente toro de la divisa de Santiago Domecq que, inagotablemente, acometió con fijeza y humillación durante toda la faena del diestro valenciano. Toro y torero firmaron una de las páginas de oro de la historia de la Plaza de Toros de Valencia, culminando con la apoteósica salida a hombros de Román.
Así te contamos el indulto de ‘Escondido’ y todas las reacciones en Mundotoro:
https://videos.toromedia.com/w/jJPSB5RqpYog4C8hnb7xNg?start=0s
December 15, 2024
Antonio Ferrera's Mexican emblem suit of lights
(from a post on Facebook - I was unable to get the name of the person who posted it before my Facebook feed changed)
Soy hombre de leyes, y sé que existe una norma expresa que prohíbe el uso del escudo nacional, de manera no autorizada, pero también sé que el espíritu de una ley debe adecuarse un fin o bien realizar un valor como la justicia y la seguridad jurídica y la libertad. Proclamamos como mexicanos ser defensores de nuestras tradiciones. Impedir la prohibición de las corridas de toros con discursos y marchas y viene un hermano español y en su traje de luces hace bordar un escudo nacional mexicano para dejar en claro el valor de nuestra libertad. Con todo respeto, este hombre tiene más valor para desafiar, no sólo a la prohibición, sino a la ley, en aras de la libertad.
Corrida Guadalupana
December 12, 2024
Mexico City
Héctor Gutiérrez
Corrida Guadalupana, Héctor Gutiérrez con “Pincel” de la ganadería de Jaral de Peñas. Toro con el que da la vuelta al ruedo.
December 12, 2024
Mexico City
Cartel que aún permanece en la Monumental de Barcelona, España. ¡Y que cartel!
This is sad though.
But, it came up in my Facebook feed so I thought I would post it.
December 4, 2024
December 2, 2024
Controversial “bloodless bullfighting” comes to Denver Saturday
(Mexican matador Leonardo Rivera performs with a bull during the 23rd annual Mexican Rodeo Extravaganza during the 111th annual National Western Stock Show on January 8, 2017 in Denver, Colorado.)
(denverpost.com 7-13-17)
Bullfighting is coming to Denver this weekend, with all the pomp and circumstance normally seen in arenas in Spain, Portugal and Mexico.
Matadors and bulls will take over the National Western Complex on Saturday, but the experience will be missing one key component: blood.
Coined “The Dance,” the bullfights will be “bloodless,” a technique that replaces the bullfighters’ knives with Velcro sticks and places Velcro squares on the bulls’ backs. Unlike a typical bullfight, both bull and matador are meant to emerge alive from the scuffle.
Event organizers say the show will celebrate cultural traditions, but animal activists say the idea of “humane bullfighting” is an oxymoron.
“You really can’t say that it’s a cruelty free support, because they’re torturing the bull and exploiting it for entertainment purposes,” said Lori Greenstone, a board member of animal rights advocacy group Colorado Voters for Animals. “The only thing they’re not doing is killing it in front of the public like in regular bullfighting.”
Organizers from White Eagle Promotions, the company putting on the event, insist it is cruelty-free, and an important mode of cultural exchange.
“The spectacle remains the same, and the danger is still there not for the bulls, actually, but for the humans,” said Mario Alvarez, general manager of the company putting on the show. “These bulls are going to be full of energy, and that can potentially harm the humans that are doing the dance.”
“The Dance” is the brainchild of Joe Fernandez, a Colorado native who now lives in Turlock, Calif.. Fernandez got hooked on bloodless bullfighting himself when he moved to California more than 25 years ago. Fernandez wanted to bring bullfighting to Denver.
“Being a Latino, I’m political also. I just think that right now there’s a lot of things going on in politics with immigrants and building a wall,” Fernandez said. “I think it’s a time to step forward and promote Latin culture and how beautiful it is.”
The event will feature Mexican matador Lupita Lopez, a fourth-generation bullfighter, and matador Daniel Nunes, of Tomar, Portugal. Rejoneadores, who fight the bulls from horseback, also will perform. The bulls come from a ranch in California.
A “suicide squad” will also take the stage in a performance in which eight men attempt to hold a bull completely still.
“Bloodless bullfighting” has come under fire in the past. In 2009 in Artesia, Calif., animal rights activists clashed with the Portuguese community there over the sport, according to the Los Angeles Times. The activists, part of a group called Animal Cruelty Investigations, claimed that the matadors were using sticks with sharp nails attached during the fights.
Lori Greenstone, of Colorado Voters for Animals, said she fears this sort of foul play, and opposes bullfighting no matter the weapon. Aubyn Royall, state director of the Humane Society’s Colorado chapter, echoed this sentiment, writing via email: “We oppose any effort to bring bull fighting to the U.S., even if it is reportedly more humane than traditionally practiced.”
https://www.denverpost.com/2017/07/13/controversial-bloodless-bullfighting-denver/
(link to Denver Livestock Show)
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