December 31, 2023
El toro bravo
Toro bravo salvaje en los bosques alemanes, mientras en el resto del continente y regiones donde habitaba se fue extinguiendo. El toro bravo logro sobrevivir en la península iberica, en principio gracias al polvorín bélico que significó la invasión musulmana y posteriormente al fin zootecnico encontrado para su Bravura dentro de la Tauromaquia.
December 28, 2023
How I got interested in bullfighting
The year is sometime in the late 70's or early 80's.
I'm the youngest of three boys. My mom would take me shopping with her while my older brothers were at school or off doing something else, I was always the one that was tagging along with mom.
We lived in the Ogden area and one of my mom's favorite places to eat a quick lunch was Taco Time on Washington Blvd.. (Locals might remember the Taco Time close to the 12th street intersection, right next to McDonald's.)
Now, I didn't like Taco Time but loved McDonald's. So what we would do is get my food at McDonald's and then we would walk over to Taco Time and mom would get her food.
Plus, Taco Time was kind of cool because they had a little game room area with a couple of pinball machines, a couple of video games (Pac Man if memory serves me) and one of those duck hunting games with the actual guns that would shoot the beam of light at the screen where the ducks were flying back and forth. If you are old enough you know what game I'm talking about.
So one day we are in there eating and I asked mom about some giant paintings that were on the wall. This must have been one of the first times we were there, because I was fascinated by the paintings. They we tall paintings that seemed to take up the entire wall, there were three or four of them if I remember correctly.
I asked her what was going on in the paintings and she told be they were bullfighting. Now, my mom knew and still knows nothing about bullfighting but I guess she knew enough to tell me what the paintings were about.
I couldn't take my eyes off the paintings. I was fascinated by the bulls, not so much the matatdors but the bulls. I couldn't get over their horns and strength. To me they looked like the most incredible animal ever.
Now, back in the olden times, whenever we wanted information about something there was only one place to go..... the library.
I don't know if libraries even exist anymore in their purest form, now I can imagine they are all nothing more than makeshift homeless shelters.
But back in my day libraries where special places to go, a world full of information and even adventure. It was almost like a treasure hunt because first you had to go to......... the card catalog. (This was even before the card catalogs were switched to computer.) Once you looked in the card catalog to see if they even had a book on the subject you were looking for, then you would take the book's Dewey Decimal System reference number and go on a treasure hunt. Off you went to search through the dozen and dozen of book shelves in the library. If you could find it, and if the book was actually there, you felt like you had discovered gold. It was so much fun.
And it just so happens in Ogden we had a great library, the Weber County Library.
(more to come)
December 17, 2023
Ranchos in California: The Spanish and Mexican Eras
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| The Rancho San Andrés Castro Adobe near Watsonville, CA |
https://www.californiafrontier.net/ranchos-in-california/
(by Damian Bacich californiafrontier.net)
For many years ranchos defined the early California lifestyle. Their impact remains with us today.
What is a Rancho?
Rancho is a Spanish word that has many meanings, but most refer to a place where people gather. During the Spanish colonial period in the Americas it became associated with a place for raising cattle and other livestock. This is still its meaning today throughout Latin America.
In Spanish and Mexican California a rancho mainly meant a cattle farm. There were a small number of private ranchos during the Spanish period.
Spanish Ranchos
After it began colonizing California, the Spanish government established ranchos for grazing cattle near the presidios. These were managed by the military and were usually called Rancho del Rey or “the King’s Ranch.” Later, after Mexican independence, they were known as Rancho de la Nación or “the Nation’s Ranch.”
What was the Rancho period?
Most ranchos in California originated as land that the Mexican government awarded to people after the breakup of the mission system, or secularization. This led to the rancho period in California.
When people talk about the “rancho period” in California, they usually mean the time between the 1830s and the 1850s. This is the time in which the Mexican government distributed lands that had been under the control of the missions to private individuals. It did this through a process of land grants from the territorial government in Alta California.
How many Ranchos are in California and what was their purpose?
Over a period of about 60 years, the Spanish and Mexican governments made about 500 land grants for ranchos in California. Of these, only about 30 originated during the Spanish period (1769-1822), while most came about during the Mexican era (1822-1848).
During the Spanish period, the purpose of the ranchos was to raise livestock, primarily cattle, and provide food for the presidios. After Mexican independence, the ranchos mainly provided a livelihood for the people that owned and worked on them. Over the years, raising cattle and other livestock became the main activity in Alta California and created the rancho economy.
The Rancho economy
The buying and selling of products made from cattle raised on California ranchos was what came to be known as the “rancho economy.”
Along with meat, cattle provided hides that could be converted into many products. Leather goods, such as saddles and ropes (reatas), were very important for the frontier life of Alta California. Hides would also be stretched and dried, then folded and stored, to be put on merchant ships from the east coast of the U.S. They would then be sold in cities like Boston, New York and Philadelphia for shoes or belts for industrial machinery.
Along with meat and hides, fat from the cattle was an important product. It could be melted into tallow for making things such as soap and candles. Because hides and tallow were so valuable, the hide and tallow trade became the foundation of the rancho economy. In this way, some rancheros or rancho owners, became very wealthy.
Who were the Rancheros?
Rancheros were people who had been loyal to Spain or Mexico, and had shown that they were capable of farming the land in a productive way. The first rancheros were soldiers who had come to the region as early as 1769. Most, though, were settlers whose families had come to Alta California in the 1770s with Juan Bautista de Anza. After Mexican independence, they called themselves Californios, because they felt closely connected to the land of California.
Native American Ranchos
Although it was mainly Californios — as the Hispanic settlers called themselves — who requested lands under the new laws, a number of Indians also received grants for ranchos. Many of these were in Northern California, such as Olompali, near the town of Novato, Rancho Ulistac in Santa Clara, and Rancho Posolmi near what is today Mountain View.
Who worked on the Ranchos and who were the Vaqueros?
Each rancho needed a staff of workers to operate it. There were people who maintained the household, cleaning, sewing and working in the kitchen. Depending on the types of crops grown on the rancho, there were those who worked in vineyards and orchards, or cared for crops like corn or wheat. Just like in the missions, there might also be carpenters, cobblers or blacksmiths for building or repairing tools.
But the main activity of ranchos was raising livestock, especially cattle. So the key workers on the ranch were the cowboys or vaqueros. They were responsible for protecting the herds, moving the cows to good pastures, as well as slaughtering, butchering them and processing their hides. The vaquero truly played an essential role on the rancho.
Because the did all their work on horseback, the California vaqueros earned a reputation as top-notch horsemen. Rancho visitors from the U.S. were often very impressed by the skills of the vaqueros. One traveler noted,
“The men are almost constantly on horseback, and as horseman excel any I have seen in other parts of the world. From the nature of their pursuits and amusements, they have brought horsemanship to a perfection challenging admiration and exciting astonishment."
The majority of rancho workers were Native Americans. They performed almost all of the roles, including working as vaqueros. Most were Christian Indians who learned their skills while living at the missions. Some also came from non-Christian villages or tribes. They were also trained in the different rancho chores. Indian labor was essential to making the ranchos what they were.
Danger and daily life on the Rancho
Working on a rancho could be very hazardous. There were accidents and injuries when dealing with large domestic animals like horses and cattle, but there were many wild animals to contend with. Grizzly bears roamed the foothills and valleys of California and often preyed on cattle, while smaller animals like rattlesnakes were just as deadly. Sometimes hostile Native American groups would raid livestock herds. This would often lead to violence when the rancheros pursued the Indians to recover their livestock.
Grizzly bears roamed the foothills and valleys of California and often preyed on cattle, while smaller animals like rattlesnakes were just as deadly. Sometimes hostile Native American groups would raid livestock herds. This would often lead to violence when the rancheros pursued the Indians to recover their livestock.
Daily life on the ranchos basically followed the same pattern as the routine at the missions.
Each day would begin with a breakfast of atole, a type of porridge. After breakfast each person would go to work on his or her particular occupation until midday.
At midday everyone would gather for lunch, often a bowl of pozole, a hearty stew. Lunch would often be followed by a nap or siesta, as was common all over Spain and Latin America. Sometimes workers and their families spent time socializing and relaxing.
They would return to their occupations around 3pm until just before sunset, which was they end of the workday. After work, people gathered for supper, which was often similar to the lunch meal. They then spent the rest of the evening together, until going to bed around midnight.
Free time and entertainment
Although life on a rancho involved plenty of hard work, there was also time for entertainment and socializing. Rancho dwellers enjoyed singing, dancing, playing cards and telling stories.
A very popular form of entertainment was the fandango. The fandango was named for a dance with origins in Spain. In Alta California and Mexico, the word “fandango” also came to refer to a party where people danced together. Men and women would dress in their finest clothes dance all sorts of dances including the jota vieja and the contradanza. Wealthy rancho families often organized fandangos that would last late into the night or early morning.
Family events such as baptisms and weddings were also important occasions for gathering together and celebrating. Wedding celebrations would often last for days at a time, and the family hosting the event would invite everyone living within many miles.
Some of the more popular forms of entertainment took place outdoors. As in most Spanish-speaking countries, bullfights were very popular. These weren’t as elaborate as those in the big cities of Spain and Mexico, but mostly involved releasing an angry bull in an enclosed arena. As the bull ran around, young men dressed in bright colors tried to avoid the bull’s horns. Sometimes the bull was killed, though other times it was set out to pasture.
Bear and bull fights were another popular pastime. A bull and a bear were tied together by one leg, and the two animals fought until the other was killed. Visitors to Mexican California mentioned seeing this sport take place in ranches and pueblos all over the territory.
California Rancho houses
In the beginning, most rancho houses were simple huts of earth, grass and branches or reeds. As the ranchos became more successful, their owners were able to have homes made out of adobe bricks and even timber. These homes would be usually low, one-story structures, though larger or wealthier families would sometimes have two story buildings. Most homes had an inner patio or courtyard, where the family activity would take place, as well as an outdoor kitchen for preparing and cooking meals.
The Alta California rancho house would later inspire the home style throughout the western U.S. known as the “ranch style” house.
Ranchos and hospitality
Visitors to Spanish and Mexican ranchos often commented on the hospitality of their hosts. Because of the distances between ranchos and the dangers of traveling in the open territory, ranchos always opened their doors to travelers. According to Teresa de la Guerra, a woman who grew up on a rancho in Southern California,
“Travelers knew that all Californio rancho owners freely offered hospitality to whomever happened to appear at their doorstep." - Teresa de la Gerra
Guests would receive food and a place to sleep, and even horses to ride if they needed them. Hospitality and a warm welcome to visitors was a hallmark of rancho life on the California frontier.
The end of the Rancho period
The era of California ranchos ended shortly after the U.S.-Mexico War. When California became part of the United States, rancho owners needed to prove to the U.S. government that the land belonged to them. Because it was very costly to hire lawyers to defend their property, most rancheros wound up selling off their land to pay their expenses. By the end of the 1860’s, most of the ranchos in California had been broken up and sold to new owners.
Popular Ranchos in Canlifornia
While most ranchos in California were broken up over a century ago, you can visit some of their original sites to better understand life during the rancho era. Many have become state parks or historical monuments open to the public.
https://www.ranchocamulos.org/
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=474
https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=621
December 6, 2023
Mexico's Supreme Court rules in favor of the bullfight
After an almost two year drought, the bulls will be coming back to Mexico City.
December 3, 2023
Cartel de la alternativa de Cristina Sanchez
Historic moment, the first and only time a female bullfighter took the alternativa with another female bullfighter as her madrina I guess you would say.
El Juli saliendo de Las Ventas
El maestro Julian López “EL JULI” consiguió su sueño en la despedida de Las Ventas.
Paulita
Recordando la importante actuación de PAULITA, vuelta al ruedo en ZARAGOZA con un toro de CASTILLEJO DE HUEBRA, en la corrida concurso de ganaderías. 08/10/2023
November 26, 2023
Augascalientes, Mexico
La Monumental Plaza de Toros de Aguascalientes celebra los 448 años de fundación de la ciudad , a lo grande. La intervención artística de la maestra Dulce María Rivas ha puesto el coso de la calle Rafael Rodríguez, más bella que nunca, para ver lidiar un encierro de la Ganderia de la Mora, por el triunfador de San Isidro Sebastiana Castella, la gran figura de México Joselito Adame que vuelve a su tierra natal, e Isaac Fonseca que se presenta con un gran expectativa.
November 6, 2023
November 5, 2023
Julian Lopez, the beginning of a career to the end
As the internet started taking off, say back in 1995 roughly, so did his career. And as I began to follow bullfighting thanks to the internet El Juli was everywhere, along with Enrique Ponce, Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza, and others.
El Juli has always been a constant, so it was hard to see him retire this year but I guess we are all getting older, sadly.
October 8, 2023
Going to the El Matador restaurant in Ogden was always a treat
For a kid living in Utah in the 80's, going to the El Matador restaurant was always a treat. It was about the closest I was ever going to get to experiencing Mexico.
The look of the restaurant from the outside with the bell tower and tile roof, the decor on the inside (especially in the waiting area with the little fountain), and the best chips and salsa I've ever had still this day, always gave me chills and a warm feeling at the same time.
I loved it.
And we didn't get to go there often, as a family we only went out to eat on special occasions and there were three or four restaurants we would go to so the El Matador was usually a once a year or maybe twice a year if we were lucky.
And I have to say again as a kid growing up in Utah, Mexico and its fascinating culture and allure seemed about as far away as any other place on Earth. And many times I seemed trapped in Utah, wanting to be someplace warm and exciting, as compared to my cold and boring surroundings. Even my Spanish classes at Wahlquist Jr. High with Mr. Turner holds a special place for me. Can you imagine wanting to go to school just to feel like you are escaping the world in your Spanish class? I know, a little odd but that was me.
And for a kid that was fascinated by bullfights going somewhere called the "El Matador" was even better.
Although my love for the bullfight didn't begin at the El Matador, it actually began at Taco Time in Ogden (which is another story soon to come) the El Matador always kept the flame inside burning for me.
That is why I was very sad to here about its closing last year. And why I had to take a couple of pictures from the outside when I was in town again recently before it eventually gets torn down.
Long live El Matador, long live Ogden, and long live the bullfight.
El Matador Mexican restaurant in Ogden closes its doors: ‘I’m so sad’
(standard.net 9-15-22)
Hyla Olsen heard the news - El Matador, the iconic downtown Ogden Mexican restaurant, would be closing — and went on a mission.
“We had to be here the last day,” she said.
So there she was Thursday, seated with husband Farrell Olsen and the couple’s daughter Haylee Rogers. They were enjoying their last meal at the eatery. “There is absolutely nothing that can compare to this,” said Farrell Olsen, a plateful of food in front of him.
Word started spreading via social media on Wednesday that El Matador, launched in the 1960s, would be closing and the line started forming Thursday morning outside the locale among those wanting one last fix.
“I got here at 10:30 and I was the second one in line,” said Jan Lyons, who ate lunch with her friend Pam Byington.
A message posted on the El Matador website on Thursday — its last day in business — confirmed the news. “El Matador Restaurante and Cantina is permanently closed. For over 60 years, it has been our pleasure to bring Ogden the finest quality Mexican food. We thank you for your support throughout this time and wish all our customers the very best,” it reads.
But few other details were forthcoming and restaurant operators didn’t immediately respond to a Standard-Examiner query seeking more information. Resha Holder, a hostess who was doling out El Matador’s famous salsa in quart containers to go, said that she first heard the news on social media on Wednesday. Her manager confirmed the plans.
“They didn’t really give us a reason. They said we will be closing after today,” she said.
Unconfirmed scuttlebutt among some of the many people who converged on the restaurant Thursday was that a deep-pocketed investor would be buying out the land where El Matador sits for redevelopment.
“It’s just like everything else in Ogden. Everything’s being torn down,” with apartments and townhomes filling the vacant spaces, Lyons said.
Whatever the reason, the popular restaurant wasn’t hurting for business. “Business was booming. It’s not a lack of business. It’s not a lack of customers,” Lyons said.
A separate and unaffiliated restaurant of the same name in Bountiful remains open.
Chef Tony Hasratian, an Armenian immigrant, opened El Matador in 1963, according to the restaurant’s website. He had been operating an Armenian restaurant when a customer suggested he give Mexican food a try given the lack of Mexican restaurants in Ogden at the time.
His Tex-Mex menu quickly caught on, according to a 2015 Standard-Examiner article on Hasration and the restaurant. “Millions of enchiladas, tacos and burritos later, Chef Tony has built a sought-after dining experience that keeps people standing in line just to get in day after day and night after night,” reads the article.
Given such popularity, there were a lot of long faces on Thursday. The line of people waiting for food snaked out the front entrance of El Matador into the parking area.
“I think it’s sad,” said Lyons, a fan since she was a child. “It’s a piece of our childhood, our adolescence, our growing up.”
“We don’t know where we’re going to go,” added Byington, her friend.
Shara Hatori and her husband, Austin Hatori, were in the line Thursday waiting to get in. They had their first date at El Matador.
“They’ve got the best food and atmosphere. It’s just the whole experience, really,” Shara Hatori said. “It really makes me sad. It’s one more gem that’s being taken away.”
The salsa, among other things, was a big draw. Tymbre Flamm was there with her husband, Michael Flamm, buying 15-quart containers of the stuff to go. They’ll eat some now, freeze the rest for later.
“I’m so sad, honestly,” she said, referencing the many family gatherings at the restaurant over the years. “It brought us all together. We all love it.”
Janika Barfuss, there with her mother, JoLynn Souter, said losing the food is sad. More significantly, she feels for the El Matador employees who will now have to find work.
At the nearby table where the Olsens and Rogers were dining, Rogers noted that the family tradition of bringing her father to El Matador to mark his birthday will fall by the wayside. “I’m sad we won’t be able to take more pictures with my dad on his birthday,” she said.
September 21, 2023
September 5, 2023
August 28, 2023
La despedida de El Juli en Bilbao
Con un toro de Victoriano del Rio
Corto una oreja con su segundo toro
Bilbao, August 26th, casi llena
Bilbao has struggled with attendance the last several years, but finally close to a sell out on the 26th of August to see Roca Rey and the farewell of El Juli.
August 27, 2023
Emiliano Gamero en Madrid
60 años tuvieron que pasar para que un torero a caballo mexicano volviera a torear en la plaza de toros de las Ventas , en Madrid , España.
Tras seis décadas , se rompe el ayuno novohispano y un charro mexicano pondrá en alto el nombre de nuestro país en la plaza de toros de la capital española, de la plaza de toros más importante del mundo.
Los complace plenamente que esté icono del rejoneo sea nuestro intimo amigo y torero de la casa , el gran Emiliano Gamero!
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