It’s a slowly disappearing lifestyle in Texas, but this Sunday it’ll be all on display. The Institute for Texan Cultures is featuring one of those cultures: Tejano Ranching.
"There’s a whole culture and way of life around ranching," said the ITC's Brandon Aniol. "A lot of the folks we’re going to have on Sunday are active ranchers and vaqueros in their everyday life. "
Vaqueros is the Spanish word for cowboys.
"And we’re bringing their lifeways into the museum here for folks to look at," said Aniol.
Also coming on horseback Sunday are the Charros Completos. Aniol explained what they are.
"Charros Completos are the champion riders, champion ropers, and they take a lot of the expertise that these vaqueros have, and they’re sort of the champions in these lifeways,” Aniol said.
I've been to a charreada before, and their abilities with the horses are just amazing.
“Oh yeah, they’re incredible," he said. "Victoriano Flores and his family are going to be here. They are three generations of Charros Completos. The grandfather, son and his son are all champions in what they do.”
This is part of the ITC’s Second Sunday program wherein they price admission so anyone can afford getting in.
“It’s free; free admission," Aniol said. "The event is held from 12-5 p.m.. There’s going to be horno cooking.”
Horno is the adobe outdoor stove used on Tejano ranches. Aniol talked about the foods they'll be cooking.
“Tortillas, pan de campo -- so it’s really going to be a broad spread. Not only that, we’re going to have music. We’re going to have Los Innocentes, which is a guitar duo, and they play the traditional corridos and balladas that are very famous coming from these ranches,” Aniol said.
I'd heard there was something about the curandero tradition (essentially folk medicine), and asked him about it.
“There is. We’re going to have a curandero here who is, by professional trade, a nurse, so he understands the connections of a lot of the folkways of using herbs for healing,” Aniol said.
- More on Tejano ranching at: www.texancultures.com
