Unregistered Bull

Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull.

Señor, if you live north of the border, you may think we citizens of Mexico have only one excitement — fighting the bulls. But this is not entirely true. Sometimes the bulls fight us.

Por ejemplo, consider these pictures of my countrymen at work in the stockpens of Nuevo Laredo. I do not know what you call these men in Englase, nor even in Español. They do not seem to be what you call vaqueros, nor cabaleros, since they do not have horses. Nor are they bull fighters. They do not wish to fight the bull. They wish to — I blush — make the bull not a bull. With a knife, no?

Bueno, in this first picture we find the bull charging around the corral while my friends have much cuidado on the fence. One of them has roped the bull from the fence.

Will the bull continue forever to elude my friends? No, Señor! Observe in the picture below how Joselito — or is it Gregorio? — bravely runs into the corral with his rope. How swift his feet! How sure his rope!

Ay, Chihuahua! The bull has turned on my friend! The next picture proves it beyond doubt. This bull is what you Americanos call "snuffy." Obviously he is snuffing at the seat of my friend’s pants. But have no fear. Notice how my amigo leaps through the air for the fence. Assuredly, this man must be a world champion athlete in disguise!

But the bull, bravo though he is, cannot forever escape my friend’s serious purpose. See in the following picture how one man outside the fence has the ferocious animal secured to a post while others ply their unerring ropes.

Then comes the inevitable. Quickly the bull is no longer exactly a bull. Perhaps, instead of becoming bologna for the Gringo dinner table, he will furnish roasts and steaks for the same. Quien sabe? It is all in the interest of international commerce. I do not know which of these brave men was lucky enough to keep, for his own family meal, that part of the bull which was removed after so dangerous an episode. — (S.F. 03/12/59)

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