Unregistered Bull in a Hotel Lobby

Choice gleanings from 45-plus years of Unregistered Bull.

John looked all out of humor as he seized his favorite chair in the lobby this week.

"If that’s the way I look," he said, "it’s only because that’s the way I feel. I just got back from my outfit over in Pecos County yesterday. My belly is about to get straightened out after a week of straight tortillas and frijole beans. Now, I’ve gotta get back. The things us pore agricultural producers have to go through to make a living! Look at this communiqué from my cowboy Jose."

He handed me a letter, scribbled with a dull pencil:

"Fort Stockton, Monday. Dear Señor John.

"Everything, she’s fine at the ranch, I think. Course I do not know for sure because I am not there. Well, I am there yesterday, but today I am in jail. Me, I’m gonna told you about it. I do not write so good in English even if I went to school, but I am afraid to write in Español because I do not know how to write Español like you talk it, and I am afraid you will not onderstand. Quien sabe?

"You know that fine bull we do not see when you left here? That bull, he’s caused all this trouble. I’m gonna look for him, like you told me. I ride all day two days. Also, I see that the two braceros from Torreon burn the pear and keep out of sight of the Immigration men like you say. I ride and ride, but I no find the bull. Pretty soon I think maybe my eyes are no good. I think I need to see the doctor, maybe for glasses.

"I take the pickup to Stockton, but the doctor, he’s not there. It is the holiday, Armistice, when everybody’s suppose to stop fighting. But, Senor, they don’t stop fighting in Stockton on Armistice!

"My friend, Juan Gomez, he told me let’s go into the bar, maybe the doctor is there. The doctor, he’s not there, so we have one Carta Blanca. I think my eyes feel better already! My friend Juan, he’s got plenty money, so he says let’s try another place to find the doctor. We get in the pickup and then, Carramba! I’m run into the back of a car. There’s nobody in the car, so we take off. We go down to the cafe where is my sweetheart, Rosaria. I do not think the doctor is there, but my friend Juan Gomez says quien sabe?

"Rosaria, she’s working in the cafe, all right, but she don’t look glad to see me. She’s talking to another hombre from Alpine. He’s drinking plenty Carta Blanca, too, but I don’t make no trouble. But pretty soon, while I am telling Juan Gomez that I have to take some flour to the ranch of the mojados from Torreon, this hombre makes pretty mad. I ask him how come he’s mad and he says he hears me call him mojado cabron. He hits me in the eye. Then the sheriff come in and grabs me. I tell him whatsamatter, I don’t make no trouble. He says maybe I don’t make no trouble, but I make a big smash on his car. Es verdad, senor, it was his which I hit with the pickup because my eyes, they need to see a doctor. I tell the sheriff about my eyes but he says the only thing wrong with them is the right one where the hombre from Alpine hit me with his fist.

"Now, Senor, as you see, I’m in the jail and the sheriff says it will cost $25 to fix his car, and all because of this bull which got lost. But everything, she’s okay at the ranch, only I don’t know if those mojados from Torreon gonna burn any more pear if they don’t get some flour and maybe some frijoles also, tambien.

"Senor, I hope you don’t feel mad and maybe fire me. It’s all because of that bull, and now I think I know where he is. Last night, I dream I am at a bull fight in Villa Acuna, where there’s plenty bulls and horses, also. I think it means that bull, she’s in the horse pasture at the ranch. So if I don’t go back to the ranch with you, that’s where the bull is, I bet you. Jose."—(S.F. 11/15/51)