Charreada

Many of you have asked me what the word "Charrito" means. It is a nickname we use for little David. But whenever I am asked, I can never give, what I think is a good definition... so here is what I found on Wikipedia :


Charreada
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Charrería is the Mexican style of traditional Spanish horsemanship that developed in Mexico under the hacienda system. Both the Mexican charreada type of rodeo and American type of rodeo grew out of this tradition. Prior to the Mexican Revolution in 1910, Mexican vaqueros and American and Canadian cowboys participated in similar events throughout all three countries.

Following the breakup of the haciendas by the Mexican revolutionaries, the charros saw their traditions slipping away. They met in 1921 and formed the Asociación Nacional de Charros to keep the charrería tradition alive. The most visible of these efforts was the establishment of the charreada style of rodeo.

Mexican Americans in the United States also held various charreadas during the same period, but in the 1970s, the Federación Mexicana de Charrería began assisting them in establishing official charreadas north of the border. They are now quite common. The US champion team now competes in the national competition of Mexico.

Events
A charreada is held within a marked-off area of an arena consisting of a lane 12 meters (13 yards) wide by 60 meters (66 yards) long leading into a circle 40 meters (44 yards) in diameter. The participants must wear traditional charro clothing while performing. Preceding the events is an opening ceremony in which the organizations and participants parade into the arena on horseback, usually accompanied by a mariachi band playing The Zacatecas March.

The charreada itself consists of a number of scoring events staged in a particular order—nine for the men and one for the women. Two or more teams, called asociaciones, compete against each other. Teams can compete to become state, regional, and national champions. The competitors are judged by both style and execution. Unlike rodeos, most charreadas do not award money to the winners. At times there are such prizes as saddles or horse trailers.

Men's events
http://www.fmch.com.mx/suertesCharras.htm

http://mexico.udg.mx/arte/charreria/descripcion.html

1. Cala de Caballo (Test of the horse); The charro puts his horse though various commands to demonstrate his ability and the horse's training. Controlled slide, left and right half, full, and triple turns, dismount and mount, and reverse walk are performed.
2. Piales en Lienzo (Roping of the feet); a horseman must throw a lariat, let a wild mare run through the loop catching it by the hind legs. Three opportunities are given. Points are awarded for distance needed to stop the mare. This is done in the rectangular portion of the arena;
3. Colas en el Lienzo, or Coleadero (Arena bull tailing) similar to bull dogging except that the rider does not dismount; the charro rides alongside the left side of the bull, wraps its tail around his right leg, and tries to cause the bull fall and roll as he rides past it. Points are given for technique, time, and roll of the bull.
4. Jineto de Toro (Bull riding) similar to the rodeo event. Bulls are smaller, between 990 and 1320 pounds, and are ridden until they stop bucking. Two hands can be used on the bullrope. Points are given for technique. The charro cannot fall off, he must dismount and land upright. After the charro dismounts the bull he must remove the bullrope and bellrope so the Terna en el Ruedo can follow.
5. Terna en el Ruedo (Team of three); a team roping event in which three charros attempt to rope a bull - one by its neck, one by its hind legs, and the last then ties its feet together. They have a maximum of 10 minutes. Points are awarded for rope tricks and time.
6. Jineteo de Yegua (Bareback on a wild mare); similar to Bareback bronc riding. Yegua means mare. A wild mare is riden with a bullrope. Two hands are used and the legs are held horizontally to the ground.
7. Manganas a Pie (Roping on foot) a charro on foot (pie) has three opportunities to rope a wild mare by its front legs and cause it to fall and roll once. The wild mare is chased around the ring by three mounted charros. Points are awarded for time and rope tricks as long as the horse is roped and brought down. Extra points are given for the tirón del ahorcado (hanged pull) in which the rope is around the charro's neck and he uses his body to cause the mare to fall and roll. Points for all three attempts are cumulative. Eight minutes are given.
8. Manganas a Caballo or (Roping from horseback); a charro on horseback has three opportunities to rope a wild mare by its front legs and cause it to fall and roll once. The wild mare is chased around the ring by three mounted charros. Points are awarded for time and rope tricks as long as the horse is roped and brought down. Points for all three attempts are cumulative. Eight minutes are given.
9. El Paso de la Muerte (The pass of death) a charro riding bareback, with reins, attempts to leap from his own horse to the bare back of a wild horse without reins and ride it until it stops bucking. The most dangerous part of this is if the charro performing the pass falls under three other mounted charros that are chasing the wild mare around the arena ring. This is done backwards at times for show.

Women's event

• Escaramuza (Skirmish): Since the 1950's, this breath-taking event adds beauty and elegance to the Charreada. During this event a team of 8-12 women riding sidesaddle and dressed in colorful Adelita dresses perform a variety of precision riding techniques. Years of training by the rulebook make this event art, sport, and an extension of the culture that is Charreria. It is usually held between the Coleadero and the Jineteo de Toro.

Now aren't you glad to know all this!?!?! =) Basically when we use the nickname "Charrito" we are calling little David a small Mexican cowboy. But as you can see.... a lot more goes into it than you think!!! ;o)

Have a great Hump Day! - Oh yeah and.................

HAPPY ADMIN PROFESSIONALS DAY!!!

I know a couple of you out there so I would like to show my appreciation.

Alex's Lemonade Stand

I was excited to see this in the mail last week.

Adorable Pictures....

Here are some pictures that a really good friend of ours took while we were at LaTrisha's wedding last Saturday. Most of you have already seen these, but I wanted to post them here as well.

Also just to make sure.... When I wrote the previous post, I was not upset. I was just sharing some thoughts of mine. I don't want to upset anyone.

Something to say....

Hello, sorry to my fellow readers about not finishing the previous post. I got writers block for a few days and since then something has been brought to my attention.

I was advised that some readers think I like sad stories.... This could not be further from the truth. What I do is share things that affect me directly or indirectly. I am very sorry if my posts have made people stop reading my blog. Everyone out there who has a blog or a myspace uses it to express their feelings and things that impact their life. What they decide to put out there leaves them open for criticism and I am not immune to that criticism.

Yes, I do post about Neuroblastoma... I did not chose to be a part of this world. But now that I am and now that my daughter is okay, I personally can not turn my back to all the families out there that are still battling this horrible disease. Or the ones that will be diagnosed tomorrow. I still chose to be a part of a list-serv where parents can freely express how they feel about their child's treatment and not have to worry about someone ridiculing them for how they feel. Because every single one of the people that are on that list understand what they are going through. This list was a blessing for us when we were first diagnosed. There was a mother of a teenager on the list who's daughter is a long term survivor and we held on to that hope among all the stories of the children who did not win their battle. Now that my daughter is considered NED, I still choose to stay connected to give newly diagnosed families that same hope that their child will survive. It is the least I can do.

I post about children who need as many prayers as possible and if I can help them in my tiny insignificant way, then I will do it. Every single one of us in the NB community are connected, we may not know each other personally, but we all have a bond that we share. That bond is for our kids and the pursuit to see a cure for this horrible disease. We try everything we can to get the word out to the public, to make them aware, because I know all of the families out there went.... "Neuro..what?!?!" when their doctor said what their child had been diagnosed with.

I try not to let NB consume my entire life, but as a parent of a child who has had cancer, the thought of it coming back sits in the back of your mind forever. Especially with NB. It is a cancer that can grow a tumor back in two days after the previous one was just removed. With all the advances that have been made in Breast, Colon and lung cancer for some reason pediatric cancer falls way behind in research. I love the way this mother of a child with stage 4 NB put it:
"These children have not made "lifestyle choices" that exposed them to the risk of cancer, NO ONE KNOWS what causes neuroblastoma and most other pediatric cancers! But childhood cancer is not lucrative enough for the drug companies to sink money into research, and we don't have any celebrities with pediatric cancer, so our children continue to DIE."

The world of pediatric cancer is not pretty and I am sorry if people don't like reading my posts. But like I said, I did not ask for my child to have cancer, but now that we have been introduced to this world, I want to do what I can to help.

Happy Birthday to a wonderful Dad!!

Today is a very special day.... it would have been my father's 63rd birthday. Unfortunately he passed away on July 22nd 2004. He was a wonderful father and I miss him every day.

As most of you may know, David and I live in Phoenix. My dad's family lives in Reno, Nevada and that is where I grew up. I left after I graduated from high school to go to college in San Diego and that is where I met David.

Anyways.... my father had been ill for a very long time. I don't remember how old I was at the time but I had to have been at least 10 or 11 when my father needed a liver transplant. He was put on the donor list and when things didn't look good and he probably would have only lasted a week longer.... they found a match. He was flown to San Francisco to have the surgery. He made it through okay and was on medication for the rest of his life so his body wouldn't 'reject' the liver. He went through some ups and downs throughout the years, but I always remember thinking that nothing could kill my dad. Before I was born he had fought and beat cancer more than once, then I remember hearing he fell about 4 stories while working on the job, and then the liver transplant, after that I remember him having a heart attack, and a stroke. He survived it all! From the liver that he received, he was diagnosed with Hepatitis C, the one you will never get rid off.

Well after dealing with that for a while he ended up on dialysis. He did okay with his dialysis, but after taking a fall in early July 2004 he couldn't continue his dialysis and then passed away about two weeks later.

I was able to make it up to Reno to say good-bye to him. I am thankful for that, but I there are still so many things I wish I could talk to him about and now I will never get the chance. It has been almost 3 years since his passing and I still try to just block it out of my mind. I try not to think about it and it's easy for me to do since I live so far away. I can always just tell myself that he's there I just haven't called him.

I will continue with this more tonight.... gotta run =)

LaTrisha's wedding day...

Today was a very special day for a friend of mine. She looked absolutely gorgeous! I couldn't get that many good pictures of her and her groom. So here are a couple of the good ones I got.

Here is a picture of the inside of the church where La Trisha and Estevan were married.
















A Picture of the guys

Happy Friday!

I hope everyone has a great weekend! We are going to a wedding tomorrow and hopefully I will have some pictures for you all. We have a really good friend of ours coming to our house to watch the kiddos. That is really sweet of them! Especially since we live so far out from everything. We always feel bad asking people to watch our kids, that must be why we never get out much just the two of us. When we are away, we miss them dearly!!! =)

Here are a couple cute pictures I have been meaning to post. For those who like to have pictures of their own, you can right click on the picture and copy it to your drive or if you want a bigger version, click on the picture it self then right click and save it. Sometimes clicking on it doesn't work.... not sure why. =(

Little Bella in her dress from Grandma.

Uncle Edgar taking a nap while little Charrito has his lunch!

BIG SMILE!! =)

I also wanted to share another little girl's site that I found recently. She was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma in March of this year. Here is her website http://keirabo.blogspot.com/index.html

I haven't read her whole story yet, so I'm not sure what her stage is or how old she is, but I do know that she is still under 1. She was given like 100 ducks and there is a picture of her surrounded by all these yellow ducks. It is too cute!! Please go check her site out and leave a comment.

Have a GREAT weekend!!

NB takes another beautiful child....

Little Kendall earned his angel wings tonight around 8:30 tonight. He was diagnosed with NB in May of 2004, was declared NED (no evidence of disease) in March of 2005, and then in January of 2006 unfortunately he relapsed.

Kendall was diagnosed with Stage IV neuroblastoma, a very aggressive childhood cancer, just after his second birthday. He completed six rounds of chemo, surgery to remove the remaining tumor, TWO stem cell transplants (rescues), 15 rounds of radiation, and six months of Accutane therapy (yes, the acne medicine) to try and prevent a recurrence. He made it through all of that with courage, strength, and good humor, and with his twin, Zachary, by his side.

Here is a link to his site if you would like to leave a comment for his family. I'm sure they'd like to know so many people care for them. =)

Kendall's CaringBridge Page

Thank you!

CAST (Catch A Special Thrill) Fishing Day

Today we had the pleasure to be treated to a fishing day out at Lake Pleasant. Isabella and David were out on the boat for a couple of hours and unfortunately, they didn't catch anything, but they did have A LOT of fun together! Here are a couple of pictures from today.

Here is a picture of Little Charrito while we were wating for Bella and Daddy to come back.

NYC Kids Cancer Walk 05/12

Dear friends,
In the event that any of you will be in the NYC area, I wanted to invite your family to join in the 7th Annual
KIDS WALK FOR KIDS WITH CANCER
in Central Park on Saturday, May 12. This event benefits pediatric cancer research at Memorial Sloan- Kettering Cancer Center, where Simon was treated. No registration required - just show up!

Walkers start gathering at 12:30 near Tavern on the Green (see directions at www.walkforkidswithcancer.org). There is a brief program, and the walk is about 4 1/2 miles. Afterwards everyone returns to the start point for desserts and socializing. It is a VERY simple event with no more than 200 walkers -- but it is also a warm, upbeat, kid-friendly event, with high schoolers and middle schoolers, the mskcc NB docs and their families, nurses, parents, teachers, scooters, baby carriages, dogs, etc!!

Although just a small grassroots effort run by NYC area teenagers, the event has raised over $410,000 to date. Neuroblastoma research has been the prime target but much of the research funded has also benefitted other orphan cancers. Last year's funds of $105 thousand went to a pediatric project at MSKCC by Dr. Cheung investigating 200,000 new biologicals over 3 years using new technology (developed for adult cancer research at MSKCC) (Lunch for Life also funded). This year's funds will support pediatric translational research (under Dr. Cheung) at MSKCC.


Please continue to keep Ryan McCormick in your prayers. His parents keep getting bad news every day.

Also little Penelope needs your prayers as well. Her parents last post on her site brought tears to my eyes.

Thank you for taking the time to read about these beautiful children!