The Cockfight: A Casebook

The Birds of Death

GILES TIPPETTE The Birds of Death Ourfinal "literary" description ofa cockfight is set in Mexico, very near the TexasMexico border. The accountprovidesgratifyingdetail ofthepreparation, training, and overallfolk philosophy ofcockfighting. Ofspecial interest are the "tips, "as to which drugs or vitamins can be utilized to stimulate the cocks to fight with greaterferocity. The author, Giles Tippette, has also written The Trojan Cow: A Novel (New York: Macmillan, 1971), and a mystery entitled The Mercenaries (New York: Delacorte Press, 1976). Fiaion or not, it seems olroious that Tippette had to M some fieldwork on the Texas-Mexico borderin orderto elicit all the rich ethnographic detail he presents. For other accounts ofcockfighting in the Texas area, see ffayne Gard, "Rooster Fight," Southwest Review 22 (1936): 65-70; and Haldeen Braddy, ''Feathered Duelists, "inMody C. Boatright, WilsonM. Hudson, andAllenMaxwell, eds., Singers and Storytellers, Publications ofthe Texas Folklore Society, vol. 30 (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1961), pp. 98-106. The four matches had been made for 5000 pesos each. They were between Fernando Solis and Antonio Chapa, the two best breeders in Nuevo Laredo. If it had been bullfighting it would have all seemed matter-of-fact. But it was not bullfighting, it was cockfighting and it was illegal. The last fights ofthe season had been held in the interior ofTexas, and now the only action a cockfighter could hope for until the fall was along the border. Which was not so unlikely: though Texas has perhaps more cockfighters and breeders than any other state, the headquarters is in the border country. It is looked upon there almost like a national sport, and the Mexicans and Texans fight their birds freely across the Rio Grande. But the match had begun badly for "Nano" Solis, a young man of 28 who looks enough like a bullfighter to be one, with his slim size and handsome, sculptured dark face, his jet-black hair and flashing white teeth. It had begun badly because he had put his bestbird, a purebred Spanish cock named Pepito, in the match in hopes ofshaking his opponent's confidence. But Pepito was in Reprinted with permission from Texas Monthly 6 (1978): 163-165,271-272,274,276. 54 The Birds ofDeath trouble. Three times the two cocks had been pitted, faced off across the line drawn in the hard-packed dirt ofthe little ring, and three times Nano's handler had had to take Pepito up lest the referee call a win for the opposing cock. Now Pepito had a broken left leg and his right eye was swollen almost shut. The handler walked around the ring with him, cradling him in both arms, taking mouthfuls ofwater and spraying them down Pepito's back, trying to cool him, to give him new life. Outside the ring Nano looked worried. Even though he was a professional cockfighter, 5000 pesos was a great deal for a man ofhis poor means to bet on each match, and he had counted on Pepito winning this first one. And it would be a hard thing indeed to lose Pepito. Pepito's sire was dead, killed in a fight at one ofthe bigftrias, (fairs), and Pepitowas the last ofthe pure Spanish stock he'd imported from Spain. Watching, he now regretted his decision to fight the little red cock, but there was bad feeling between him and the opposing breeder, Antonio Chapa, and he had wanted to embarrass him quickly. But Chapa had countered with a pinto cock, a brown-and-white-speckled cock of mixed German and Spanish breeding that was jumping higher than Pepito and spurring him about the head. The pinto was, as some boxers are, a headhunter. He had several times dazed Pepito and had closed one eye. They were not fighting the cocks with the long, deadly steel gaffs that are attached to the natural spurs ofthe birds, nor with the swordlike inch and a half slashers, but with short, blunted steel spurs. It was late in the season and neither breeder had wanted to risk losing valuable battle stock. Nevertheless, a cock could be beaten to death with the short spurs unless the referee stopped the fight in time. Now, as his handler still circled the ring with Pepito, Nano was considering whether to concede and save his cock or hope that Pepito would make a comeback . The little cock had fought three times before, but he'd won so easily each time that he'd never been really tested. The crowd and...