Tío Cowboy: Juan Salinas, Rodeo Roper and Horseman

10 After Ten Years, The Party’s Over

10 After Ten Years, The Party’s Over Time eventually takes care of everything, they say. With athletes, time means that eventually the aging process takes over and the body starts to wear out, and consequently slow down. It is a message that it is time to take it easy or quit. I know now that Tío Juan’s body did not quit on him until he was about eighty-five years of age, ten years before his death. However, I am sure that it did slow down. Therefore, at age forty-five, the cowboy had to call it quits. He could not win anymore, he was too slow, he knew it, and regretfully, he decided to quit making the trip around the nation. He decided it was time to stay home and work. Although at age forty-five he was too old to compete with the young lions on the Rodeo Cowboys Association circuit, he was still good enough to win the local ropings, even against the young men. He won many ropings for the next ten to twelve years. The betting continued, and he continued to make money. From reviewing his and Tía Bertha’s photo collection, I can safely say that his last roping was in 1966. Tío Juan kept roping around the South Texas area. Mostly he was invited to match and jackpot ropings. As the years went by, most of his appearances were at old men’s ropings, also called old timers’ ropings. Once, Tom East called and told him that there was a roping in Hebbronville, Texas, and they wanted Tío Juan to match rope against Tom East. A friend of theirs, whose name shall remain 108 Tío Cowboy unknown, was promoting the roping. The deal was that Tom, Juan, and the promoter would split the profits three ways. Tío agreed, and at the set date showed up with his horses and gear. Tío beat Tom on six calves, and then roped two more calves for good measure . After the roping, they hung around waiting for the promoter to tally up the gate, the concessions, and all other payments, and Bertha and Juan, ca. 1950 The Party’s Over 109 as we say in Spanish, partir la sandia, split the watermelon. After the promoter finished his bookkeeping he told Tom and Tío that he had to pay his relative for this, and his other relative for that, and the other relative for that, so that all the income had been used on expenses for him and his family, there were no profits. Tío just looked at the guy, shook his head, and loaded up and headed for home. Before he left, Tom asked Tío over to his ranch for supper. As they talked and laughed about how they had been taken, Tom jokingly told Tío that he felt bad for Tío: “I can get even, I’ll steal a cow from him and get even, but you’re gonna be up there in Encinal and too far to get even on your own.” They laughed about it. Of course, Tom never stole a cow from anybody. Back to ranching in earnest, Tío Juan slowly built up the acreage that he had for his cattle operation. He rented as much property as he could find. Very few people knew how big his operation was, because he considered his cattle business extremely private. Woe to the fool who asked him how many cows he had and how many acres he ran, because he would just outright tell him, “That is my business, and don’t ask me again how many cows I got, nor how many acres I run. I don’t ask you how much money you got in the bank, do I?” It was one of his pet peeves. In reality, at his peak he probably had about thirty to forty thousand acres, and ran about 2,000 head of cattle. Numbers vary constantly in any cattle operation. The weather, the landlords, and the market are all factors that cause variations. Tío leased about 15,000 acres from the Alexander banking family from Laredo National Bank for decades. The ranch was northeast of Encinal, and named the Charles Ranch. It was a very remote ranch, hard to get to, especially in wet weather, but Tío...