Tío Cowboy: Juan Salinas, Rodeo Roper and Horseman

Preface

Preface This is the story of Juan Light Salinas, a South Texas cowboy born and raised in the Brush Country who became a superb calf roper, joined the ranks of the best rodeo performers in the United States, and thus the world, and went where no Mexican had ever been before—and few have gone since. I’ve set these stories down as I remember them, based on years of listening to my uncle tell and retell the tales of his youth, his years on the professional rodeo circuit, and his life as a South Texas rancher. Juan Salinas was a big boy, and grew to be a big man. As an adult, at his peak he was 6 feet, 3 inches, and weighed about 250 pounds. He was not a chiseled, muscular man, but he was big in all respects—he had huge bearlike hands, leathery on the inside. He was simply a large person, not fat, but big and very strong. He was a very imposing figure. He was fair, being blond-haired as a child; he had brown hair as an adult, later to turn white, and hazel eyes. He was always a serious, quiet, and reserved person. Although half-Mexican and half-Anglo, he looked Anglo. However, he spoke English with a marked Spanish accent. Even as an adult—after a lifetime of speaking English, having an Anglo mother, going around the United States several dozen times, living with his Anglo wife, and having Anglo friends and family—he spoke in a deep, laconic staccato, with an accent. Of course, to the Mexican population in La Becerra and Encinal, Texas, he was a Mexican, though some called him El Alemán, (the German). He was a man of very few words when working or when in a group of people, until he became familiar with those around him. In a social gathering, he was very quiet at first, then opened up to start talking and telling stories. This is the way I learned all of his stories. Juan Light Salinas was my tío, which means uncle in Spanish. My mother, Mucia, was his sister. Since I was old enough to understand , Tío Juan was the family cowboy, the hero, the rodeo star. We all knew him, we all saw him on occasion, but most of us never were able to visit or talk to him. Growing up, all I knew was that he had been a rodeo champ, roping calves, and that he had been good enough to make the Championship Rodeo in New York’s Madison Square Garden for ten consecutive years, from 1936 to 1946. I saw him rope many times around his ranch near Encinal, Texas. Rodeo and calf roping in particular has always fascinated me; it is more complicated than meets the eye. First, a cowboy takes a well cared for, and well-trained 1,200- to 1,500-pound horse, he puts a light blanket on him, then a thick saddle blanket. Next, he throws on the saddle, he gets the cinch from one side and runs it through the buckle rings on the other side of the cinch, he keeps running it through and tightening it on each turn until the saddle is on tight. Then, he takes the end of the cinch and puts it through this little leather patch with a slot in it, called the keeper. Then he ties the back cinch, which is loose, just so the saddle is not pulled off the horse from the front by a bull or a strong calf. He puts a thick strap in the front of the horse’s breast, called a breast collar , and connects both ends to the D ring on the saddle. This is to prevent the opposite, the saddle from coming off the horse’s butt. Then he puts on the headstall, with a noseband. The noseband connects with a small rope or cord to the breast collar, which keeps the horse from rearing back. The cowboy then puts on the bridle and bit, he puts the bridle over the horse’s ears, the bit into the horse’s mouth, then he ties the buckle on the side of the bridle. The reins connect to the bridle at the bit. The reins tie together and rest over the saddle horn. The cowboy then ties two 35-foot ropes to the front of the saddle by xii Preface [3.15.219.217] Project MUSE...