Skirmishes

October 30, 2012 9:54 AM

Las Azaleas ride tonight! An American Escaramuza Charra team, Las Azaleas were recently featured in the Pony Highway Production documentary, Escaramuza: Riding from the Heart, about a team of precision women riders who compete in the traditional Mexican rodeos known as charreada. Tonight, you can watch Las Azaleas represent the United States in the National Charro Championships in Mexico, here, in a deft display of skill that involves riding in a collision course toward each other only to miss by inches and followed by carefully choreographed turns. (Presumably at 8 pm PST, but unsure of precise time)

Tradition holds that escaramuza arose from Las Adelitas, women fighters in the Mexican Revolution who would ride horses to create dust clouds to trick the enemy into believing that an impending attack was coming in the wrong direction.

If you don't want to wait for tonight's competition or want to see examples of the Escaramuza riders, check out some of the videos below:

• Las Azeleas competing in California
• The Trailer for Escaramuza: Riding from the Heart
• Las Azeleas at last year's competition.

You can also follow Las Azaleas on their facebook page.

posted by Atreides (3 comments total)

Very cool. Thank you for posting.
posted by stet at 11:30 AM on October 30, 2012

I saw that documentary--what amazing skills and dedication!
posted by agatha_magatha at 12:11 PM on October 30, 2012 [1 favorite]

The documentary is exactly what alerted me to this sport. Just freakin' awesome.
posted by Atreides at 1:54 PM on October 30, 2012