Members of the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday, Dec. 5, to approve a motion calling for an ordinance to ban rodeos within the city limits, despite pushback from the Latino equestrian community who believe it to be an attack on their culture.
“It’s not ethical, it’s discriminatory and it criminalizes our culture,” said Geronimo Bugarin, a member of the Coalition of Horse Man in Action in Sylmar.
Bugarin was born in Mexico but grew up in Sylmar and spent his whole life surrounded by horses. He practices charrería, a more than 500-year-old cultural tradition passed down from generation to generation.
“My father was a charro. His father was a charro, one of my sons is already engaged in charreada,” said Bugarin.
Although the ban directly impacts the largely Mexican American equestrian community long established in Sylmar and other areas in the northeast San Fernando Valley, they and other equine communities across LA were never consulted or brought into the conversation.
“We were not invited to have these discussions. And then they [city council] weren’t aware of how it would impact our cultures,” said Bugarin.
“You can’t just go ahead and try to pass a ban and not include, not even discuss it with the people that will be heavily impacted by this,” said German Garcia, also a member of the Coalition of Horse Man in Action alongside Bugarin.
When the coalition caught wind of the ban heading to the council floor, the week before, they quickly connected with Councilmember Monica Rodriguez, District 7, who became their biggest advocate in the chamber.
While Rodriguez – who represents the community of Sylmar which is in the city of LA and is the representative of the LA district with the most ranches – drafted an amendment to the ordinance and.the coalition worked to mobilize the community.
“We were notified … maybe four days before this went to the floor, so we had basically the weekend to mobilize,” recalled Bugarin, who said he worked with Garcia and other coalition members to help get the word out. They filmed and shared a video via social media calling on community members within the city of LA to show up to peacefully protest the proposed ban.
On the day of the vote, dozens of Charros and Escaramuzas (female charros) showed up dressed in traditional regalia for an anti-ban rally outside City Hall, trotting their horses up and down Main Street.
“It literally took nearly 100 horses and charros, community members, showing up at City Hall to force that [cultural preservation] conversation,” said Rodriguez. “Their show and presence at council finally earned them a seat at the table.”
Councilman Bob Blumenfield, District 3, introduced the motion in 2021 as an animal rights issue.
California already has a law that regulates rodeos, requiring animal injuries to be reported to the state’s Veterinary Medical Board and for a veterinarian to be on-site or on call. Some regions of California – San Francisco, San Juan Capistrano, Irvine and Pasadena – have additional limits or bans on rodeos.
“Most Latinos like myself, who care about animals, have no interest in watching them be harmed in rodeos,” testified Gabriel Ochoa on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Latino at the council meeting.
“I was appalled, insulted, and just baffled that pro-rodeo forces are trying to turn this into a cultural issue. As a proud Latina, I can tell you that I know that torture is not entertainment. I can tell you that the almost 5 million Hispanics in the greater Los Angeles area do not want rodeos, they do not want their children exposed to torture disguised as entertainment,” commented former LA news anchor, Jane Velez-Mitchell at the council meeting. Velez-Mitchell is Puerto Rican and an animal rights activist.
Activists and proponents of the bill cite reports from the Veterinary Medical Board that document rodeo injuries varying from small abrasions to injured limbs, punctured lungs and broken spines. Animal rights proponents say the number of incidents are chronically underreported.
“It’s offensive for them to think that we brutalize animals when they don’t know what we spend on these damn horses to keep them alive and keep them in good health,” said Garcia. “We spend a part of our income on giving them food, giving them a home, making sure they’re good and healthy.”
Originally the discussion for the motion was surrounding the prohibition of certain tools that could be used with horses, such as fixed spurs and electric prods. Garcia said he was puzzled reading the initial ordinance and all of the restrictions that affect the sport.
“So we’re just gonna ride a horse with no spurs? That’s like trying to drive a car with no steering wheel. That’s how you move the horse,” said Garcia.
The discussion and motion evolved into a complete ban on rodeos and vaguely described rodeo-related activities, which included charreadas and other cultural equestrian events.
“As the ordinance was originally written, it was proposed to protect a lot of these more affluent…equine-related sports activities [of polo and dressage], but would have an impact on these traditional cultural events [charreadas],” said Rodriguez.
Bugarin said he believes the ordinance targets people of color – including Indigenous and Black communities, such as the Compton Cowboys and the famous Bill Pickett Invitational Rodeo – and “the charreadas, of course because it [would] ban the tools that we are known to use.”
“They’re specifically targeting minorities – that’s how it seems and that’s how it is,” said Bugarin. “There’s no other way of viewing it. … It’s just discriminatory, and it’s racist against [our charreada] culture, and against several cultures.”
Rodriguez believes the original ordinance proposed by Blumenfield would have had “detrimental effects in our community,” and that she wanted to make sure the amendment protected and preserved cultural traditions and events.
The vote, which passed 14-0 with Councilwoman Nithya Raman absent, calls on the city attorney’s office to redraft the ordinance banning rodeos, incorporating amendments – one presented by Rodriguez, and one presented day of by Blumenfield – that outline exemptions for traditional and cultural equestrian events.
The matter is going back to committee to be discussed and rectified, and the new draft of the ordinance will then make its way back to the council for a final vote.
Charrería and other cultural equestrian events are expected to remain exempt after the city attorney formally drafts a proposed final version of the new law “provided that the event does not engage in any activity compromising the definition of rodeo.” Practices that are expected to be outlawed under the rodeo ban include bronc and bull riding, calf roping, steer wrestling or other similar competitive activities deemed potentially harmful to animals.
Outlawing these practices would not only impact entertainment-related events but could also limit their ability to teach charreada traditions to the younger generation, explained Bugarin.
“We have started new programs in Sylmar where we’re teaching our new younger generations charreada. We’re doing workshops [with] hands-on roping, handling the horse, handling the bull,” said Bugarin, who describes it as an education in the essential elements of charrería.
But this is just the beginning of the fight. A coalition is building between the equine community from the San Fernando Valley to the San Gabriel Valley, Compton and Pico Rivera.
Bugarin hopes the ordinance will not make it back to the council floor, but now with a seat at the table, he is prepared to fight on if it does.
“We’re definitely fighting back, believe me,” said Bugarin. “We are not giving up.”
Every time I have watched killing of animals I am sickened to see healthy animals being slaughtered. And if it is a culture thing, then change the culture to more civilized methods like playing soccer. Oh! We have soccer! God bless.
Tired of PETA and activist politician extremeists deciding what and how the rest of humanity should conduct ourselves. Vote these politicians who do not serve their constituents, and don’t even keep them informed, out of office. Use your vote, and vote these over paid lackies of agenda driven extremists OUT.
I’m sure the horses and bulls injured or killed at charros will be happy to know their injuries and deaths were for the cause of preserving the tradition of torturing animals for entertainment.
The word, Charros translates to cowboys in English. Please use the vocabulary correctly.
I’ve witnessed the practice of “horse tripping” at a charro event and I’ve seen these animals dumped on public lands because they’re too maimed to continue. If the cultural traditions you seek to protect involve this level of abuse, there’s a real problem.
There’s a lot of uncorroborated and hyperventilated hysteria on this topic. Can the haters stop stamping their feet and waving their arms long enough to do and present some solid research, numbers and percentages on this topic?
And if the cruelty is any worse than the uber-fashionable dog shows and training we see all over TV, I’ll get active on your side.
So how are these animals not harmed or tortured? How do you train them to prance/dance like they do?…not because you ask them nicely is it? It’s because they’re made to/abused into doing certain things not because the horses want to. To say that they’re not abused is horse poop!