Escaramuza, the Poetics of Home

Escaramuza, The Poetics of Home considers how the Mexican tradition of escaramuza persists in the present-day United States, what it means for the identity of its Mexican and Mexican-American female practitioners, and how it fosters a sense of belonging.

Escaramuza, The Poetics of Home considers the Mexican tradition of escaramuza, all-female precision horse riding teams who execute exacting maneuvers while riding sidesaddle at high speed and wearing traditional Mexican attire. Widespread in Mexico, escaramuza is becoming increasingly established in the United States. The predominantly male national sport of Mexico, charrería emerged from early Mexican cattle ranching activities and was eventually refined and formalized during the post-revolutionary era as a romantic, nationalist expression of lo mexicano (Mexicanness).

Over the course of a year, I photographed and interviewed teams across the United States. The interviews were in turn used by poets Ire’ne Lara Silva and Angelina Saénz in the creation of a collection of poetry to accompany the photographs in an upcoming exhibition in Texas. The escaramuzas speak of the sometimes-frustrating machismo that they have to navigate within their sport. In my photographs I seek to respond to this frustration, to capture the grace and dignity of these women, while reckoning with the gendered complexities of escaramuza within the charrería tradition. Notably, all the women are photographed in formal escaramuza dress—ornate and handcrafted garments that are in many ways emblematic of the social and cultural dimensions, as well as tensions, in their stories. They present themselves formally, and in this sense suggest a certain rigidity and strictness within the tradition. But this formality also describes the escaramuzas’ immense discipline, skill, and precision as riders. Moreover, the beauty of their garments is celebratory and expressive, speaking to the individual and their subjectivity, as well as to the profound sense of belonging that the tradition of escaramuza collectively holds for its practitioners.

My portraits seek to amplify empowerment, and I believe the subjects’ gaze to be central to this. The women confront the camera and own the spaces that they occupy. These choices are significant, as I’ve photographed the escaramuzas within the landscape that, historically, has been the privileged domain of the white male. Given this, escaramuza may be said to represent women’s reclamation of that space, of their right to coexist within it, and to refuse to be confined to the domestic sphere. For all its tradition and formality, I believe that escaramuza is a powerful force for the disruption of established gender roles in charrería.

This sense of defiance—evident above all in the escaramuzas’ dress, location, and pose—is my point of connection to these women. It is where I am present in the work, and the meeting of our gazes in the act of photographing pinpoints this precisely. My lens is a feminist one, and Escaramuza, The Poetics of Home is a feminist project. Specifically, it is a collaborative work between myself, the escaramuzas, and the poets, Ire’ne Lara Silva and Angelina Sàenz, whom I have invited to create prose in response to my images. Ire’ne’s and Angelina's contributions amplify the voices of the women I’ve photographed, contextualizing their experiences through poetic language.