The annual Best of Mexico Celebración is a family affair. Not only for the parents, grandparents and children clustered throughout the arena to enjoy the show — but also for the groups of families working together backstage to orchestrate the event.
Amber Alcalá, captain of the Tierra Azteca escaramuza team, is saddled up on her horse with two of her cousins and her father seated nearby on their own horses.
Amber has been riding since she was about 5 or 6 years old. Horses are a passion for both her mother and father, Christina Morrison and Jose Alcalá, and her sister, Paula.
“I don’t think that if we didn’t ride together, we’d be as close as we are,” Amber said. “For us to be able to represent our family together in that way … to showcase the beauty and elegance of the charrería world … is a big deal.”
The team practices for about two to three hours a day, three days a week leading up to competitions, on top of each of their individual full-time jobs. They travel back and forth to Mexico for competitions and frequently celebrate holidays, birthdays and other milestones together.
“As parents we think, OK, but T-ball, you know, baseball — all that — and we’re done. Well, they’re still going and it hasn’t stopped,” Christina said. “Amber is 25 and my oldest is 32 and they’re still going, and Daddy is still doing it, too.”
Cassandra Alcalá, Amber’s cousin, rides on the same team and returned as quickly as she could after giving birth to her daughter, Madeline.
“It’s an escape from reality. Whenever we go to practice, we leave everything else, lifewise, out the door,” Cassandra said. “It’s like therapy. Your horse feels what you do, so if you’re stressed, they’re stressed. … You have to let it go.”
The sport has helped Amber bond with her paternal grandmother, who still lives in Mexico, across their language barrier.
“I competed while we stayed at the ranch in Mexico … and like, I don’t know what it was, but … I (had) a sense of pride,” she said. “I don’t know if my grandma thinks I’m very Americanized because I don’t speak Spanish, but it’s like this is something from (her) footsteps. … I’m doing this because of you.”
The devotion to the sport means a lot to Amber’s father, too.
“It makes me proud. Being American and them wanting to follow your traditions, that makes me excited,” Jose said.
Paula, who also competes on the team, stepped back temporarily due to her pregnancy. Coincidentally, her due date was one day after the Best of Mexico performance.
As a mother, Christina knows that her daughters won’t compete forever, but hopes that the life lessons they learned through the sport will remain.
“For me, the pride they have in themselves and the confidence that they have in themselves, that they can achieve anything is important, win or lose,” she said.
As the family welcomes in a new generation, Jose is hopeful that the family tradition will live on.
“That’s what everyone is hoping,” he said, “that the tradition can keep going.”
Marcheta Fornoff covers the arts for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at marcheta.fornoff@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
This article first appeared on Fort Worth Report and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.