I learned how to drive in snow in a truck. My dad took me out to a cornfield, packed with ice, snow, and not much else since it was the dead of winter. Ever so carefully, he showed me how to put the truck into a tailspin, then how to slowly ease myself out of it without panicking or jerking the wheel in the wrong direction. There were lots of lessons I learned from driving trucks around the farm, but that one is by far the most vivid. My heritage is Indiana and farm life, family values and honest work ethic.
When I met Orlando I knew if we were ever to have kids they would grow up juggling two cultures, two languages, two ways of raising a family. What I didn’t anticipate was how much I would learn along the way, as well. This Hispanic Heritage Month, Chevrolet invited our family to a traditional Mexican charreada, a competitive event that’s known as the grandfather of the American rodeo. I had little to no understanding of what we were getting ourselves into, but we had a few days to get acquainted with the gorgeous 2019 Chevy Silverado sent to us for the occasion, and then we were off on a warm Sunday afternoon, decked out in cowboy boots and denim.
I had a few thoughts about driving a truck again after so many years getting accustomed to city life and my mid-size SUV. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the handles on the Chevy Silverado were easy to navigate, and I loved the automatic charging dock for my cell phone. In my own dad’s trucks, I remember having to heave my weight against the tiny rear window to get it to manually slide open. Now there’s just a quick little button, and the window automatically opens to let in the fresh air. Similarly, there’s an automatic button to lower the tailgate for ease of loading items in and out. I also appreciated the seat vibrations alerting me if I was approaching a slower vehicle too quickly and the system anticipated a collision.
After driving the truck for a week, in my normal day to day running around town, I lasted the whole time on just one tank of gas! The Chevy Silverado gets an approximate 23 MPG city / 33 MPG highway, which seems pretty competitive to me! That took us all the way to the South Side of San Antonio, where the charreada was just getting started on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
Charrería, the national sport of Mexico, is very much alive and well in Texas thanks to many Mexican-Americans that are striving to keep this rich tradition alive, and passing the Charro culture to the next generation. The San Antonio Charro Association shares the same passion and has been carrying this tradition for over 72 years. The association hosts The Charreada de las Fiestas Patrias which is the City of San Antonio’s official Fiestas Patrias event. As we stepped into the dusty arena, the announcer presented the charros and their female equivalent, Escaramuza riders. They rode alongside each other in perfect diagonals, in patterns that mesmerized the eyes, and in circles around the arena until you had to assume the horses were dizzy.
The girls and I watched with our cousins Mia and Amber, who had never been to a charreada either. The announcer was kind enough to announce the different events and their challenges for all of us, and each one presented its own dangers and skills. Afterwards, we walked back to our Chevy Silverado and took it for a leisurely drive amongst the charros’ horse trailers and stables. I talked with a few of the women, asking them how long they had been riding, and even meeting one whose daughter had competed earlier in the day at the tender age of 5. With a 6.2L V-8 engine, 420 horsepower and a max towing capacity of 12,200 lbs., the ladies agreed that the Chevy Silverado was the next best thing to a horse, with many of the families driving their own Chevy trucks for generations.
Driving home, my girls and I discussed our favorite events, how amazing the men and women were who competed, and how my childhood riding horses differed from the Hispanic heritage we had just witnessed. I’m grateful to a company like Chevrolet for valuing all aspects of the Hispanic-American culture, and for the opportunity to introduce my girls to one more layer of their own roots.
XO,
A
P.S. This post was sponsored by Chevrolet. Don’t worry though, all opinions are my own!
