Count with me. Eight, seven, six, keep it up, five, four, three, don’t let go, two, one. Sure eight seconds might feel like a blip in time for most, but for the Southwestern warriors of the rodeo, eight seconds is an eternity. Go ahead and ask any rodeo cowboy how they got into this life,…
The grounds are empty. Empty stadium seats, open parking lots and steer pens with nothing around but silence in the air, except for one man overlooking the rodeo racetrack. This man is José Calderon. It’s his second year presiding over the Tucson Rodeo. Saturday marks its 93rd year. Calderon is the chairman of the…
Marana’s Erin Parsons is very familiar with rodeos. She comes from a well-known Tucson-area rodeo family and began competing in junior events at age 6. Now 29, she is a professional barrel racer and participates in about 20 rodeos each year, including La Fiesta de los Vaqueros, better known as the Tucson Rodeo. The Tucson Rodeo takes place once…
Over 200,000 people attended Tucson’s La Fiesta de los Vaqueros this February. Amid the crowd, a woman with a skin-tight, all-denim outfit stands tall as she sipped her beer. She is wearing leopard print cowboy boots with red leather that adorns her calves and a matching belt with a chunky white gold clasp. “Those are…
Visitors and staff wear pink at the Tucson Rodeo on Sunday, Feb. 16 to support breast cancer research and awareness.
