Last month we went to the dusty city of Matehuala, Mexico. It’s in the northern state of San Luís Potosí, on the high plateau of the Huasteca Potosina. We were searching for the pointiest long-toed cowboy boots ever made. Over the past year, the botas vaqueras exóticas phenomenon has overrun the rodeo dance floors and clubs of this area. Mexicans who critique the fashions of their countrymen on hotly trafficked style blogs are dissatisfied by this.
We were told we were too late. We saw the most wondrous footwear. Stubby contrarians replaced them with short, square, “pig-nosed” boots.
Martín Hernandez Rodriguez (red shirt), Saul Nicolás Coronado (black shirt), and Gabriel Rodriguez Flores (white shirt) are a dance crew from Buenavista.
We’d seen the occasional report about the exotic pointy-boot trend making its way stateside. It was spreading into Texas, Tennessee, and Oklahoma. It has also reached other places where big groups of immigrant Mexicans have taken root. We expected that the odds were pretty low that the style had phased out of Mexico completely. We made our way to Mesquit Rodeo and Desierto Light. Both are cowboy venues in Matehuala. Party promoters host dance-offs to music known as tribal guarachero there. Essentially, this sound is a combination of thumpy house music. It also includes ancient Hispanic chants and flute work. Additionally, it has Colombian dance songs known as cumbia.
In Matehuala, guarachero has become an unlikely style of music. People who in theory should not get along come together and get along. It’s also the music preferred by the men and boys in the long and pointed boots.
Participants in these dance contests spend days and weeks prior choreographing intricate footwork routines. They also fabricate their own outfits with cheap paint and fabric. The grand prize, beyond the enthusiastic crowd’s affection, is either a bottle of whiskey or a few bucks.
We were pleased to discover a separate contest for the longest, most ornate and pointed boots. They are also spotlighted in public song-and-dance programs. The exotic boots are made by modifying boring normal ones. Materials are bought in local hardware and craft stores. The fanciest ones have LED lights or mirrors. Others use paint and sequins of every color. They all get the glitter treatment no matter what. It was explained to us that some boots have measured upward of five feet in length.
Maybe the rumor that people were bored of these boots was nothing more than hateful slander. Maybe it was spread by jealous losers with no long boots of their own.
Gustavo, 11, and Carlos Mendoza, 15, are known as Los Hermanos. They took second place in the dance contest finals.
“When people see someone walking with pointy boots,” he said, “they say, ‘No way, that guy is insane! Why do you wear those boots?’ But I say that everyone wears his own style, right?”
Minri introduced us to a few others from his crew. There was Francisco the Cell Phone Guy. There was a group called Los Pachangueros. There were some kids from Guadalupe. And there were a couple guys called Los Carnales, from the ranch of San Francisco. They were all sporting pointy boots.
We also met a different Francisco. He is an 18-year-old. He and his wife sell prepaid phone cards and mobile phone cases in a tiny store in a nearby market. He usually strolls downtown proudly. He wears aqua-colored skinny jeans and spectacular boots decorated with red beads. They’re at least a couple feet in length, maybe longer.
Besides making his own boots, Francisco also crafts boots that he puts up for sale. By his estimation, he’s created more than 100 pairs to date. He’s even seen his creations in the US in pictures on websites.
We asked him what he thought about the dustup between pro- and anti-pointy-boot factions.
“Everyone does his own thing,” he said. “To me, these are the best boots—that’s it. I like these very much, and I dance with them. I don’t care what people think. As long as I like it, I don’t give a damn. That’s what I think.”
Jesús Briones, from Zaragoza de Solís, is another member of the Barrio Apache Hyphy crew.
Text: Esteban Sheridan Cárdenas
Photos: Edith Valle
