Cowboys of the Backlands

Yesterday was the annual procession of cowboys in our little town of Sobradinho, Bahia. It's a Catholic tradition. Our town has three Catholic chapels, one in each of our three neighborhoods. The parade starts at the far end of our linear town at the first church and heads down the main avenue with all the cowboys on horseback following the statute of the Virgin Mary on donkey drawn cart. They make their way to the main church in the far neighborhood where all the cowboys participate in a special mass to bless their year.

Regardless of the religious connotations, the parade is lovely to see. All types of horses and all types of "cowboys" big and small. Some years there is even a man riding on a old Zebu bull. Sadly this year the bull did not make his appearance.

We see real, live cowboys in their full leather outfits at least once a week riding down the avenues of our town, in the fields near our house herding cattle and goats back to their corrals for the evening, and down interior dirt roads looking for lost animals. I find it one of the enjoyable sights of our surroundings. And, I love their traditional music as well.

I was a little sad this year as there were no excited little fellows to accompany me to see all those horses walking by. But I have fond memories of more than ten cowboy parades over the years with my own three, even my two grandchildren one year, and a special little Brazilian nephew.

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