Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Legends & Legendary Women

October 22, 2014
   Got up this morning and whipped out another study of this guy:

 
Daily Whipout: "Billy Stands Alone"

   Working on a new True West Moment about a fascinating woman:

The Legend of La Tules
   She was beautiful, or, she was a toothless hag. She had coal-black hair, or, she had a shock of red hair. She was from Sonora, Mexico, or France. She was reviled by uptight anglos and she was revered by many in Santa Fe, New Mexico where she reaped a fortune from travelers on the Santa Fe Trail in the 1820s and 30s. What is agreed upon is that Maria Gertrudis Barcelo, known as La Tules (either a Spanish diminutive of Gertrudas, or a reference to her figure, Las Tules being Spanish for reed, as in, thin as a reed) ran a gambling saloon in Santa Fe and she won many a monte game because of her distracting beauty and her ability to read the minds of the men she played against. When she died, in 1852, she left a fortune ($10,000) and several houses, and a legend to rival any woman in the world.

 
Daily Whipout: "The Legendary La Tules"

"There are many reasons we broke up. There was a religious difference. I'm a Catholic and she's the devil."
—Adam Ferrara