Rurales On The Ridgeline

 January 6, 2025

   Been on a Rurale kick lately. You know, these guys.

Daily Whip Out: "Rurales On The Move"

   I am also rereading "Insurgent Mexico" by John Reed and every time I dip in, I am mesmerized by Reed's magnificent prose. Here's a small taste:

"Wednesday my friend the photographer and I were wandering across a field when Villa came by on his horse. He looked tired, dirty, but happy. Reining up in front of us, the motions of his body as easy and graceful as a wolf's, he grinned and said, "Well, boys, how is it going now?"

Daily Whip Out:

"Pancho Villa Graceful As A Wolf"

   And, here's another snippet. . .

"We went down through San Ramon and beyond the end of the line of trees out across the desert. It was already stinging hot. In front a snake of rifle fire unfolded along the line, and a then a machine gun, 'spat-spat-spat!' As we emerged into the open a lone Mauser began cracking down to the right somewhere. . ."

   This sequence led me to a phrase of his I wanted to poach and so I did. . .

The Rurales topped the ridgeline at sunset and crossed over, suspended in amber.

Daily Whip Out:

"Rurales On The Ridgeline"

The "suspended amber" is pure Reed in all his descriptive glory. And here is another take on the amber angle:

Daily Whip Out: "Amber Rurales Redux"

"The general's house, corrals and storerooms ran around all four sides of a space as big as a city block, swarming with pigs chickens and half-baked children. Two goats and three magnificent peacocks gazed pensively down from the roof. In and out of the sitting room, when came the phonographic strains of the 'Dollar Princess,' stalked a train of hens. An old woman came from the kitchen and dumped a bucket of garbage on the ground; all the pigs made a squealing rush for it. In a corner of the house wall sat the General's baby daughter, chewing on a cartridge."

—John Reed, describing General Urbina's ranch