CLICK HERE if you can’t view the gallery in a mobile device.
On a sunny February afternoon,
“Come here ‘Mamacita’ (little mama), Huerta calls ‘Sandy,’ a 3-year-old zebra he bought as a foal in Austin, Texas. “Dame unos besitos (give me some kisses), good girl, you’re beautiful, oh, yeah,” as she kisses and licks her owner’s cheeks before she gets groomed.
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and shelter-in-place order, it’s uncertain when Huerta will showcase Sandy and his other farm animals at public or private events. On Tuesday, he would be performing at Cinco de Mayo festivals, but they are canceled this year.
“It’s affecting all of us,” Huerta said.
Huerta, a small Mexican cowboy with a big heart and thick mustache, has been a mainstay at rodeos in the Bay Area, riding atop ‘Chilaquil,’ a Watusi bull, and ‘Pepe,’ a 9-year-old Brahma bull.
“I was surprised by the people’s reaction because they showed more admiration for the bulls than the horses,” he said. “Spectators were surprised, too, as some of them were walking and taking photos and videos of us, especially when they saw us riding the bulls.”
Huerta, known affectionately as ‘El Frijol’ (the bean), is from Tepatitlán, Jalisco, Mexico, where he grew up loving and caring for farm animals.
“We were pretty poor. I started working when I was 6 or 8-years-old doing different errands, selling popsicles, donuts, working at a brick factory, etc. My dad died when I was 16-years-old, and I promised my mother and grandparents that I would help them,” said Huerta, who is married to an American and is seeking legal status.
Before COVID-19, in addition to rodeos, he performed at quinceañeras, birthday parties, and other social events where he’s invited to bring his animals to take photos with festival-goers and guests.
Pepe was the first bull he acquired since it was a calf, fed with baby bottles, which helped to domesticate it. “I treated it like my pet; we built a nice relationship. I love the bull, but in 2011 I sold it,” he said, his voice shaking and eyes welling up. “It still hurts me. I felt sad and cried for it afterward, especially when my friends asked me about it.”
Luckily, he was able to buy it back at a lower price after the new owner told him Pepe was misbehaving, breaking the corral. He was going to send it to slaughter if Huerta didn’t want it back.
Huerta trains and domesticates animals when others can’t.
“You need to have a whole lot of love and patience to transmit trust. You don’t have to beat them. That’s the key to domesticating animals,” Huerta said. “God put us together, and they’re going to die with me.”
