Six Racers Are Running for Their Lives

http://www.indigenouspeople.net/tarahum4.htm

Tarahumara Indians enter 100-mile contest to call attention to
the plight of their people in rural Mexico.

For six Tarahumara Indians, members of a tribe of legendary
long-distance runners from northern Mexico, Saturday's 100-mile
endurance race in the Angeles National Forest isn't just another
race.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

It's a run to survive.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"There's very little food, there's very little water," Tarahumara
runner Madero Herrera says of his tribe's predicament back
home. "There's no electricity in our community. People are
hungry. People are dying."

In the last several years, the Tarahumaras have been entering
100-mile races--nearly equaling the length of four 26-mile
marathons--in hopes that people will hear of their tribe's plight
and donate money to ease their situation in the rugged
mountains of Chihuahua state.

And they run pretty well. Victoriano Churra, a Tarahumara
tribesman, won the 100-mile Leadville, Colo., run in 1993.
Herrera won the same race two years ago and did well in
another race last year in Utah.

Saturday's 11th annual Angeles Crest 100-Mile Endurance Run,
beginning in Wrightwood, will test them and 151 other entrants
who will traverse trails in the local mountains that peak at
altitudes of more than 9,000 feet.

If running continuously for 18 hours or more isn't enough, the
runners must survive a rise in elevation of more than 3,000
feet--at a point 70 miles into the race. "That'll be a killer for some
of the runners," said event organizer Ken Hamada of Arcadia.

The run ends at Johnson's Field, near the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory in Pasadena.

While others train for months for such an ordeal, the
Tarahumaras don't do anything special to prepare. They already
run in their home territory, located near Mexico's Copper Canyon
region at an altitude of more than 10,000 feet. They run to get to
jobs and occasionally to hunt for food.

"Sometimes they chase after deer, and eventually [the deer get]
tired from all the running and then the Tarahumaras catch them,"
said Richard Fisher, an Arizona author who has lived with the
tribe.

University of Arizona anthropology professor Thomas Weaver, an
expert on the Tarahumaras, adds: "Running is part of their life.
They're accustomed to running up to 150 miles at a time."

The Indians, short and slight in stature, are different in other
ways from runners who tackle the 100-milers. They forego
running clothes for colorful native costumes. And no Nike shoes
for the Tarahumara tribesmen. Each of them wears simple
huaraches, sandals with soles made from old tires and secured
by straps wrapped around the ankles.

"I wouldn't know how to run [in Nikes]," Herrera, 24, said the
other day during a familiarization tour of the course. "I don't even
know what they feel like."

Age doesn't seem to be much of a factor either. One of the
Indians entered in the Angeles Crest run, Martiniano Cerventes,
is 44.

He shrugged off a question about his age.

Like other Tarahumaras, the six here for the run are shy and did
not respond quickly when spoken to. When a reporter asked
them questions, they first talked among themselves in Raramuri,
their native tongue, before Herrera, speaking for the group,
answered in Spanish.

They speak earnestly about conditions back home. They
measure distances in the time it takes them to run them.

The nearest medical clinic is three hours away, Herrera says.
Some of the nearest jobs are four hours away.

Fisher, who brought them to Los Angeles to compete in
Saturday's run, said he was appalled by the Tarahumaras'
situation and vowed to help them. A four-year drought in their
region, compounded by deforestation, has cut into the supply of
their staple crop, corn. Experts estimate that because of
malnutrition, the tribe, once considered one of the biggest in
Mexico, with about 120,000 people, has dwindled into the
hundreds in some villages where thousands once lived.

"Their situation is quite extreme," Weaver said. They subsist by
growing corn and harvesting lumber in protected Indian areas.
But outsiders have gone into the area to illegally cut down trees,
deepening the area's deforestation and the tribe's problems.

Some say the Tarahumaras are ignored by Mexican officials.
"They have been long neglected by the government," says
Ramon Ruiz, a retired professor of history at UC San Diego.

Some government relief programs to help the tribe were
ineffective, Weaver said, because they concentrate on readily
accessible areas. The Tarahumaras live in inaccessible areas
where there is no electricity, roads or telephones.

Fisher's group, Wilderness Research Expeditions, a nonprofit
corporation (Box 86492, Tucson, AZ 85754), has distributed
about 60 tons of food to help the tribe since 1993.

But he says that isn't enough.

So he and other like-minded individuals pool their resources to
pay the $145 entry fee for each runner and to provide for food and
other expenses.

While in Los Angeles, the six tribesmen are staying with local
families. Fisher, who uses an aged van to drive the
Tarahumaras around town, got special U.S. permission to have
the Indians here for the race.

In fact, Fisher is a one-man public relations machine who can
get under the skin of some racing enthusiasts. Some race
directors, while admiring the Indians' running skills and
deploring their predicament, think Fisher's tactics are troubling.

At the 100-miler last year in Utah, the Tarahumaras did not pay
their entry fees and ran anyway, enraging local organizers. When
Herrera came in first, beating the officially sanctioned winner,
hard feelings developed over who really won the event.

After all, the 100-mile runners point out, they are a special breed,
too.

"They're a different mind-set," says Hamada, the Angeles Crest
race director and veteran of several 100-milers himself. "They're
not interested in T-shirts or running in [5-kilometer or
10-kilometer] races. They want things done right because all
they do is run and nothing else."

Veterans scoff at Fisher's prediction that a Tarahumara could
break the Angeles Crest course record of 17 hours, 35 minutes,
currently held by Jim O'Brien, a track coach at Arcadia High
School. "We'll see about that," one local runner said.

Hamada is more diplomatic.

"It's fine with me" if the Tarahumaras dramatize their plight by
competing in Saturday's event, he said. "They're certainly
capable of winning the race."
=====
Tarahumara Feats Inspire Awe

by Victor M. Mendoza

http://www.indigenouspeople.net/tarafeat.htm

Ken Chlouber was laboring up a dusty dirt road about 25 miles
into the Leadville Trail 100 ultramarathon last weekend when he
was passed by two other runners.

Chlouber looked over at the pair and then down at their feet,
which were bare except for sandals made out of used tires,
leather thongs and nails.

"Maybe I'm spending too much on shoes," Chlouber half-joked
as the runners passed him.

Just after midnight Sunday, those sandal-clad feet were the first
to cross the finish line of America's highest and perhaps most
rugged ultramarathon, carrying with them new-found respect for
their owners - two Tarahumara [Raramuri] Indians from the
Copper Canyon area of northwestern Mexico's Sierra Madre
Occidental.

Not only did Victoriano Churro and Cerrildo Chacarito finish
one-two after 20 hours, another Tarahumara [Raramuri] - Manuel
Luna - was fifth. And they did it their way, on sandals they pieced
together a few days earlier from tires picked up at the Leadville
junkyard.

"I think this will set the ultramarathon community on its ear,"
smiled Kitty Williams, who, with Rick Fisher of Tucson, was
primarily responsible for bringing the Tarahumaras [Raramuris]
to Leadville.

The Leadville Trail 100 is considered one of the most grueling in
the country because nearly all of the race is run at elevations
higher than 10,000 feet and twice goes over 12,600-foot Hope
Pass. Only 138 of the 294 runners who started the 11th annual
race at 4 a.m. Saturday finished the course.

The Tarahumara tribe numbers about 40,000 scattered in small
villages over 35,000 square miles of rugged and remote
mountains and canyons. Their name for themselves is
"Raramuri," which, in their language means 'foot runners'.

Running always has been a central part of the Tarahumara
[Raramuri] culture because it has been the only way for them to
get around. Games that involve running for long periods of time
are a focus of their leisure time, but they seldom run what
Americans consider a competitive road race.

Tales of tremendous running feats are attributed to the
Tarahumaras [Raramuri], including running 70 miles a day,
going 170 miles without stopping and running 500 miles
carrying 40 pounds of mail.

Fisher guides tours of Copper Canyon, has written several
books about the area, and has known the Tarahumaras
[Raramuri] more than eight years. Recently, he has become
more concerned that their culture is being threatened by
increasing development.

Williams said the Tarahumaras [Raramuri] are running less
because of the development which has brought roads closer to
the tribe. Still, Luna lives in an area so remote it is a three-day
trip to the nearest road.

Fisher and Williams brought six Tarahumaras [Raramuri] to run
in the Leadville race partly to draw attention to their situation.
They hope to stop the Copper Canyon logging because they fear
it will destroy the Tarahumaras' [Raramuris] agriculture-based
culture, and, along with it, their running.

"Their running has been declining because there are more
roads," said Williams.

Last year, Fisher put together Team Raramuri, recruiting runners
from various villages. He brought five of them to the Leadville
race in 1992, but, inexperienced in competitive racing, all of them
dropped out after about 30 miles. Although there are frequent aid
stations on the race course, the Indians didn't take the food and
drink offered because they didn't think it was for them.

This years winner, Victoriano Churro, wanted to be on the team
badly enough that he apparently lied about is age, fearing they
would think he was too old.

He had told them he was 38, the same age as his running mate,
Chacarito.

"When he finished the race, he came to the medical tent and I
heard the doctor asking him his age," race director Merilee
O'Neal said.

"I heard him tell the doctor he was 55." Churro then admitted his
lie to Williams and Fisher.

Churro and Chacarito, who ran in tandem nearly all the race,
started out wearing running shoes they had been given.

They discarded the shoes at the May Queen aid station 13 1/2
miles into the race, opting for their sandals instead. They
declined offers of rain ponchos despite periodic showers.

Their Leadville achievement has added to the Tarahumara
[Raramuri] legend, with ultramarathoners talking in wonder
about seeing them pass.

"When you leave the Twin Lakes aid station (at 60 1/2 miles), you
have to climb a steep ridge. No one runs up the trail there; no
one. says Chlouber, a state representative and one of the race
organizers. "Well, they (Churro and Chacarito) just took off and
ran right up it like a couple of deer. It was amazing."
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Tiger of the Sierra


The Tarahumaras are good at sports and like gambling. They
have great endurance and enjoy the fun and competition of
games. But of all their many games, they are fondest of
foot-racing, which may also be considered a gambling game
because of the attendant extravagant betting.

All the natives living in mountainous regions are good at running
but it is not a sport with them as with the Tarahumaras, who are
outstanding long-distance runners. Some of them have been
known to run over a hundred miles without stopping, taking
nothing more than pinole and water. They catch deer by running
after them for days until they tire them out. The root of the name
Tarahumara refers to foot running.

In 1926, three Tarahumaras gave the "civilized world" their first
demonstration of their ability to run. Three of them were brought
to Mexico City from the mountains of Chihuahua and were taken
to Pachuca, Hidalgo, where the governor gave them letters of
greeting to the head of the Federal District in Mexico City. At 3:05
A.M. on Sunday morning of August 7, they started running from
the State Palace in Pachuca, followed by a Red Cross
ambulance with doctors and nurses, anthropologists, and
newspaper men. A huge crowd awaited them in the stadium of
Mexico City and many of us went to meet them quite a distance
out. One of the men dropped out after running fifty-six kilometers
because of an old lesion in his knee; otherwise the doctors
found him perfectly all right. The remaining two runners arrived at
the stadium at 12:42 P.M., having made a distance of 100
kilometers or sixty-two miles in nine hours and thirty-seven
minutes, with thirty minutes out for pinole, water and other
necessities. They were in perfect condition upon their arrival and
continued running around the stadium track.

The public was amazed at the prowess of the runners and even
more so when the papers reported that there were better ones at
home. One of them was called "The Tiger of the Sierra"; he had
run for three consecutive days that same year, near Norogachic,
Chihuahua, covering a distance of 300 kilometers, or 186 miles,
of mountainous country.

The Tarahumaras do not measure their running time in long
races by clock, but by the evolution of the heavenly bodies. For an
approximate twelve-hour race, they say from sun to moon; if it
continues, then it is from sun to moon to sun to moon, and so
on.

Two years after the run from Pachuca, four Tarahumaras were
brought to Mexico City for the National Marathon trial races for the
Olympic games that were to take place in Amsterdam that year.
They had been selected from thirty-five who had tried out in their
own region in the mountains of Chihuahua and had made the
twenty-six-mile Marathon in two hours, forty-nine minutes over
broken ground. It had been difficult to get them together for the
tryouts, as many would run away to hide when they saw the white
men approaching their villages.

In the Mexico City trials, the four Tarahumaras easily won the first
four places against thirty contestants from other sections of the
country. After much persuasion Jose Torres and Aurelio
Terrozas, two of the four winners, were induced to join the
Mexican contingent for Amsterdam. The task of convincing them
was especially difficult, as it had to be done through an
interpreter. They feared they would not be safe on the wide river
that took "seven suns and seven moons to cross."

The Tarahumaras, like all the other indigenous races still
existing in Mexico, do not lose their dignity in the presence of the
white man and his civilization. Jose and Aurelio very soon
behaved as if they were accustomed to beds and other modern
conveniences. In New York they were taken around to see the
sights; they were impressed but said they did not like the city,
because "the streets were like their ravines, the sun never hitting
the bottoms."

Everyone on the ship was interested in Jose and Aurelio, the
girls especially, for they were good-looking, well-built young
men. In the daytime they would train and study Spanish, which
their University companions were teaching them, but at night
they would watch the dancers. One night Aurelio surprised their
head coach, by telling him shyly that he would like to dance.
Their monosyllabic conversation was somewhat as follows:

"Jefe, I want to dance."
"Yes, Aurelio, with whom?"
"Girl," he answered with an expressive look.
"Which girl?"

"Blue girl," pointing to a blonde across the room in a blue
evening dress.

When Aurelio was presented to the blue girl, she accepted his
invitation with delight. Aurelio was so perfectly at ease and
danced so well that the other couples left them the floor, forming
a circle to watch and applaud.

Jose and Aurelio lost the first places in the twenty-five mile race
at Amsterdam by three minutes, the winner having made it in two
hours, thirty-six minutes and some seconds. Their comment
was, "Too short; too short!" Upon their return to Mexico City, Jose
and Aurelio were asked what they wanted to take back with them
to the mountains. After discussing the matter, according to native
custom, they asked for iron plows; they had noticed in their
travels that the iron ones cut deeper and turn the soil over better
than the wooden plows. They also asked for oxen to pull the iron
plow since it was too heavy for a man. When they were told they
could have the plow and oxen and asked what else they wanted,
their eyes danced with joy. Jose wanted a guitar and Aurelio a
violin.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Tarahumaras do not have to train for their races. They are
always running somewhere, either between their widely
scattered corn patches, or to look for a warm cave in which to
spend the winter, or on some errand. Wherever there are
gatherings of men, they organize races spontaneously. However,
for the big races they make various preparations, and practice
with a massive, wooden ball which they kick as they run.

The runners are careful not to be made the victims of black
magic, at the same time employing magical devices for their
own success. Sometimes a manager, who may be a shaman,
goes to a burial cave with two balls to be used in the race. He
takes out a bone from the right leg of the skeleton, the tibia
whenever possible. Putting it on the ground, he places before it a
jar of tesguino and some dishes of food. On each side of the
vessels he places one of the balls; in front, a cross. The offering
is to the dead person, so that he may help by weakening the
opponents of the one making it. Human bones are sometimes
buried along the race course, where the men of the opposing
team will have to run over them, for it is believed that they
produce fatigue. The man burying the bones is careful not to
touch them with his fingers, lest they dry up.

Sometimes herbs are thrown into the air to weaken opponents,
or some outsider may sell the Tarahumaras an expensive white
powder for the purpose. However, the evil effects of anything
used may be offset with counter-remedies, so in the end either
side, without knowing it, has to win the race by actual running.

A shaman is always employed to prepare the runners. He rubs
them with herbs and smooth stones to give strength, and makes
passes over them to ward off sorcery, and the day before the
races he performs a curing ceremony. He puts the water the
runners will drink on a blanket under a cross; food, remedies,
and various magical objects and a lighted candle at each side.
The herbs are tied up in bags, as otherwise they would break
away because they are so strong. The runners bring their balls
and form a semi-circle around the cross. Then the shaman
standing in front of them sings songs about the tail of the gray
fox and others, as he blows incense over them. He also warns
them not to accept food or drink from anyone but their relatives
as a precaution against witchcraft. Afterwards the runners drink
three times of the water and strengthening remedies, and their
head runner leads them in a ceremonial circuit around the
cross, going around as many times as there are circuits in the
race they are to run. When the ceremony is ended, the shaman
questions each one as to whether he has kept to his diet, eating
only deer, rabbit, rat, turkey or chaparral-cock meats, which are
considered good for winning a race. The men are also
questioned as to whether they have abstained from sex. That
night they all sleep together around the cross to see that nothing
under it is touched. As a precaution against danger while they
are asleep, an old man sleeps with them because the old see
even in their sleep.

The losing side always attributes to the winning foul means,
such as witchcraft or having put injurious herbs into the drinking
water. Sometimes a head runner becomes nervous and feigns
illness, or someone from the opposing team offers him a bribe
of an animal and the race may not come off, but generally it takes
place as scheduled.

There are no race tracks but the managers of both sides decide
on the terrain and number of miles, which may be run in circuits
or back and forth, the course being indicated on trees with
crosses or other marks.

The big races are always between two localities, and as many
as two hundred men, women, and children gather to bet and
follow the fortunes of the runners. As cash has little value to the
Tarahumaras, they bet pieces of clothing, houses, land, cattle;
the poorest risking their only serapes. The wagers, amounting to
thousands of pesos, are left with the managers. As soon as the
excitement of the betting is over, everyone is ready to give
undivided attention to the race.

The runners, wrapped in their blankets like the rest of the men,
mingle with the people, but they take nothing but pinole and tepid
water, and in the morning their legs are rubbed with warm water.

Near the starting point a number of stones, corresponding to the
number of circuits to be run, are placed, and one is removed
after each circuit. Both sides appoint men to observe that all the
rules are followed. Pregnant women are kept out of the
gathering, as a runner may become heavy by merely rubbing
against their blankets. Also, drunks are shunned.

When everything is ready, the gobernador exhorts both sides not
to cheat and not to touch the ball with their hands, else they will
go to hell. Then men throw off their blankets. One man from each
side throws the ball as far as he can, and all start after it. Another
ball is always at hand, should the first one get lost.

The opposing sides are distinguished by headbands of different
colors. The runners sometimes paint their faces and legs with
white chalk and for speed adorn themselves with bird feathers,
those of the macaw and peacock being preferred; they also wear
deer-hoof rattles tied on a strip of leather for the same reason,
as well as for the purpose of keeping themselves awake with the
noise of the rattling. The men run steadily mile after mile,
followed by their friends who urge them on and tell them where
the ball is so that there is no time lost in looking for it. The
women of the racers hold out gourds of pinole and warm water
for them for rapid refreshment, and throw water over their
shoulders.

When night falls, the audience scattered along the heights near
the race course keep bonfires burning while the friends
accompanying the runners carry resinous pine torches. As the
circuits are of many miles, the silence and darkness are broken
only every few hours with the passing of the racers. Some of
them have to drop put. Then the excitement increases. In the end
only one or two may be left. The winner receives nothing but
praise, which is sweet to him when it comes from certain
women. However, the winners of bets make presents to him and
to his father.

Sometimes old men's races take place before the strenuous
ones of the young. These receive much attention. Women also
run races; their distances are shorter and their speed is less,
but the betting and excitement are great. The women do not kick
the ball with their toes but toss it with a two-pronged stick.
Sometimes, instead of a ball, they use rings made of yucca
leaves which they throw with a curved stick. They run in their
ordinary long skirts, lifting them to cross a creek or waterhole.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Children's Games


Tarahumara boys - whose parents raise cattle, carve hooves of
horses, burros, sheep and other animals on the ends of sticks
with which they along to make tracks on the soft earth. They also
carve animal heads from branches, with small twigs for horns,
using those of the bull for bullfighting as they see their parents
do. From pine twigs they make traps for animals, canoes,
corrals with tiny animals, toy plows, wagons, and horses.

The little Tarahumara girls play at housekeeping and make mud
tortillas as all the others in the country do, but they are especially
clever at making charming dolls of plants and sticks, and
dressing them with flowers and weeds.

Both the boys and girls enjoy imitating their elders' drinking
feasts, so they pretend to serve corn beer to their dolls in
cup-shaped stems of acorns until they get them gloriously drunk
and make them behave as their parents do on such occasions.

The Tarahumaras play a game similar to patolli, which they call
quince, or fifteen. They use four sticks of equal length, inscribed
with marks for indicating their value, which serve the same
purpose as dice but are thrown differently and counted in
accordance with the way they fall. The one who passes first
through the figures outlined by small holes wins. Quince is a
popular game because it is complicated and accompanied by
heavy betting. A man may go on playing it for days if he can afford
it. He may lose everything he owns but he does draw the line at
his wife and children. Gambling debts are paid scrupulously.

Another game requiring holes in the ground, called cuatro, or
four, is also played by the Tarahumaras. In this one two players
throw disks, made of old pot sherds or stones which are ground
into shape, from three to four inches in diameter and one thick.
The holes, just large enough to admit the disks, may be from
twenty to one hundred feet apart. Two men play on each side. A
disk that falls into the hole counts four points; one near it, one
point. The game is played up to ten points or over.