Jaripeo

Every Christmas Day, thousands of people return to Penjamillo in the state of Michoacán for the annual jaripeo, a style of rodeo typical to this Central Mexican region. The majority of attendees are Mexicans living in the U.S. who return to visit family members for the holidays. The jaripeo evokes nostalgia among a population that has largely left the state. The tradition centers on bull riding, an emblem of traditional manhood and cultural dominance.

Director Efraín Mojica grew up between Perris, California, and Penjamillo, where they first noticed the queer undertones at the town’s jaripeos. This documentary explores this complex subculture while interrogating machismo from a queer perspective.

The film also features Noé and Joseph navigating transnational love and rural life over the course of a year, between rodeo seasons. Joseph is a flamboyant gay man who is mostly embraced by the community, while Noé is more traditionally masculine. Although he is out to a few family members, Noé lives predominantly in secret. Their narrative includes surreal scenes of their shared experiences, cruising at the jaripeo grounds, meeting up in the cornfields, and confronting their sexual identities.

Jaripeo looks beyond the performance of machismo at how queer desire survives in traditional spaces. The film considers how these characters might find belonging within their community, in their masculinity, and within themselves.