Constance Jaeggi, Escaramuza

Escaramuza

Constance Jaeggi

Publisher
GOST Books
Year
2025
ISBN
978-1-915423-96-2
Specifications
Hardback, cover in different colourways (allocated at random)
350 x 282 mm
128 pages
50 images
Poetry by Angelina Sáenz and ire'ne lara silva

In the sport of escaramuza, all-female precision horse-riding teams execute daring manoeuvres whilst riding sidesaddle and dressed in traditional attire. Constance Jaeggi travelled across the United States to document this Mexican tradition by photographing participants and recording their stories. Originating from charrería—a practice celebrating horsemanship and ranching that originated in sixteenth-century Mexico—escaramuza emerged in the 1950s as a formative space for women in a historically male-dominated tradition; it traces its own roots to the defiant soldaderas of the Mexican Revolution. As an outsider to the culture, Jaeggi invited Mexican-American poets ire'ne lara silva and Angelina Sáenz to create prose in response to her work, and their poetry is displayed alongside her photographs to collectively impart the layered narratives of the tradition. Herself a competitive horse rider, Jaeggi was initially drawn to the visuals of the sport—the colourful Victorian-era dresses, the performance described as a ballet on horseback—but was soon captivated by the stories of the women she met, with a narrative emerging around immigration and identity. Many riders expressed 'not feeling Mexican enough when traveling to Mexico, but not feeling American enough at home either.'

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