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Mexican town fetes donkeys on May Day
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THIS is a place where every donkey will have its day — a small town just north of Mexico City that gives the beasts of burden a chance on May Day to kick up their hooves.
The annual donkey fair in Otumba attracts up to 40,000 people who come to see the animals compete in costumes and race around a track with jockeys on their backs. Tourists squeeze through the jammed fairgrounds wearing donkey ears and munching on classic fair cuisine, including the local version of burritos — a dish popular both north and south of the Mexican border that borrows the Spanish word for donkey.
Costume themes for the animals ranged from the ride-sharing Uber to pre-Hispanic temples.
Zeus Laredo, a physics teacher who attended the fair with friends, said he backed the eventual winner: a donkey dressed up as Papa Smurf who was attended by an entourage of people in Smurf costumes.
Otumba was an important donkey market during Spanish colonial times, standing at the crossroads of major roads leading to Mexico City, where the beasts pulled heavy loads and carried travelers.
Today, however, farmers use tractors and pickup trucks, and the donkey population is in decline.
The animal that won the jockey race is more a pet than a worker. The 12-year-old winning jockey, Wilfrido Lemus Corona, learned to ride his donkey, Veso, when his grandfather plopped him on top when he was just six to carry him across the fields, his mother Patricia Corona Espinosa said. Family and friends threw the tiny jockey into the air on Sunday after he scored his third consecutive win. He also took home 12,000 pesos (US$700) in cash.
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