Santa Fe – As the New Mexico legislature wrapped up its regular session, debating tax cuts, the minimum wage and clean energy, one issue stood out for the amount of controversy it generated: cockfighting.
This predominantly rural state was one of only two in the nation to allow the sport, albeit only in counties far from the galleries and restaurants in this capital city. Then, Gov. Bill Richardson last week signed a bill to outlaw cockfighting, which has become a symbol of New Mexico’s growing cultural divide.
“We’re country folks out here, mainly. We don’t bother anyone,” said Ronnie Barron, who heads the New Mexico Game Fowl Association and lives in the small southeastern town of Artesia. “Then (animal-rights people) come in with their big New York ideas – we don’t want to be like New Yorkers.”
Richard Lopez, who holds fights on his farm near Socorro, blamed the ban on the influx of coastal refugees buying up real estate over the past decade.
“We have outsiders, who would have you believe that they love New Mexico,” he wrote in a letter to his local paper, the Chieftain. “They love what New Mexico has to offer, the sunsets, deserts, skies and open ranges – but, in turn, they dislike the people and their customs and traditions. They want to change everything to their liking.”
The push for change, however, was homegrown.
When Mary Jane Garcia, a legislator from the remote southern town of Dona Ana, took office in 1989, a male colleague suggested she try to ban cockfighting. An animal lover, Garcia introduced a bill to outlaw the sport, which involves placing roosters – with razors or other blades attached to their legs – in a pit and fighting them to death.
The bill was defeated easily, and Garcia soon found that it was a sort of hazing ritual for veteran politicians to suggest that young female legislators try to outlaw the sport.
But she persisted, and late last year, Garcia became optimistic that her ban finally would pass, having won the support of Richardson, who was preparing for a presidential run, and the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops.
During stormy hearings at the Capitol, cockfight defenders argued that the ban would eliminate a $70 million industry in the state. Garcia received death threats and got police protection.
In the end, the bill passed after lobbying by Richardson, animal- rights groups and some of the Hollywood celebrities who have made this town a second home. Actress Ali McGraw stood at Rich ardson’s side as he signed the bill last week.
Louisiana is now the only state in the nation to allow cockfighting.
New Mexico cockfight fans plan to mount a legal challenge to the ban, which takes effect June 15.
“It’s like if you love football and you’ve been playing it for 50 years and they tell you one day you can’t play football no more,” said Jose Andrew Parra, 40, a third-generation supporter.
“I always thought I’d retire and enjoy raising and fighting my roosters,” said Barron, 58. “Now, that’s gone down the drain. I’m not a lawbreaker.
“To be treated this way, like a nobody …,” he said, pausing. “Well, maybe I’m not important.”
