Mexican roper recounts
Rogers family connection

WILL ROGERS MUSEUM — Dr. Nacho Rodriquez, Mexico City physician, roper and author, got a special feeling when he walked into the Will Rogers Museum in Claremore.       “I feel something in my heart,” he said tapping his chest. “When I heard my father talk about Will. When I met Jim … Looking at the history of life.       “When I come here, the feeling is so nice. My father talked about this guy, Now I am in this place. I met his sons, they were as nice guys as their papa … and now his grandson.”       Nacho and Kem Rogers, son of Jim Rogers, are in Claremore for the Will Rogers Wild West International Expo.       A defining moment in Will Rogers life was the summer of 1893. He was 13 and his mother had just died. His father took him to the Chicago World’s Fair, where he saw Vincente Oropeza, a Mexican vaquero and part-time matador who introduced trick roping to America       A young Will went home and started practicing with a vengeance on a skill that would later be his trademark on stage and in the movies.       Oropeza was long known as the “world’s greatest roper,” said Nacho, author of books about trick and charro roping.       Forty years later “at another World’s Fair in Chicago Will Rogers declared my uncle the best roper,” he said. Nacho will be coaching and working with trick roping hopefuls.       Will Rogers’ relationship with his family goes back a long time to his father Ignacio, who died in 1983 and his uncle Rudolfo (nicknamed St. Louis). His father and uncle traded competition with 101 Ranch Cowboys and performed the first time in 1925.       “Will would come to Mexico and practice with them. They called hi Guillermo Rodriguez (Will Rogers in Spanish). They liked to say they were in his brothers in Mexico,” he said.       Will shared a passion with the Rodriguez brothers not only trick roping, but polo and charro roping and visited often.       Nacho, a retired neck surgeon, is a writer — newspaper, magazine and books. He co-authored a book on trick and charro roping with famed trick roper Frank Dean, one of the founders of Wild West Arts Club, co-sponsors of the Expo with Will Rogers Museums and Will Rogers Heritage Trust.       He first met Dean in 1960 in Mexico. Dean was doing the drawings and Nacho the writing for the book when Dean died in 1985. Nacho finished the book. Nacho’s father was a friend of Jimmy Rogers. They were part of the “Rancheros,” a group of horsemen, many of them cowboy actors, including Ronald Reagan, who rode in California.       “Reagan loved Mexican traditions,” Nacho said. He fondly recalled when Jimmy and Astrea Rogers visited Mexico.       Nacho, who arranges trail rides in Mexico, talked about two great rides. Riders from all over Mexico started the Bicentennial ride from downtown Mexico in 1975, ending in San Francisco the following year. It took about 25,000 riders, he said.       In another relay ride they took 24 days from Mexico City to Los Angeles, riding through the missions as the early Mexican immigrants to California.       Nacho was born to ride and rope. His family descends from the Montezumas, 9th King of the Essex. He is a 17th generation Azteca. All his family has been ranchers, cattlemen and horsemen — and ropers.       He has made several trips to the United States — even to Oklahoma City, but this is his first to Claremore. He has been a team roping partner with Ben Johnson of Pawhuska at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation benefit in Oklahoma City, in Houston and in the Will Rogers Memorial Coliseum in Fort Worth, a benefit promoted by Bobby Norris, brother of Church Norris.       He judges roping of charro (bulls) and trick roping and has made 100 trips as a charro to foreign countries to perform, present conferences and judge.       Last year was his first to attend a WWAC convention. He received the Frank Dean-Will Rogers Award for his promotion of trick roping and charro roping.       “I am glad to be here where I can look and smell the real history of Will Rogers. I see so many friends like Gene McLaughlin and Montie Montana Jr. … I knew his father. I am happy to be here with the group I feel I am a part of and I’m happy with my award last year.”       You can feel the charisma and respect of the 67-year-old roper dressed in Mexican charro style as he walks into a room, even one as large as the Expo Convention Center.       He said he continues to get calls from everyone … “Puerto Rico, England, America and other places about the book, the “first in trick and fancy roping and charro roping in 143 years.”       “I feel like I’ve done something for the future.”