Tag Archives: Tribal music

Botas Picudas … now 30% picudier!

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El Trono wearing white botas picudas on the red carpet at the Latin Billboard Awards

Okay, “picudier” may officially be the ugliest Spanglish word I’ve ever made up, but let’s get on with it.

I’ve blogged about botas picudas many times now – I blogged about my first encounter with the boots and the now well-known Behind the Seams documentary. I blogged about asking a guy at Wal-Mart if I could take a picture of his botas picudas and about seeing them on the red carpet at the Latin Billboard Awards. I even went to the trouble of creating an entire page dedicated to Mexican pointy boots. What more could I possibly show you on the topic?

Well, although I would have predicted that the fad would die down by now, it seems only to have become more popular. Once DJ Erick Rincón, the king of Tribal Guarachero music, (which is what you dance to in botas picudas), got together with Sheeqo Beat and and DJ Otto to form the group 3BallMTY, they released the Inténtalo video featuring El Bebeto and América Sierra, and things seemed to take off.

Botas picudas have even been featured on the popular English-language show, Glee.

Cast of Glee wearing botas picudas

Click this screenshot to watch "The Spanish Teacher" episode of Glee on Hulu, featuring Ricky Martin and botas picudas.

A photo circulating on Facebook advertises the new Nike picudas… but I don’t think they actually exist.

Nike SB 3Ball

However, Adidas has come out with boots that you really can purchase… they aren’t pointy but I wonder what sparked the idea to create them – maybe botas picudas?

Adidas cowboy boots botas

Click the photo to read more about Adidas cowboy boots.

And of course Tribal has come to Zumba classes.

If you like Tribal (or Trival) music, plenty new danceable songs are popping up.

This one cracks me up. Is he like a Tribal Pitbull? He even throws a “Dale!” into the song… but then they end the song “El Mudo” style. Weird. (Also, yay! for women wearing the botas!)

La Cumbia Tribalera – El Pelon del Mikrophone Feat. Banda la Trakalosa & Violento

Now these guys definitely have a lot of time on their hands. Hilarious lyrics and check out their homemade botas picudas.

La Bota – La Chuzma

So what do you think? Have botas picudas and música tribal reached their limit, or are they here to stay? … It seems possible that twenty years from now we’ll be playing lotería with our nietos and someone will call out, “La Bota!… Una bota igual que la otra” – and we will search our bingo card only to see this:

loteria la bota picuda

Botas Picudas

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ElVaqueroImports.com

The first time I saw botas picudas was in a WalMart parking lot. The boys piled into the car with Suegra while Carlos and I put the groceries into the trunk. Across the row, a group of young Mexican guys walked by and caught my eye.

I nudged Carlos. “Look at those boots!”

These tipos were decked out – cowboy hats, jeans tighter than I could ever hope to fit into, fancy button-down shirts, big belt buckles, and these pointy toed boots I couldn’t take my eyes off of.

Carlos sneered and went back to putting groceries into the car.

“If we find you boots like that, will you wear them?!” I asked, handing him a bag from the cart.

“No. They look ridiculous,” he answered, before reminding me for the millionth time that he wasn’t Espinoza Paz, he wasn’t Mexican, and he wasn’t even from the Salvadoran countryside – he’s a city boy.

I watched the Mexican guys get into their truck and pouted. That was a year ago and I still haven’t convinced Carlos to buy a pair of botas picudas. In fact, the fashion has gotten so out of hand that now he definitely wants nothing to do with it.

Apparently the men wearing these boots got a little competitive about whose boots were longer and pointier, (*ahem* … we are talking about BOOTS here but it makes you wonder.) … Now, some of the botas picudas can be so long that the wearer attaches the tip of the boot to their wrists to keep from tripping.

This documentary explains how DJ Erick Rincón and the Tribal music scene in Mexico City played a part in popularizing botas picudas, (which can be seen even in the United States – especially in Texas.)

People who wear these boots are sometimes called “nacos” and “chuntaros” – but they’re not ashamed and you have to admire that.

Links:

Chuntaritos.com
¡Que Chuntaro! by JuanofWords.com
ElVaqueroImports.com
Erick Rincón, 16, Spins Mexico’s Newest Craze by ReMezcla.com
[free downloads]
Erick Rincón on Twitter

(Gracias to mi amiga, Elsie, for sharing the video and inspiring the post!)