Pegale Con La Hacha
Told by Joe F. Martinez on Facebook
“Forgotten Southern Colorado” on 20 March 2020
The Legend of PEGALE CON LA HACHA
There were these two guys whose real names I won’t use.
The community was getting ready to butcher a pig in the grassy area of
the Guadalupe Plazita. The
50-gallon barrel was steaming with boiling hot water to immerse the pig in order
to remove its hair. The men would
lay the carcass on boards on two burros (those were A-Frame structures used to
cut lumber). They would shave the
skin to make Chicarones and field dress the pig.
First however, they had to kill it so Juan (not his real name), with
nerves getting the best of him, brandished his trusty single shot 22 rifle, and
in false bravado took the stance of the executioner.
Folk lore has it that he WAS not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but at
his insistence was finally selected to shoot the pig between the eyes.
Well, in his infinite wisdom, or lack thereof, he missed and hit the pig
in the mouth only stunning him.
With a loud snort, the pig let everyone in the party know he was pissed, so with
anger in his eyes, frothing mouth mixed with saliva and blood, he dug his heels
into the soft sod and went charging at Juan - who in perplexed horror discarded
his rifle and proceeded to run like the wind! His brother, Jose, who had
advocated using the blunt head of an ax initially to kill the pig, had the ax in
his hands at the ready. So, when Juan started to run away in desperation from
the pissed off pig, Juan started yelling “PEGALE CON LA HACHA! - PEGALE CON LA
HACHA!”, and so the legend in Guadalupe lives on.
When you screw up, you yell “PEGALE CON LA HACHA!”
That my friends is a little bit of
Guadalupe lore.
Epilogue, Juan survived with only minor scrapes.
The pig didn’t. He became
pork chops, bacon and CHICHARONES.