Los Regadores de Bastos
The economic activity that brought Bastos into existence had waned by the 1960’s when the Beer League de West Texas y Southeast New Mexico popped up, but the community was still vibrant enough to muster one of the top teams of the league. Los Regadores (the irrigators) de Basotos fielded a larger and more competitive team than their neighbors in Tarilas, which was 10 times larger, and they came to the games with a large and loyal entourage.
The onda with the Bastosinos was that they didn’t observe the custom of engaging in a pregame party on the playing field the night before the games. They didn’t host them when they played at home and didn’t go to any of them when they played away. But they made up for it spectacularly.
Every home game, the local band, led by empresario Pancho Sotelo, would organize a dance at a dancehall in the area, and the whole town would attend. If the team was going to play, say, in Comanche, Pancho would play there. For all home games, he’d play at whatever venue was available down the road in Tarilas or up the road in Monitos because there was no dancehall in Bastos.
It was said by some at the time that Los Regadores, some of whom played in Pacho’s band, did this to keep their opponents off balance. But the reality was that a lot of the local fans already lived in tents, and they wanted to go out on the weekends, not go to an outdoor party.
“How can it be that you always find a place to perform wherever Los Regadores are playing?” someone once asked Pancho while he was between tandas at a dance.
“No borlo at all. I just tell the venue owner that I come with 100 thirsty followers. And that I’ll make them even more thirsty with all the dancing,” Pancho answered.
“And for the game the day after? What do you tell the fans so they go after a long night drinking and dancing?” somebody else asked.
“I don’t tell’em anything. Everybody in Bastos travels together all the time. So they leave their tents and come to the games for the shade and clean drinking water, which they don’t have in their tents,” Pancho said.
“And the players?” another person asked.
“I tell’em the dance ain’t over,” Pancho said.
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