Constance Jaeggi

Constance Jaeggi: Escaramuza is a richly layered exploration of a tradition where grace, discipline, and courage converge at full speed. Through this publication, Jaeggi turns her lens toward the all-female teams who practice escaramuza, a form of precision horse riding rooted in ritual and collective strength. Mounted side-saddle and dressed in ornate, flowing garments, the riders perform complex maneuvers that demand absolute trust between horse and rider, transforming athletic rigor into a powerful visual language.

Emerging from the broader tradition of Charrería, escaramuza occupies a singular place in cultural history. While horsemanship in Mexico has long been associated with masculinity and rural labor, escaramuza developed as a space where women could claim visibility, skill, and authority within that world. Jaeggi’s photographs honor this lineage while situating the practice firmly in the present, revealing how it continues to evolve within Mexican and Mexican-American communities across the United States.

The book moves fluidly between portraiture and atmosphere, capturing both the individuality of the riders and the collective rhythm of the teams. Details of embroidered dresses, braided hair, and weathered saddles speak to inheritance and care, while the riders’ focused expressions reflect a deep sense of responsibility to tradition. Jaeggi’s images are complemented by poetry that expands the emotional register of the work, giving voice to memory, migration, and belonging. Together, image and text suggest that escaramuza is not only a sport, but a living archive of women’s resilience.

Themes of family and transmission run throughout the book. Many riders inherit their connection to escaramuza through mothers, aunts, and grandmothers, creating a continuum shaped by both continuity and change. Historical echoes of the soldaderas—women who supported and fought during the Mexican Revolution—linger in the background, reinforcing the idea of women on horseback as symbols of endurance and agency.

As a physical object, Escaramuza reflects the care embedded in its subject. Issued in multiple cover colorways, the book underscores individuality within a shared form. Jaeggi’s project ultimately offers a meditation on identity in motion, where tradition is neither fixed nor nostalgic, but actively lived, negotiated, and reimagined by women riding together at speed.