El Porvenir

Ixmiquilpan, Mexico is one of the last places where "pelea de gallos"—or cockfighting—is legal. Abelardo Olguín Cuevas still practices the brutal pastime his grandfather taught him, even as growing controversy and declining interest threatens to make the sport he loves extinct.

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When Abelardo Olguin Cuevas was five years old, his father brought him to his first cockfight. His grandfather was a "gallero" and his dad wanted him to understand the sport that had been such a big part of his family’s history. Olguin was fascinated, and that fascination stuck. Now, as an adult, he carries on that tradition. But the richness of cockfighting’s centuries-old heritage is inseparable from the violence and brutality of the sport, and the increasing opposition to it. It’s still legal in Ixmiquilpan, the town in Central Mexico where Olguin raises and fights roosters, but is outlawed in many surrounding cities and states. His teenage son doesn’t want to pick it up, and as interest dies and outrage rises, there’s a very real possibility that it may soon be extinct in his town as well. Directed by Alfredo Alcantara and Josh Chertoff, produced by Ben Altarescu.

Cast: Victory Journal, Josh Chertoff, Ponderosa and Bows & Arrows

Tags: Mexico, sports, Victory Journal, cockfighting, roosters, El Porvenir, documentary, film, peleas de gallos, gallero, Ixmiquilpan and Hidalgo