It’s a rigged system-but to us, Compton Cowboys is very important in a positive light on Compton. Stona: A lot of the bad stuff really stems from a lack of resources, and our communities being flooded with drugs. How important is it to the Compton Cowboys to show the world another side of the city? Rosa-Safia: I think we’re so used to seeing negative stereotypes around African American communities. It just kept me out of a lot of trouble, and out of harm’s way. In order to ride, I had to do well in school-so I graduated and ended up going to college. Once I started riding, and getting good enough to compete, it lit a fire in me. I didn’t want to go to college, and was messing up at school. Stona: I was starting to hang around the wrong crowds, and I was lost on what path I wanted to take. Rosa-Safia: You told me that horses saved your life-that is such a beautiful thing. As we got older, we started to see that there was a kind of niche in Hollywood for Black cowboys. ![]() The Compton Cowboys formed from alumni of the Compton Jr. My father always loved horses, but he was too busy to really pursue it. My grandmother had a horse before they moved out to California-that’s all I really know. ![]() I actually have a cousin on that side who’s in the Cowboy Hall of Fame out there in Fort Worth. Stona: My grandparents on my mother’s side are from Texas. For the youth who grow up here, especially.” “It’s a rigged system-but to us, Compton Cowboys is very important in a positive light on Compton. Rosa-Safia: What’s the history of horses in your family, and your community at large-and how did it lead to Compton Cowboys? ![]() We bought a modular home, which we got shipped in from Arizona, and then, piece-by-piece, put the ranch together. There was no house or anything-just weeds. My parents got really enthusiastic about it I managed to convince them to find some horse property, and we ended up buying behind the Compton Jr. All the kids were around my age, and pretty much everyone was Black.įast forward maybe a year-and-a-half, and I got my own horse. Posse, paid them a visit-and the next thing I knew, I was in. I stumbled upon a program called Compton Jr. I was getting more serious, and realized that I wanted to ride with people more my age group and ethnicity. Stona Mane: I was in a riding school at the LA Equestrian Center out in Burbank, learning dressage and basic grooming and saddling. Rosa-Safia Connell: Could you tell me the backstory behind this ranch? “We get the sense that what we’re doing as a group is making noise in the world.” Here, he reflects on what got him to this point, and the spirit he hopes to impart Compton. ![]() “It feels good,” says Mane of his ongoing project. Mane, along with six other Compton Cowboys members, has welcomed the challenge with open arms-organizing local peace rides, and securing space to teach local youth on a plot of land further out. Riding bareback through city streets makes for a new kind of frontier. Eventually-with the help of his family and Posse alumni-he founded his own ranch, the Compton Cowboys. All the kids were around my age, and pretty much everyone was Black.” Mane found solace in riding, and it kept him out of trouble. “I stumbled upon a program called Compton Jr. “I was getting more serious,” he tells Document. Stona Mane learned to ride in Burbank, gradually falling in love with practice. But in recent years, it’s bolstered a quick-growing community of traditional equestrians. Situated below downtown Los Angeles, the suburban city might seem far-removed from the past and present of the American cowboy. One might imagine American flags rodeos dotting Texas and Nevada and the Southern states. You probably wouldn’t guess it, considering the overwhelming whiteness of the Western genre, which largely eclipses reality in favor of straightforward legends of good versus evil. For this fashion portfolio, Document spoke with Stona Mane on the program bringing the Wild West to the West Coastīy 1825, nearly a quarter of American cowboys were Black.
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