World’s Largest Matanza Tradition continues to feed our culture & our future

BELEN — Before the sun dawned on the Rio Abajo valley, 12 teams who participated in the 23rd annual World’s Largest Matanza Saturday were already busy preparing for the arrival of more than 12,000 hungry visitors at Belen Eagle Park.

They were stoking the fires, butchering the pigs and simmering the red chile to perfection against the backdrop of the Manzano Mountains.

As the sun began to warm up Eagle Park, bus loads of people arrived from all over, ready to taste every morsel of chicharrones and carne adovada that they could fit in their stomachs despite the near-freezing temperature.

Visitors came to the matanza for many reasons — all came for the delicious traditional food, many went to see old friends and maybe make new ones, while others came to watch the teams work together to process and cook the hogs.

David Apodaca has been going to the matanza since the beginning, and says his favorite part is the music and meeting all the people.

“They come from all over New Mexico, California, Texas, Arizona and they just have a blast here,” said Apodaca. “It’s like it’s like having a big ol’ party with people you don’t even know but everybody’s all friendly.”

The 12 teams comprised of friends, family and co-workers competed for the prestigious Grand Champion, the People’s Choice and the Rookie of the Year.

The best of awards included the best carne adovada, a specialty pork dish, chicharrones and the iron pig — where teams had to create dishes using ingredients from a mystery basket.

Jeff Flores, of the Farmers Insurance team, said that processing the hog is his favorite part of the matanza.

“Because we’re doing it traditionally; we wait for the people to show up (before processing the hog),” said Flores.

Richard Signs said his favorite part of the matanza is, “just seeing everybody’s different techniques of preparing this and preparing that, it’s just kind of fun to watch them all.”

The Hispano Chamber of Commerce of Valencia County sponsors the matanza every year, giving scholarships to local students from the money earned at the event.

The HCVC hoped this year would surpass last year’s total of $59,000.

UPDATE:

The Hispano Chamber of Valencia County reported the funds raised by the matanza grossed $120,086 and the amount raised the day of the event, totaled $71,000.