AZUL! AZUL! ...BLANCO! Yells that I would hear during the cock fights in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

This rooster would fight later that evening, as part of a 35 fight night. He won his fight...

Rooster owners preparing their bird to fight

Spur being taped to the foot of the rooster

Owner of several roosters; had at least 10 roosters fighting this night

Another owner, placing several bets, some well over $100.00 per fight

These fans were yelling, " Va azul!", "Va Blanco!, "Rojo!!", yelling for their bird. Each rooster had red, blue or white bands on there legs to help in identification

The cock fighting arena looked similar to a bull fighting ring




Below are the various fights between different Roosters...

The little girl in the following photograph was at the cock fights, cheering for different roosters at times, and running around playing with other little boys and girls at other times. If you look closely, you can see that she is standing in the cock fight ring when this photograph was taken. As strange as this sounds, it was a family event, complete with children, and babies. Families would sit and watch as though they were at the movies.  Interestingly, between fights, cheerleaders would appear and do typical cheers that one would see on a sideline.

The shirt that she is wearing helps to punctuate the fact that the cultural significance far outweighs the barbarism...the irony of the t-shirt design is striking...