The American rodeo is coming to Washington, D.C., this summer for the country’s 250th birthday, over four decades since the last presidential rodeo.Freedom 250, an organization linked to President Donald Trump, is spearheading the show set to take place on the National Mall as part of the Great American State Fair, planned from June 25 to July 10. Led by the Cervi Championship Rodeo, organizers are aiming to celebrate 250 years of U.S. history, embodied by the American cowboy, as the United States marks the semiquincentennial.Binion Cervi, who leads the Cervi rodeo, told the Washington Examiner that cowboy runs in his blood. His family was involved in the last presidential rodeo during the Reagan era, back in 1983, Binion reminisced during a phone call. At age 7, he was helping out at events. Now, 43 years later, the Texan is leading the rodeo empire his father built, including a team of roughly 50 people in preparing for a “huge celebration” presenting the history of the American cowboy in the capital city.
“I just really think there’s value in preserving these stories, because not every American comes from the same place as an experience, but I think that if they understand the stories, if we understand one another’s roots, maybe it better helps us understand the country we share,” he said.“It’s going to be something D.C. has never done,” Binion added. “I don’t think it’s ever been showcased or seen, so it’s the first time, which I think is exciting.”For Binion, the Washington, D.C., rodeo is a way to communicate both cultural heritage and the concrete ways cowboys transformed the country.“Determination, grit, work ethic, and integrity: Those four words are big in our culture,” he said. “It simply isn’t an event at 10. It’s a way of life that people can see that’s been passed down from one generation to the next.”From the origins of transportation to transforming the food industry, the cowboy has played a vital role in shaping American life, Binion said.“Huge in agriculture — it’s what helped feed the world, the cowboy,” he mused. “How the horse came to America and transformed into a key component of what helped us shape the West and America in general, as the horse did — it was everything. Vehicles, they go off of horsepower for a reason, because it went from the horse to the vehicle.”One of the rodeos produced by Binion’s Cervi Company. (Photo credit: Impulse Photography).
