Juego del Garrote
A Venezuelan civilian self-defense system using the garrote walking stick, mainly associated with Lara state. Some styles add the machete and knife to the stick.
Quick Facts
Character & Origin
Organisation & Competition
What the style is built from
Editorial rating on a 0–3 scale, based on how much room each area gets in ordinary training.
About Juego del Garrote
According to Michael J. Ryan, the word garrote denotes a tapered, oiled hardwood stick the length of a walking stick, which once formed part of a man's public dress, and also a civilian self-defense system using this stick. Research focused on the Segovia highlands in Lara state, but according to Ryan garrote occurred in many areas of Venezuela. The origin is disputed. In a peer-reviewed article from 2020, Ryan writes that the available evidence points to an origin in immigration from Spain and the Canary Islands. A representative of the Fundación Jebe Negro foundation, by contrast, rejects a derivation from the Canarian game with a short stick and speaks of a mestizo and folk origin with no date or founder. In the 20th century garrote became part of the festivities of Saint Anthony of Padua in Lara, which the government renamed Tamunangue in 1948. According to an article on Coolt's website from 2026, garrote is in danger of dying out in the 21st century and few masters remain in Lara.
History
Michael J. Ryan states in a peer-reviewed article from 2020 that the definitive history of garrote in Venezuela has not yet been written and that the available evidence points to an origin in immigration from Spain and the Canary Islands. From the middle of the 19th century, chroniclers noticed that some individuals studied the Spanish military saber, local garrote styles or Canarian stick arts. On his website Ryan writes that the first reports of garrote as a weapon come from the surroundings of Barquisimeto from the early 19th century. He places one of the first reports of a brawl with walking sticks in 1823 at a market near Cabudare, where European cattle herders clashed with men of mixed ancestry.
Read more
According to an article on Coolt's website from 2026, the Fundación Jebe Negro foundation has a copy of a document from 1810 that forbade Creoles and mestizos to carry garrote sticks. According to the article by Ryan from 2020, garrote withdrew from the densely populated coastal towns in the early 20th century, but in the Segovia highlands a man did not show himself in public without a stick until the end of the fifties of the 20th century. In rural areas men violated the ban on carrying garrote in public until the seventies. In the early 20th century garrote became, according to Ryan, part of the festival of Saint Anthony of Padua in Lara. In 1948 the newly elected civilian government appropriated the festival, renamed it Tamunangue and used it to present the fusion of Indian, African and European peoples. Eduardo Sanoja, who ran an academy of Oriental martial arts in Barquisimeto, studied garrote among village bearers of the tradition and in the eighties of the 20th century founded a civic association for its preservation. According to Coolt, he learned the style from the village of Curarigua, derived from the illiterate peasant Clarencio Flores.
How it differs
Ryan writes on his website that the art has undoubted roots in the fighting traditions of the Canary Islands and Spain, drawing on the strong Canarian culture of stick fighting and on the accounts and evidence of many garroteros from the 19th and early 20th centuries who claimed Canarian origin. He stresses the neglected contribution of mixed-race people and Native Americans. A representative of the Fundación Jebe Negro foundation, by contrast, refuses to attribute the invention of garrote to one ethnic group or derive it from the Canarian short-stick game, from which, he says, it differs greatly. The Spanish Wikipedia states that today's players of the South American short stick recognize only Venezuelan origin. In a 2020 article Ryan ranks Venezuela with Colombia and Barbados among the countries where stick and blade fighting instruction was professionalized and had a settled pedagogy, in Venezuela only sporadically.
Technique
In Ryan's article from 2020, some garrote styles were practiced with the stick (palo) alone, others with stick, machete and knife. On his website Ryan writes that a garrotero could also master the rapier, military saber, machete, machete and knife in both hands, whip and knife or the knife alone, and that many knew basic disarms, standing grappling, trips and sweeps. The daily El Impulso stresses the importance of the so-called tapas. According to an article on Coolt's website, sticks are made from various woods such as jebe, araguaney, limón de montaña or pardillo, the most durable being jebe.
Training
According to a 2026 article on the Coolt website, based on the Fundación Jebe Negro foundation, garrote is learned in the courtyard (patio), formerly on a mountain or in a remote place. A square is drawn on the ground as the centre of the action. Teaching relies on controlled fighting and repetition, blows are part of training, and codes of conduct replace rules. First comes Juego de Educación de la Mano, then La Carretilla with attacks and defences to four areas of the body, then Juego de las Figuras and Juego de las Líneas. Variants seated, kneeling or lying down may follow, plus other weapons such as machetes and knives. The article adds that it is not a precise method and that the procedure differs among bearers of the tradition.
Ranks and progression
The article on the Coolt website names two stages of teaching. The beginner (principiante) learns footwork, gaze, switching of hands, body shapes and lines of attack. The apprentice (aprendiz) receives knowledge of polished fighting techniques, such as blocks, disarms and falls. The sources do not mention a system of belts or grades.
Today
After 1948, according to Ryan's 2020 article, the state softened stick fighting within the festival. Instead of two men with heavy sticks, knives or machetes, men and women today swing thin sticks very quickly at a distance that keeps them from getting hurt. Outside the Segovia highlands, garrote is, according to the same article, still taught as an effective fighting system, and country people value it as a cultural treasure. On his website Ryan describes the ritual fight La Batalla, held every year on the first weekend of June as part of the dances of Saint Anthony with thin sticks, blunt machetes or knives. The 2026 article on the Coolt website writes that garrote is in danger of extinction in the 21st century. According to it, Sanoja attributed the decline to the painful teaching method, the way of transmission and Venezuelan transculturation, together with a lack of public policy. According to the article, few masters remain in Lara. We have not found any official act declaring garrote cultural property.
Did you know
According to Ryan's 2020 article, it was said that garrote was never meant to kill, only to win respect, and anyone wanting to kill reached for a blade, later a firearm. The Coolt website article states that garrote is traditionally not passed from father to son, because raising a hand against one's father is unacceptable, and that garroteros have certain greetings and words by which they recognize each other.
Frequently asked questions
Does juego del garrote come from the Canary Islands?
The sources differ. Michael J. Ryan writes in a peer-reviewed article from 2020 that the evidence points to an origin in immigration from Spain and the Canary Islands. A representative of the Fundación Jebe Negro foundation rejects a derivation from the Canarian game with a short stick and speaks of a mestizo and folk origin.
Does juego del garrote use only the stick?
Not always. According to the article by Ryan from 2020, some styles were practiced with the stick alone, others with the stick, machete and knife. On his website Ryan states that a garrotero could also master other weapons and that many knew the basics of disarming and grappling.
What is Tamunangue?
According to the article by Ryan from 2020, this is the name of the festival of Saint Anthony of Padua in Lara state, which the newly elected civilian government appropriated in 1948 and renamed. Garrote became part of it in the early 20th century, and the stick fighting in it softened after 1948.
Similar styles
Selected by overlap in the style profile, not by historical lineage.