matanza

Noun

matanza (plural matanzas)

1. (US) A place where animals are slaughtered, for their hides, meat, tallow, etc, particularly in a Latin American context; a slaughterhouse.
   • Captain Hall has given a very excellent description of a matanza, the slaughtering place of a large hacienda, where cattle are killed in numbers with the view of making charqui : the fleshy parts alone are used, all the soft fat being carefully cut off […]1826, John Miers, Travels in Chile and La Plata, page 310
   • […] a "tramp bitch," whose puppies had been captured in the neighborhood of the matanza. The beef-packery is guarded at night by a dozen ugly-looking mastiffs, and the tramp dogs generally give the establishment an extensive berth; but […] They used to sit in groups on the slope of a little hill...1882, Felix Leopold Oswald, Zoological Sketches, page 179
2. (US) A slaughter, as of cattle or pigs (for their hides, meat, etc), of tuna, or of people; the act of butchering or slaughtering.
   • The slaughtering period (matanza) lasts usually a month, and is a holiday for the shepherds, […] and fatten themselves and their families for a long time with sheep's heads and livers. The cooked meat, from which the fat has been extracted (carne de chito), lies there in complete mountains after a...1859, Carl Christian Wilhelm Sartorius, Mexico: Landscapes and popular sketches, page 190
   • A matanza was another busy time for the Spaniards. This was the butchering or killing of the cattle for their hides.1903, Rosa Viola Winterburn, The Spanish in the Southwest, page 189