Spanish Bull Fighting

Bonjour! (I´m practising French with Sandra in preparation for Palariac. This is as far as we´ve gotten)

On Wednesday and Thursday this week I went to two different Spanish Bull Fighting events. They were so memorable that I thought I would describe them separate from the rest of the previous posting in full technicolor.

DAY 1:

1) Enter the stadium. The dirt is cleanly raked and fans pay different prices for Sol (sun) and Sombra (shade). Enter the torero (bull fighter). This time they were on horse. Usually they are on foot.

 2) This is the entrance from which the angry bull is released.

3) First, however, we must know how many the kilos the bull weighs. 420 kg is pretty light. The big bulls in big cities are always over 500 kg.

 4) Enter the angry bull. And damn is he angry. He runs around like a... well... bull for the first minute. Ususally the toreros on foot will try to distract him to tire him out before goes for the horse.

 5) Because that bull is really fast and gets VERY close to impaling the horse´s flanks with his horns.

 6) But eventually he gets tired and can´t keep up with the horse. Plus, they change horses every five minutes or so, so the bull is pretty much eff´d in that department. He´s pretty much eff´d in all departments as we´ll soon see.

 7) Because once he is a little bit tired, the torero will start putting spears into his back.

 8) As we see here. After the first spear the bull gets really confused and turns his head from side to side. He doesn´t seem to notice after the first one.

9) The torero, in this case torera (quite rare), celebrates a clean stick. On top of the back is best.

 10) All the while, the band plays...

 11) While the torero changes horses, the matadores distract the bull.

 12) The bull never gets close.

 13) Over time the bull accumulates more and more spears which are ornately decorated here in Spanish colors. And over time the bull looses more and more blood. Here´s a video as well.

 14) The exhaustion and the blood lose accumulate.

 15) Until the torero gets the espada (sword). I believe this is after the tenth spear, although I can´t confirm this. The sword must be placed by the torero between the shoulder blades of the bull down into its heart in order to kill it. This can be quite difficult as both the horse and bull are moving.

 16) Once the sword is placed, the bull virtually stops in it´s tracks. All three matadores come surround it so that it takes a few final lurches while the sword does its work.

 17) The best toreros will place the sword such that in a matter of seconds the bull falls. If it is placed poorly it takes longer. In some cases a second sword must be used.

 18) Eventually the bull falls. Once he falls one of the three matadores uses a small knife which is stabbed into the back of the bull´s neck. When this happens, the bull jolts back and falls dead. It´s really weird to watch. Almost like a secret button for instant bull death. In regular bull fighting when they are standing this is how the bull is killed. After the spears, which are placed using the pink capes, the matador gets the red kill cape. He cuts the bulls nose so that the bull looks down, and then stabs the bull in the back of the neck. One of the swords was placed poorly and this had to be done.

 19) The bull´s ears are removed and a chain is attached to its horns. The crowd votes as to whether the display was worthy of no ears, one ear, two ears, or the rare award of a tail. The crowd votes by waiving white hankerchiefs and the master of ceremonies decides with three white hankerchiefs, which he displays one by one. One = one ear. Two = two ears. Three = two ears AND tail. The tail is not common I am told.

 20) The bull is dragged away. We had three toreros who each faced 2 bulls for a total of 6.

Now, I have to say that the first bull was pretty shocking. I am sure that you were probably shocked from the pictures and description. By the fourth bull I already found myself desensitized and by the final bull I was critiquing the techniques of the toreros. Yes, I do feel for the animals. It is sad to see how confused they are when the first spear enters their back. For me, this is the worst part. After this, I just want the torero to be as efficient as possible. The crowd does too. A missed sword is grounds for heavy heckling and surely no ears.

But despite this, I still feel that bull fighting should not be banned from Spain. Firstly, the bulls were going to be killed regardless. The strongest bulls are selected for the pagentary of bull fighting while their weaker comrades are killed behind closed doors. Secondly, the sense of tradition, community, and national pride was astounding at this event. After the third bull, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, got out sangria and bocadillos de chorizo (chorizo sandwich) to have as a snack. Yes, bulls were killed. However, it was done in such an artistic way that it was not grotesque or inhumane. I would definitely go again as long as I felt like it was done authentically and not for the amusement of tourists as I am sure it is done in places like Mexico.

DAY 2:

Day 2 was much different than Day 1. It actually reminded me a lot of Brazil. So in Spain groups of friends have houses away from their parents´ houses where they go to relax and party. It makes sense given that you live with your parents until you get married. These houses are called Peñas. So the first difference was that instead of having trained professionals doing the bull fighting, Day 2 was a competition between four peñas. The second difference was that instead of using adult bulls of 400+ kilos, baby bulls of 200 kilos were used.

1) The Sack Race: Each peña did a relay style race in a burlap sack wherein teams had to cross the diameter of the arena by hopping in a bag and then tag the next team member to hop back for a total of 5 crossings per team. The result was complete chaos as the young bull terrorized the four hoppers who tried to allude him. Most of the time it resulted in the hopper either attempting to jump over the bull (risky), or diving to one side or the other at the last second. The baby bull hit quite a few hoppers pretty directly but everyone seemed fine. This was the stupidest and funniest thing I have seen in quite some time. Imagine a person in a sack trying to hop as fast as he can with a bull in hot pursuit. In the words of Shakira, ¨Loco, loco, loco¨.

 2) Kid Bull fighting:
For this one, 5 kids got to opportunity to hone their bull fighting skills with a mock bull on a wheel maneovered by a torero. The kids had to pick up as many tennis balls as they could and put them in a bucket while the mock bull terrorized the crap out of them.

3) Teeter totter bull jumping:

For this one, each peña competed to see how many times they could get the bull to run under them. If that doesn´t make any sense, watch the video. This was also hilarious. The winnning team got to 26 in about 2 minutes. Very impressive. 

The rest of the events were pretty classic too such as the ol´ bat spin and run and whatnot, but not deserving of a video.

So in the end, although the bulls are killed when they get older, at least they had a chance to ruff up some drunk Spaniards in their youth.

Hope you have all found this post entertaining and informative. Just arrived in Salamanca.

-Taylor