being British, i suppose i`ve only ever heard of `bull-fighting` in association with Spain in general. i`ve never been told about the sport (despite its name being fairly self-explanatory) and i`ve never thought much about it.
until i went to see a bull fight in Spain a few years ago.
it was one of those trips that people do on holiday as `a tourist` - and as i like to see and do things that `the locals` do, we all decided to go along.
we had no prior knowledge of what the bull fight would entail other than what we imagined it would be like. from start to finish, the bull fight was a total culture-shock – but in a good way. well, to us it was, anyway.
our seats in the gladiator-like area (where we sat on stone walls, no less) were uncomfortable – but we had the best view! we sat at the top and back, allowing us to see the matadors (apparently, only the English call them this, and the Spanish refer to them as torero, or more formally matador de toros) and his assistants (he has six in total) get ready, and obviously had a spectacular view of the fight itself once that started. it was a small arena in Torremolinos (especially compared to Madrid some years later) but it was still very much a large+intimidating venue.
there`s a whole procession to commence the bull fight called paseíllo. they enter the ring and present themselves to all dignitaries sitting in the Presidential Box. it symbolises the start of the show, and allows the audience to see all those involved in the fight. also, the flamboyant+bright traditional costumes (suits of lights) are inspired by 17th century Andalusian clothing, allowing the torero and his assistants to be easily distinguishable (and cost thousands of pounds per costume; the matador must have at least 6 in his wardrobe! but it`s ok because, apparently, they can earn up to 25,000 Euros per corrida!).
once the procession has finished, and the announcing and releasing of the bull has happened, it gets fun.
well, I say fun. it`s exciting, especially when you`ve never seen a bull fight+you have no idea what to expect!
i understand why some people would be horrified by the thought of an animal being slaughtered for entertainment would be referred to as `exciting+fun`, but unless you have been to a packed-out, buzzing bull ring and experienced the atmosphere and the sheer expertise of the toreros yourselves, then i would suggest you do not judge me and my views. i am open to experiencing new and culturally different things – hence, why i watched a bull fight in the first place. (YouTube-ing a bull fight is NOT the same, FYI.)
you can hear the bull`s hoofs clawing their way along the sandy floor, its breath short and ragged before you see it – pissed off is definitely the expression i would use to describe the bull. (i don`t know what happens to the bull before the fight, but i wouldn`t be surprised if they goad the bull previously – just to terrorise it further and make the show even more spectacular. i`m also not suggesting that this is right, either.) there is a sign showing just how heavy the bull is – they`re no less than 460kg, and they can get a big as double that. they`re HUGE. make no mistake that these bulls may appear to look smaller than what it shows them to be – but they`re pure muscle, and i would most definitely not want to be on the receiving end of their horns!
so, the show starts with the torero`s assistants` waving their pink+yellow cloths around to goad the bull and make it run … basically show the audience just what the bull is capable of while getting it riled up for the torero. sometimes it takes a while for the bull to comply with the torero`s assistant`s as they are, rather expectedly, overwhelmed by the vast crowds. some bulls have even tried to run back out the way they came in! unfortunately for the bull, there`s only one way they can escape … and that`s to put on a show+die for entertainment.
there are the regulars in the crowd (and you needn`t be an expert to spot them! they`re the ones who bring their own cans of beer+foil-wrapped baguettes and hurl abuse at the toreros+toros even before any fighting have begun! they`re usually about 80 and love to entertain the crowd around them more than watch the fight … sometimes it`s worth going for that entertainment if the killing of an animal is not your thing!) who stand up+abuse the poor bull (toros) even before he has had a chance to show everyone what it`s made of. these regulars are used to seeing some magnificent fighting, probably, and can probably spot a weak bull a mile off! to all the tourists in the audience (us!) we`re just in awe of the whole thing+think each and every bull is as big+bad as the previous one!
this man ^ entertained us through the less entertaining bull fights. he had a bag with him full of foil-wrapped baguettes and threw them out amongst the crowd - seriously, anyone who shouted for one, got a baguette! he also seemed to supply his friends with warm cans of beer ... IMAGINE if people were allowed to take their own ale to a football ground in England?!?!
after the toros has been teased by the toreros`s assistants` for a while, the next part of the fight happens. this part is exciting because the toreros`s other assistants (picador) come in on horseback (the horses are drugged+blind-folded … they would be far too scared of the massive crowd, otherwise. again, i`m not suggesting that this is right, but i think the horses would be far too scared of the audience and the bull.) and the bull always charges over and pushes his horns against the horse while the assistant stabs the toros on the fleshy part of his neck to draw the first load of blood out. this allows the toreros to see which side the bull favours so he knows which side is his weaker side. (it`s all very skilled, don`t you know!) the exciting part of this is when the bull charges over to the horse – i always and imagine the worst happening to the horse, but fortunately, the horse is protected by padding so they very rarely get hurt. (apparently, until the 1930s, the horses didn’t wear any protection and the bull used to disembowel the horse; they protected the horses since then because there were more horses dying than there were bulls … oh, the irony of the whole spectacle!) the most I`ve ever seen is the horse being lifted onto its hind legs – and that was enough for me! i say i enjoy watching a bull being speared to death but the thought of a horse being trampled+disembowled really does push my limit … hmm!
the final part of the bull fight is when the matador takes centre stage and shows his audience what he is capable of. and i know i`ve said it before, but until you have actually watched a human being take on such an animal, it really is hard to process the actions that he takes to kill the bull. also, you really see just how dominant the bull is next to the matador. the matador is by no means a particularly muscly man (as strong as he is) and next to the toros he looks so small+thin. so to see him waving a flag and dictating the bull`s movements until the bull`s final breath really is quite something.
the crowd really get going at this point. if they do not like the bull, they stand and shrug and wave their arms around for the benefit of the Presidant sitting in the box. he has the power to call the fight off, but very rarely does. and the people moaning are the regualrs – they just like to have a moan, in my opinion!
the crowd come prepared with different coloured cloths, too. if they wave a white cloth, apparently it means that the matador was brilliant, and that he should be rewarded. this reward is the cut-off ears+tail of the dead bull, which the matador then hands out to the female members (especially little girls) of the audience on the front rows. some reward! but maybe that`s the Spanish equivalent of a footballer handing over a sweaty football shirt after a game of football? no? other coloured cloths are green, but i couldn`t quite figure out what this meant … i think it meant get the bull off, if the moaning in the crowd was anything to go by. but then again, i don`t understand Spanish, just the hand-signals that they were giving to the President …
also in my opinion, i do not believe that the people who go to these bull fights HATE the bull … i believe that they want to the bull to push the toreros as far as possible, to test just how good a matador they are. i think they enjoy a sturdy, strong-willed bull who puts up a fight+does not turn and run away. it`s quite contradictory because they are there to watch it die - but for entertainment value, i think they cheer for the bull+then cheer for its death because it put up such a good fight+allowed the torero to show off his skills. it`s just my opinion, though. and I quite like it.
watching a bull die for the first time is a mixture of emotions: am i supposed to feel excited/nervous/happy/sad all at once? well, yes. if you have managed to stay until the end, then it`s fair to say that you`re allowed to feel all that. if you turned away or got off, then it`s fair to say that you didn’t enjoy it, nor wanted to see how it would inevitably end. but it is exciting watching it all, and having seen one it`s only natural to want to see how the others will turn out.
there are 6 bulls per corrida, and by the time you get to the next bull you already know whether it`s going to be a good fight or not. you turn into a regular, moaning that the bull isn`t putting up enough fight+complaining that it hasn`t given the matador a good run-around. we turned into an 80-year old Spaniard in the space of a twenty-minute fight! and it was FUN!
there are many different styles of bull fighting, the traditional being the Spanish. but as the variations differ, the result is still the same: the bull dies. but there is a style of bull fighting practised in several regions of Spain that makes sure that the bull is neither killed nor physically injured during the bull `fight`. this is called recortes. i assume this means some kind of reconstituted bull fight without the oomph! (think of half-fat cheese … and then think about how crap it tastes!) i think this would be an interesting bull fight to watch. it is performed by acrobats and their costumes consist of simple working-man`s clothing. it`s also less costly than a traditional bull fight. i also believe that it would be less entertaining, but then again i am showing myself to be a blood-thirsty bitch!
as i explained earlier, matadors are extremely intelligent+brave men (well, some may say they are stupid) to go head-to-head with a bull. many toreros have been gored by bulls, and as far as i can tell, only (!) eight men have died, dating back from 1801. i`m sure there`s more, though, since bull fighting has been around since 711 A.D. (it was originally an aristocracy `sport` performed on horse-back, but King Felipe banned all aristocrats from competing as he believed that it set a "bad example" to the public ... so, the general public decided that they would continue – but on foot, and unarmed. this has been the case since 1724.)
you may or may not have heard that a few years ago, the youngest bull fighter to be injured during a fight was a 12-year old Mexican boy competing in Columbia. he was gored twice, and his Dad even jumped in the ring to help him – and was gored, too!
and the youngest ever bull fighter (well, thought to be) is a ten year old from Mexico – who hasn`t competed properly, but is training, and is helping the `sport` have a come-back in Mexico where it was starting to die out. (it`s just like any other sport – when fresh-faced youngsters bring a tired entertainment to life, it also brings in the crowds+manages to attract new people, too. think Lewis Hamilton for F1 – we might not watch F1, but we know that Lewis Hamilton races in it …)
and as well as little boy bull fighters, apparently, there are a few female toreros, too. i`ve already YouTube-d them ... they`re like female footballers! JOKE.
there are many reasons why there are protests for the `sport` to come to an end. and i understand+respect all of them. first of all, bull fighting is NOT a `sport`. there is no competition. the matador does not compete for points on a league table with other matadors – he simply has to show his worth by using his skills. the crowd either accept him or don`t. it`s his pride+honour at stake.
horse-racing is an animal `sport`, and that can be equally cruel. ok, not in exactly the same way. but all those Facebook status` on The Grand National day (and they only EVER appear on that day, despite horse-racing taking place THROUGHOUT the year …) that complain about people putting on BETS on horses when the horses could fall down and injure themselves and, ultimately, be put down remind us that that IS a sport. no one WINS a bull fight. the bull dies. the matador either maintains or loses his honour. and the crowd have a good night. it`s all very civil inside the ring, too – not like town after Ladies Day … need I say any more?!
… i`m trying hard to justify why i enjoy bull fights so much, but i can`t. the horse-racing example was a weak comparison (but equally as justifiable, in my opinion) but i don`t care. i don`t think i can justify why i like it; i just do. i like the excitement of it all. i like watching the crowd around me while it`s going on. i like that i can`t understand a word that it said yet the whole performance is universal. i like that it`s culturally different.
i am allowed to post these pictures of the bull fight without people complaining about it, asking how i could sit there+watch it.
yes, it`s barbaric when you consider what actually happens. but until you have witnessed the performance first-hand, i don`t think anyone can appreciate just how skilled+gutsy those matadors are.
i would very much like to think that i will visit the great arenas dedicated to bull fighting in the future, but i know that i would be going by myself! for anyone that`s interested, the largest bull fighting ring is in Mexico City and hold 48, 000 people! that`s amazing, no?! but i don`t think going to Mexico City JUST for a bull fight is justifiable, somehow …
oh, and if you`re a lady who is possibly going to be attending a bull fight and you`re so not into the fighting part of it all – check out the HOT toreros!!!! seriously, it`s just like sitting at home and being made to watch football or the F1 … you`ll pretend you hated it, but you`ll LOVE that a hot guy KILLED a ferocious animal! … am I selling it to you yet?! :)
