10/08/2008

This last weekend I went to my first bullfight. To most people the thought of going to see people kill a living animal for fun (not just one but six) is repulsive, inhumane, barbaric, or just plain wrong. Before going I definitely was thinking the same thing. My professor Judy Cotter, the one whose “media naranja” (husband or other half) was the only American matador, told us that after seeing her first bullfight she cried and then threw up because she was so upset. She knew we were going to go see one so she went over some of the history and details with us, so we knew what we were going into and so we didn’t have the reaction she did.

First a little history. Discovered here in Spain are cave paintings from prehistoric times. In one of these caves there are drawings of Spanish bulls. Bulls were hunted and used for MANY different things like clothing, food, shelter, weapons etc and were a necessity to the survival of these prehistoric peoples. It is believed that these paintings were done with the blood of these bulls (which explains why the drawings are so well preserved), and by doing these drawings they were setting the spirit of the bull free. And for that the people would then receive good luck, good health, prosperity, and so on. Today in Spain every part of the bull that is killed or “sacrificed”(for the prosperity of the Spanish people) is still used, nothing goes to waste.

THEN! It also helped me to know that the Spanish fighting bull has the best life a bull could ask for. Judy my professor says that if she were to die and come back to earth she would want to come back as a Spanish fighting bull. BECAUSE they all have to be older adult bulls before they are used in the ring. They have lived long lives and are free roaming animals that are fed a lot of good food, and don’t see one person their whole lives before they step into the ring. This is good because the Spanish fighting bull is the only animal whose natural instinct is to charge anything that moves. So when they get into the ring they don’t feel anything because there are so many colorful moving objects that their adrenaline is so intense and they start charging at everything. Now you can choose to believe that the bull doesn’t feel anything or not but once you are there you try to think of anything that will make you feel better about it, and I actually believe it because in rugby you don’t feel your injuries because of the adrenaline, that’s what I think and im sticking to it.

So there are three parts to the fight. First it starts when the bull enters the ring. The younger matadors who I think are in training are kind of like the rodeo clowns who are there to step in and distract the bull when things go wrong. They run around in the ring to get the bull charging. The second part, which I would say is the worst, is when the picadors come out. The picadors come out holding long sticks with a small spear on the end that just barely pierces the bull’s hide; they are riding horses that are covered in mats. When the bull charges the horse the picadors stab the bull in the back. I know this sounds terrible but the good thing about this is that the bull is getting the satisfaction of actually charging and hitting something (the horse) instead of running through the cape every time and not hitting a solid object. In the fight we watched, the bull hit the horse so hard he knocked it over and the mean picador went flying off. This was amazing to see because they had the horse so well trained not to move once it had been hit (so the bull wouldn’t hit it again) it just laid there playing dead while the “rodeo clowns” distracted the bull. The bull gets stabbed about four times. LAST in the third round the matador comes out. The object is to stand there with the cape, and without moving his feet swoop the cape as the bull charges by, just INCHES away. Once the matador can do this successfully multiple times in a row the whole crowd yells OLAY!!! Each time he does it. It is really cool. Then after the matador proves his skills by doing that, and the bull by then is still charging (by instinct) but is tired, he goes and gets his sword (its really long). Then this part can be bad to watch because if the matador doesn’t put the final stab directly in the middle of the bulls shoulder-blades as it is charging him, the bull wont die immediately and they have to do it again. This only happened once at the fight I went to and I just didn’t watch. NOW if the matador does do it correctly, you can tell because the sword goes all the way in so fast that you cant even see it and the bull will die in a matter of literally 5 seconds. The crowd goes WILD when the matador does this properly.

After the first bull had been killed I felt sick, and turned to my roommate Ellie and said “im ready to go, I really don’t want to be here anymore.” But we ended up staying and im really glad we did. After I got over the initial shock and sick feeling I had, I was able to look past the little bit of blood and see this Spanish tradition in a different light. This tradition is an absolute form of art. In the fight you can see beauty somehow, you get a sense of true honor, bravery, and respect for the matador but especially for the bull. I know this sounds a little corny but the Spanish fighting bull has a fight and a passion in him that is hard to explain. If you haven’t seen a fight it is easy to imagine that it is just a disgusting game but this tradition is completely in honor of the bull. It is a place where the Spanish people can get a glimpse of and actually feel the spirit of the Spanish fighting bull inside themselves. I feel truly honored that I was able to experience it. OLAY!