Originally, I was not going to see a bull fight. Animal cruelty and whatnot trumped the fact that it is a supremely Spanish tradition. Then, a friend of mine named Katie suggested we go. Vitty and Paula had left for the weekend to go to Ibiza, so in an effort to drown my bitterness, I changed my mind and decided to go.
After classes the next day we hopped on bus number 33 over to the Plaza de Toros where they were selling tickets. I asked for "the cheapest ones, please," and the ticket salesman kindly obliged. Cheap means seats in the sun. Cheaper, means seats in the sun about three miles from the action. Equatable to buying major league baseball tickets, I suppose. Except instead of a game that sometimes feels like life or death, it actually IS a game of life or death. Always ending in someone's death in fact.
Now, to explain the process of this strange ceremonious entertainment. There are always six bulls, and can be as many as 3 torreros, which are the "bull fighters." In the case of three, as there were at this bull fight, each man fights two bulls. If there is only one though, he has to kill all six bulls on his own. Well, not on his own exactly.
Each bull fighter has his own team. Towel boys, mini knife men, big knife men, long-arrow-with-ribbon-attached men, man on armored horse, cape waver guys. Sometimes, if he is a particularly daring bull fighter though he kicks the long-arrow-with-ribbon-attached men off his team, and does that part himself. This part of the bull fight involves him enticing the bull in to charging him and jumping into the air to plunge the banderilleros (long-arrow-with-ribbon-attached), two at a time, into the nerves of the bulls spinal cord.
All of various stabs taken at the bull are aimed for the spinal cord. This is done to weaken it. Before any of the banderilleros are inserted though, they play with the bull, drawing its attention to various parts of the ring using capes. One side is hot pink, and the other yellow. Before the bull is weakened too much from various puncture wounds, it is actually surprisingly fast, as well as extremely dangerous. For that reason, the measly humans have wooden barriers to scurry behind once the bull starts charging them.
This goes on for a while, then the man on his armored horse comes out and is allowed one good, hearty, stab between the bulls shoulders. This is the most crippling blow for the bull (besides the death blow, of course) and makes the physical competition more equal between man and beast. Sometimes if this blow goes wrong, it can make it impossible for the bull to stand up. Usually, if the bull falls to the ground twice after that they will bring in a group of lady cows to lure him out and he gets to go live in a pasture for the rest of his life. These bulls weren't so lucky.
After this stab I believe came the banderilleros. Then, the Torrero plays with the woozy beast. The idea is to be as close to the bull as possible when he charges. This is the showmanship part. The torrero could be compared to a ballerina. His posture is exquisite. Posing with squared shoulders, in lunges, tiptoeing towards the bull, making pelvic thrusts on occasion, and when he gets really confident he will even turn his back on the bull after a charge.
Eventually, assuming the torrero wasn't fatally stabbed by the bulls horns, the bull will be fatally stabbed by a sword. Well, really, the sword incapacitates the bull and as the torrero looks out at the crowd waving, one of his team members comes up with a small knife and severs some necessary something in the back of the bulls cranium. Sometimes once doesn't work though. So it is done again. And again...as the life twitches right out of the bull. The audience knows he is dead when his legs stretch out stick strait.
Then come the prizes. If the audience feels the torrero has done a good job he gets the bull's ear, sometimes two. A great job deserves the tail. The decision ultimately is left up to the President of the bull ring who waves a handkerchief to signal what he thinks the torrero should get.
Then, the hero, icon, sex symbol makes his way around the ring while audience members throw things such as hats, flowers, even canteens. Everything but the flowers do get tossed back up to their owners, though in the past I don't believe that was the case.
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I found this tradition extremely interesting, although repulsive. I am no crazed animal rights activist or anything, but it seemed to me to be a very primitive display of human power. Yes, it is clear that brains can often beat brawn. Though, stabbing an animal repeatedly while people look on and cheer just doesn't seem very brainy to me.
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