This week has been a week of doing things truly Spanish. Because of the Feria that I posted about the other day, there have been bull fights all week.
Bull Fighting has a rich history of which I haven't a single clue what it is - I even went to a bull fighting museum and I still don't know. Oops. What I can tell you is that the first time you watch it you find yourself more on the PETA side of things for a little while.
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| Opening Ceremony |
The point of a bull fight is to bring a bull into an arena and eventually kill it for entertainment. All the toreros (or matadors) do similar moves but some are better than others - one head butted the bull. As my memory is starting to trickle in: there are three parts to a bull fight. One part involves a horseman. He has a spear and wounds the bull to weaken him. After that three to four other matadors have some sort of stick that has a poker at the end and they get real up close and personal with the bull in order to stab him. After that the torero uses his cape and sort of tames the bull a bit. The fight hasn't gone out of the bull yet.
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| The bull was just let loose, notice the torero hiding behind the wall. |
At some point, the band starts playing and its sort of a dance between the bull and the torero for a while. This is where the entertainment part comes in I believe. Every pass the bull takes at a torero the crowd yells "Ole." And, I saw some crazy stuff. Two of the toreros (there were three with two bulls each - one bull at a time) went on their knees in front of the bull. One of these two not only went on his knees, but got the bull to retreat while he was kneeling and then he head butted the bull. This same bull did a flip earlier - his horns got so low to the ground that he speared it and flipped over himself. He needed help getting up.
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| The "dance" |
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| One of the basic passes that all the toreros did. |
After this little dance comes the part that makes you second guess the point of this. The torero takes his sword, get the bull to charge and stabs him. Its never an instant kill. We watched as he got weak and fell to the ground. At this point the crowd roars, and if they liked what they saw they wave white flags and throw things down to the torero, the torero then kisses it and throws it back. (They at least appeared to be kissing them, it was hard to tell - I was in the cheap seats.)
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| This is right before the kill. |
The first bull is the hardest because you don't know what to expect, and by the time the sixth one came you knew what was going to happen and could see the differences in what the torero did with the bull. I also choose to believe I became desensitized.
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| The guy in the top right corner is holding the "pointy sticks" that is used to help weaken the bull. |
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| He is on his knees. |
Would I watch another one? Yes, I think I would.
Do I support the needless killing of animals? No. I seriously hope they're doing something with those bulls.
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