What's the first thing you think of when you think of Spain? I'm willing to wager that bullfighting would be in the top 3 answers of at least 95% of people. However, most people, Spanish or otherwise, haven't actually been to a bullfight. Yesterday I saw my first one! It was interesting, but shocking is probably the best word I can think of to describe it.
For all of you who are like me and know little to nothing about how it actually works, I'll fill you in.
First the bull is released into the ring where he is taunted by several bullfighters with capotes or capes made of bright colored fabric, in this case, pink and yellow. They taunt the bull to make him charge at them and then run and hide behind a little wall. You'll see this happening at the beginning of my first youtube video (click on the little gear at the bottom of the screen and select the original resolution for best quality).
Then, the main bullfighter, or matador (literally "killer") takes over with his cape. As he is toreando, the banderilleros prepare themselves to run up to the bull and stab him in the back with banderillas which are colorful sticks with a kind of hook on the end. The purpose is to basically irritate the crap out of the bull. If the banderillas are stuck in there correctly, every time the bull moves it hurts them. This is generally where you start to see blood.
After the bull has been stabbed with banderillas, the matador gets out his muleta which is the traditional, red-fabric deal that we all think of when we think of toros. He puts on a show by making the bull charge at the muleta which is just far enough away that he avoids getting hit with the bull's horns. The amateur fighters aren't that good yet so they do a good bit of moving out of the bull's way unlike the pros who are fearless and barely have to move.
After the bull is sufficiently tired and annoyed, the bullfighter gets his sword and prepares to stab the bull. In the second youtube video (below), the matador stabs the bull right at the beginning, the crowd goes wild, and then the others come out with their capes to make the bull dizzy so he dies faster :/
When he finally lies down to die, one of the bullfighters stabs him in the head with a small sword just to make sure he is dead.
I'm not sure if this only happened because it was an amateur bullfight or if this is something that usually happens, but it took the bull quite a while to die after it was stabbed. It was probably because the sword didn't hit in exactly the right spot, but there were a couple of kids who had to take the sword out and stab the bull again. As you can imagine, this meant substantially more blood and substantially more squirming from me. Up until the third bull I was kinda sorta ok with it but when the sword came out and there was blood all over the bull, my liking of the spectacle decreased.
Anyway, after the bull dies, the matador turns to the crowd and the judge. If you watch the crowd in the video, you'll see they're waving handkercheifs...the better the bullfighter, the more handkercheifs he gets. If a bullfighter kills the bull, he gets to keep its ear. As you'll hear, towards the end the crowd begins chanting "Otra! Otra!" They are trying to convince the judge to give him another ear. If you're really really good you get both ears and the tail.
Now that I'm writing this down, it seems pretty brutal. Lots of Spaniards are actually against bullfighting and want to have it abolished, but as it's considered part of the national culture, they haven't had much success. I was always of the opinion that it's a cultural thing and that surely the people who were against it were just crazy animal lovers who were overreacting. I didn't think I would be at all bothered by it, but much to my surprise, I was not especially enthused about watching this big animal get poked at, taunted, and eventually killed.
It wasn't the killing of the bull that bothered me really. It's just odd that such a big, intimidating animal can me made to look so weak and pathetic. It gets to a point where it gets tired and frustrated and it sometimes can't stay on its feet after it charges and tries to change directions. A couple of times when the bull fell over, nearby kids started laughing at it. I think that was when I felt the worst for it.
Like I said before, I don't really know how to describe it or how I feel about it. It was cool to get to go and experience the environment of what a bullfight is like, but the actual bullfighting was not exactly my cup of tea. I don't think I'd ever spend the big bucks it takes to go see a real one. Nonetheless, it was a cool experience.
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