Here's the breakdown on how my life spiraled out of control in three simple steps: 1. A friend came for a visit to Madrid. 2. He wanted to see a bull fight. 3. Somehow, I was persuaded to go too. Apparently I succumb to peer pressure and cultural curiosities quite easily.
So in case you were wondering, a bullfight goes something like this...
1. A bull enters the ring and about 4 matadors wave their silky pink sheets at him. The bull chases them around one at a time and gets a little dizzy and a little tired, but aside from the stabs that he gets before he enters the ring (yeah, he gets a stab before even seeing the first matador), nobody draws any bull blood. The matadors run and hide behind the wall after the bull starts to chase them and sometimes the bull crashes into the wall. At times they do some really tricky stuff like make the bull run around them in circles with the bull's horns extremely close to their bodies. They also wear toupees.
2. Then the matadors with the horses enter. They have spears. They spear the bulls in between their shoulder-blades. Their horses have armor. The bulls try and jab the horse with their horns. The horse is usually ok. The bull starts to bleed a lot and gets weaker and madder.
3. Next come the matadors with the decorative sword-things. They chase the bull around and have the daunting task of jumping into the air to try and jam more swords into the bull's back without getting crushed by the bull. They are received better by the audience if the swords remain in the bull's back because after all, they are decorative swords. One of the matadors trying to do this got clipped by a horn and got trampled by the bull. I think he was ok, but I'm not really sure because he made it to the safety wall but then fell and after they got the bull off him, all we saw were his feet being dragged out of sight.
4. After all the decorative swords have been placed, the boss-Matador comes out. You can tell he is the boss because he has the red sheet and gold piping down the sides of his fancy uniform (?) I was scolded vehemently by a fan when I said "costume", yet still not provided with the correct term for his ornate get-up. The other employee-matadors have to have any other color but gold down their sides. He waves his sheet around a bunch and does what I believe is considered to be the "art" part of the show (where he has the bull running around him and does a lot of Shannon Miller-esque, arched-back finishes). This is usually when members of the crowd, like the little old lady in a pink and green dress behind me, start to morph into bloodthirsty pterodactyls that squawk "MATALO!!!!!" (KILL IT!) and other equally unnerving chants. The crowd is quite lively throughout the entire process. That same woman yelled, "Stop being shameless! You're not fighing with a cow!" in a later round. Once the boss-matador is ready, he gets the sword and kills the bull. Hellooooo arterial spray. It usually takes a minute or two for the bull to die so one of the employee-matadors punches him in the skull a couple of times to speed up the process. I am still unconvinced that this is an attempt at mercy, as has been the argument presented to me.
Notice how this boss-matador is missing his smart, little, black slippers in the photo above? This is because that bull was able to get a piece of him and then the slippers got lost in the process. He was so angry when he got back up that it looked like he was going to try and charge the bull. One of the employee-matadors held him back. Then while he regained his composure, the employee-matadors cornered the bull and shook their sheets at him to confuse him a little more. They also do this at the end when the matador is killing the bull.
5. After the bull is dead they attach him to some horses and he gets dragged out of the ring. The crowd goes wild. This gets repeated 5 more times, as they kill 6 bulls every match.
Well now that's the story of how a team of matadors kills a bull. Feel free to print this and read it to your children at bedtime.
The Spaniards with whom I've discussed bullfighting usually think it is either really great or absolutely atrocious. I've yet to find one who takes a position near the middle. However, matadors are treated like rockstars here. They have their faces all over the tabloids, their bank accounts handsomely full and the affections of many a female admirer.
Bullfighting has seen more opposition as of late, as some of Spain's Autonomous Communities have started deliberations on the banning the traditional "art" altogether. It seems that Catalonia leads the way on this issue. This article explains a bit about the current situation. (I'd just like to point out that I can't help but find it amusing when the author notes that right-wing reaction is that this is just another attempt from the Catalans to separate themselves from mainstream Spanish culture. While I, being a foreigner, don't really feel that I understand the whole depth of the situation as far as making a decision about the cultural ramifications of continuing or banning bullfighting, I still can't imagine that the main interest of the Catalans in favor of the ban would be cultural separation. Whatever happened to simply being against the killing of mass quantities of animals for sport?)
Though I can't say that I will ever attend another of these fights, it was educational to see what this type of archaic feat was like- it made me think of watching the gladiators of Ancient Rome. The house was full, the people were there for blood, and disappointed they were not.
One last thought- If you want to see this graphic video of a matador during a fight who recently took a horn to the neck and that left out his mouth, follow the link. I'll leave that one up to you.
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