La Corrida de Toros

Hola chicos. I'm just going to touch briefly on the bullfight because people are bound to be offended. This is how the spectacle was explained to me (in Spanish, mind you, so I'm sure I've gotten some of it wrong.) Every city in Spain has their own bullfight season. Granada's is in June or something like that, but they were having one more at the end of September and Javier strongly recommended that we go. He didn't say we would like it, just that it's a good thing to have experienced. In every bullfight, there are six bulls and three toreros. So math will tell us that each torero(bullfighter) faces two bulls. Actually there are eight bulls. They include two alternates in case one of the starters is a "dud." Or too docile. People in favor of bullfights will stress that these bulls spend five-six years in the lap of luxury, grazing in open fields, eating only the best oats and hardly ever seeing a human before they participate in the event. The general structure of the fight is like so: a bull is released into the ring. Several toreros with pink capes work to make it run around a bit. Then a man with a lance on a heavily armored horse stabs the bull between the shoulder blades. I believe this is to make it more difficult for the bull to keep his horns up and therefor less dangerous for the toreros. Then the toreros take turns running up to the bull and sticking it with these colorful stake-like things. I have no idea why. After this, the main torero, the one whose turn it is, comes out with a red cape and engages the bull in a type of terrifying dance. It's all very showy. The cape is red not because the color excites or riles up the bull. Bulls are color-blind. It's red to disguise the blood. When the torero is ready to perform his coup de grâce, he exchanges his sword for another and lures the bull in closer until he positioned perfectly. The killing blow is supposed to be swift, painless and singular. If done properly, the bull sways for moments and then drops. We found out, however, that is not always the progression of events. Let me apologize here for the sub-par quality of these pictures. We were in the cheap seats.

The Standoff: the torero is pandering to the crowd with fancy dance moves. This was the second bullfighter. The first was pretty awful. He did not achieve a clean kill. We were horrified because we didn't know what to expect and he fucked up quite a bit. It was very hard to watch.

The second torero was a huge improvement on the first. We just called him Muttonchops. I'll let you imagine why. He was daring, suave and beautiful to watch. However, his performance was far from flawless. He slipped and found himself facing the bull from the flat of his back. Other toreros rushed in to lure the bull away but not before the bull managed injure him in fairly serious-looking way. Muttonchops persevered though. With a tourniquet tied around his upper thigh, he finished his fight.

For his bravery and determination to see his fight through to the end, Muttonchops was awarded. The crowd expressed its approval by waving handkerchiefs or anything else white. The president of the bullfight (whom Alex kept insisting upon calling the King) agreed with the crowd and entered the ring after the bull's death and cut off one the bull's ears to give to the torero. Apparently a very high honor.

All in all, it was a pretty grisly affair. Not really something I want to see again, but I think Javier was right. I am glad I've gotten to see what all the fuss is about. Perhaps if I ever get a chance to go to Portugal, I'll see one there. I hear they don't kill the bulls. But if I go to Portugal I'll probably devote most of my time to camping outside of Cristiano Ronaldo's house, so I think this is my first and last bullfight.

And if you want to see more here's the link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2164154&id=38709220&l=2cb4e4d08d