30-09-07Toros En Sevilla (Bullfight)

The rain that greeted us on Sunday morning was more or less a down pour. But we were leaving so no harm done! We left Portugal at around 1 PM and went straight off to Sevilla (after a return trip a little ways out to get a forgotten cell phone) to watch the last bull fight of the season. After about 3 hours we arrived, and I scoured the streets for a parking place, finding one after a while (wooo!) and then leaving it for paid parking after I realized I had no way to lock the car. We were in two cars so transferred all valuables to the other and then set off to buy some tickets. Since this bullfight was the last of the season and was in arguable the most famous plaza de toros (bullring) in the world, we were quick to dish out the 21 Euros it cost (that included 6 bulls/rounds of bullfighting) and were happy to find out that it cost only 19 Euros for those of us under 21 years old. Also, this was a professional fight; these guys were really famous – like good pro athletes.

The fight was by far the most uniquely Spanish thing I had seen and have seen since arriving in Spain. My mother here classified it as an art, but it seems like there is something else there that she neglected to explain because there was something about it that wasn’t quite artistic. I thought at first that it was a machismo (of which there is a lot) but even that didn’t cover it. I’m still not sure but will do my best to find out. My feelings about it as a whole was: I thought it was interesting, just interesting. Not bad but nothing spectacular. It is indeed very systematic and practiced, and these bulls (as I was told by my mom) were all a little above average on the ferocity scale. She, like the good Spaniard she is, was watching it on TV and absolutely loved it.

So here is how a corrida de toros (bullfight) works:

1. The bull is taunted a little with the pink-and-yellow-cape-waving group of four men known as the quadrilla. Their task is to control the bull as well as to get him riled up. Some do the valiant wave the bull past with the cape deal while others dash for the sidewall and hide behind it while the bull knocks his head against it.

2. These mounted men, named picadors, come into the ring and the bull is brought close to them by the quadrilla. One picador takes his staff that has a hooked knife on it and proceeds to cut the lower neck of the bull. This is one of the steps that had most of us a little confused since it was pretty cowardly to debilitate the bull that way. His nerves are significantly damaged by the act. The horse that the man is on is blindfolded and gets absolutely pummeled by the bull. Luckily they are padded (more to come on why that is essential).

3. Next, two men, called, banderilleros, and wield pointy metal poles which are about arm’s length and proceed to run at the bull, have him turn his head, stab them into the bull’s back, and sprint for the wall. This is a lot more dangerous, I believe, and makes the bull even more confused and weak. It is also a stylistically done process as they arch their backs a certain way and must skillfully stab the bull at the correct point.

4. Now comes the part that we all know about in America and has been popularized worldwide. The torero/matador comes out and is alone with the bull in the ring. He has a red cape as we all know about, but also has a sword and a metal staff (about the same length as the sword) that has a cross on the end. The sword is used towards the end and the staff is for mistakes. So, what exactly does the matador do? Here is where art and style are really clear. The other rounds seemed more like procedure while his is a one on one session with the bull. He drives him back and forth, round and round. The matador has a noticeable advantage due to how weak the other rounds made the bull but regardless does he job as fanciful as he can. Occasionally the bull can fall to the ground in his state of weakness, showing how much of an advantage the torero is given. Nevertheless, the bulls often nick the torero, injuring and/or killing him. The animals are huge, valiant, and to me seemed even regal – which made the last part a little degrading. The last act of the matador is to stab their sword into the bull, aiming for the heart. That part – pretty damn difficult. The bull is still very alive and dangerous, and to get a good stab they must get quite close and be very exact. The bull proceeds to wobble around for a minute until it’s loss of nerves and blood/blood flow brings about its end.

5. A horse drawn harness is then brought out with a couple men leading them. This group is called Monos Sabidos (wise monkeys). Why? No idea. Not even my Spanish dad knows. They hook the bull and, while loud trumpets play, drag the bull in a circle within the ring and crack a whip, finally taking him out of the ring in triumph. So, the bull fought valiantly, us humans used our wits to overpower him in largely unfair procedure, and then pretended like what we did was amazingly impressive in the cocky and degrading fashion of dragging the combatant in circles around the ring. It would be like rounding up all the enemy casualties in a war and dragging them around the capital city. It is certainly a show catching deal but I wasn’t a fan. I would have appreciated more honor and respect for the fight the bull put up.

So that is the structure. Here are a couple interesting things I saw. The second bull was amazingly ferocious and fun to watch, but the third was able to to tip over the horse upon which was the picador and rammed incessantly into the horse’s stomach. All of us first-timers were horrified for the horse (who as you remember is blindfolded) because we didn’t know at the time that the horse had padding on his underside. Makes sense, but was scary to not know! Poor ignorant horse, mean humans. Next thing, the metal pole with a cross on the end – used to pull out the sword after an unsuccessful stab. The torero either waits for it to fall out, since if it doesn’t go in right/far enough then their job isn’t done right, and then tries again. Half of the toreros took two stabs (one having to use the cross-thingy to retrieve the sword for another go), but the third did great and hit home on his first try. The crowd loved him and waved their white handkerchiefs in the air for him. Since he did well he received at the end of the corrida a ear of the bull he killed. The most scary bull stunt, though, was done by one of the men in the cuadrilla. He would hold the cape between his legs and have the bull charge at that. THAT is impressive!

All in all, it was an experience and a half. All of us that saw the corrida were a little speechless but of course fascinated. We drove home, got in a little late, I learned how horribly difficult (and fun) driving the tiny streets of Cadiz is, and then finally made it home after a fun, eventful, and exciting trip/day.