How to Watch a Bullfight E-Book

Tristan Wood

• Herausgeber: Merlin Unwin Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2017

Beschreibung

This is the golden age of bullfighting. In the last 60 years, the number of bullfights (corridas) held in Spain has increased almost ninefold, peaking in 2007. Great bullfighting names have the status of football stars, with heroes including Cayetano, José Tomás, Enrique Ponce and Morante de la Puebla, their styles ranging from the flamboyant and breath-takingly reckless to calm domination and technical mastery. Many English-speaking tourists on holiday witness this most ancient and colourful of spectacles, but few understand what is really going on. This illustrated guide acknowledges that attending a bullfight is controversial and will not appeal to everyone. It throws light on the bullfighter's art and outlines the structure of the corrida, the key players and the various moves and stages. A fascinating and complex event is defined step-by-step in layman's terms. The music, the excitement and reactions of the crowd and the drama are all put into context and one of the most ancient and unusual of modern spectacles becomes clear. This book is designed to give readers of whatever persuasion an understanding of bullfighting, so that they can either increase their pleasure in watching a corrida in Spain, France or South America, or simply learn what is involved in this most complex, moving and controversial of spectacles.

Leseprobe

To aficionados past, present and future

CONTENTS

Title PageDedication1. To Watch, or not to Watch Anticipation: BEFORE THE CORRIDA2. Seats and Sand 3. PreliminariesPART ONE: THE FIRST TERCIO4. Opening Capework 5. Las Varas 6. The crowd as participant 7. QuitesPART TWO: THE SECOND TERCIO8. BanderillasPART THREE: THE THIRD TERCIO 9. The Alternativa10. The Faena 11. The Kill 12. The Indulto13. Rewards and Risks PART FOUR: REJONEO14. Rejoneo PART FIVE: BACKGROUND TO BULLFIGHTING15. The Toro Bravo  APPENDICES1. Experiencing the bullfight 2. Glossary of Bullfighting Terms 3. Index of Bullfighting Moves 4. Further reading Acknowledgements Copyright

1To Watch, or not to Watch

For many people contemplating going to a bullfight for the first time, the uppermost thought in their minds may well be not how to watch it, but rather whether they should attend it at all.

Animal rights organisations have far more well-developed links with the media than does the bullfighting world and it is consequently easy to get the impression that the bullfight is an outdated and cruel spectacle, receiving less and less support in its birthplace, Spain. Some lobbyists even claim, incorrectly, that it is only spectating tourists who keep the event alive. Recent moves to ban the bullfight in Spain’s Catalan region have received worldwide publicity and have been regarded by some commentators as the first step towards banning bullfighting everywhere.

In fact, up until the recent economic crisis, bullfighting had been on a steady growth path in Spain and France. In Spain alone, the numbers grew from 145 corridas (events featuring professional matadors) in 1950 to 962 in 2007. Even the number of lower category novilladas con picadores (featuring aspiring matadors, known as novilleros, and younger bulls) amounted to 570 in 2007, compared to the 204 in 1947 when novillada events were first recorded. Bullfighting remains the second most popular spectator pastime in Spain, after football, with some 40 million seats sold over the course of a year.

Fighting bulls lead an untroubled life on ranches prior to their time in the ring

The campaign to ban the bullfight in Catalunya has been pursued by an opportunistic alliance of animal rights activists and local politicians anxious for Catalunya to become a country in its own right and to rid itself of aspects regarded as Spanish. In the latter case, the argument represents a distortion of history – in its time, bullfighting has occurred across the whole of the Iberian peninsula and Catalunya has made a notable contribution, with Barcelona at one stage featuring no fewer than three plazas de toros (bullrings) and holding more bullfights than anywhere else. The views of separatist Catalan politicians have been tainted by the Franco dictatorship’s promotion of bullfighting as ‘la fiesta nacional’: indeed, it is ironic that the Catalan population in neighbouring France today make a point of promoting the bullfight there as part of their local heritage.

Animal rights supporters object to the injuries inflicted on bulls during the 20 minutes or so they are in the bullring – first of all, the animals are lanced by a mounted picador, then they have brightly-coloured darts (banderillas) placed in them, and finally they are put to death by sword. The ‘antis’ often overlook the fact that, up until their time in the ring, the bulls have experienced several unmolested years in the countryside – in stark contrast to the lives of most cattle.

Under man, all cattle are destined to die, significant numbers prematurely, in order to produce meat. Unless one is a committed vegetarian, eschewing all animal products in one’s diet, dress, etc., the issue with the bullfight should be more one of how the animal is killed, rather than the fact that it is killed at all.

In the context of a predominant western society that prefers to keep death, whether of beast or mankind, hidden, most cattle are killed in abattoirs as part of an anonymous death-line. In the UK alone, over 10 million cattle are bred in order to facilitate meat and dairy production, and approaching 3 million cattle are slaughtered each year for their carcasses (some of which is to satisfy the demand for pet food). In the bullring, on the other hand, the toro bravo (an animal that has been specially bred for its aggressive qualities and performance in the ring) can display its physique, strength, staying power, its desire to rid itself of anything in its path, its manner of dying. It has the opportunity to have its name written into taurine history.

Anyone contemplating going to a bullfight will see blood and death (certainly the death of bulls: possibly the death of men) and it is as well to bear this in mind on one’s first attendance. People react to such things in different ways: some will overlook the blood and find the bull’s death a fitting end to the spectacle, while others may focus on the blood and gore and find the bullfight upsetting and repulsive.

What the bull feels about it, no one knows, although there have been scientific studies to try and find out. In 2007, the Director of the Department of Animal Physiology at Madrid’s Complutense University, Professor Illera del Portal, published a study of stress in the fighting bull and concluded that the most stressful aspect of the bullfight for the animal was its transportation to the bullring. During its time in the arena, according to the professor, the bull produces such a quantity of beta-endorphins that the pain of its injuries is effectively anaesthetised whilst it concentrates on ridding itself of its adversary.

Some abolitionists claim that people who attend bullfights are pandering to some sort of blood-lust and that they can be desensitised and harmed by the experience. In practice, however, bullfight audiences express concern when a bull accidentally breaks a horn or hoof, or when the picador’s work is considered poor or excessive, or when the matador’s attempts to kill it are protracted. Lostoros (‘the bulls’ - the common name by which bullfights are referred) provides a lesson in respect, rather than violence – respect for the nature of the toro bravo and for man’s ability to triumph in the face of adversity – and bullfight spectators, whilst opinionated, are far less inclined to violence than, for instance, football supporters. Similarly, there is no evidence to the effect that children taken to bullfights are traumatised by what they see in the bullring.

Nowadays, the centrepiece is the matador’s performance with the muleta

Bullfighting has changed a lot since the second significant phase of construction of bullrings for the masses in the second half of the nineteenth century. In those days, the centre of the spectacle was the toro bravo and its performance against the picador, in terms of the number of times it would charge against the horseman despite its being lanced on each occasion and the numbers of horses (relatively light nags in the days before the protective peto mattress was introduced) it could overturn and kill. Matadors were predominantly admired for their ability to kill the bulls, rather than their skill at passing the animals armed merely with a cloth.

Nowadays, however, the focus is very much on the performance of the matador, who makes key interventions in at least two of the three sections (known as tercios) that make up the running, or lidia, of each bull.

In the first tercio, he will face the bull with a large cape (the capote, usually coloured magenta on one side and yellow on the reverse) which he uses to encourage, accommodate and improve the bull’s charge. The final tercio – the faena - consists of his facing the bull alone with the smaller, red muleta cloth, trying to bring off series of close and beautiful passes before reaching over the bull’s horns to kill it by sword.

The bull comes into the ring with its horns held high and protecting the killing spot

By the end of the faena, the bull should be tired, its head lowered

While the central concern of the bullfight today is the performance of the matador in this final phase, rather than the bull’s performance against the picador, it is important to appreciate that the whole of the lidia is designed to facilitate the eventual killing of the bull.

When the animal first comes into the ring, it is levantado, holding its head high, the massive bulk of muscle behind its head (the morrillo) similarly raised. After it has gone against the picador, the animal will be bleeding, its neck muscle weakened, so that it approaches the final phase less inclined to run wildly, more measured in its charge and focusing more clearly on the lure.

Man faces possible death: the bull an almost certain one

By the end of the faena, having charged successively at the lure held by the matador and been turned time and again by the matador’s handling of the red cloth, the bull should have reached the point where it is aplomado, too tired to continue, its head held low, facilitating the fatal swordthrust.

The bullfight incorporates the death of the bull for a number of reasons. Firstly, by the end of its lidia – unless it has performed so well it is considered worth passing on its qualities by retaining it as a seed bull – the toro bravo has reached the end of its useful life. It cannot be fought again, as, throughout its time in the ring, it begins to appreciate it is not the cloth it needs to get rid of, but rather the person holding it; once fought, the toro bravo is too dangerous to be fought again and can only be turned into meat.

Secondly, the killing of the bull forms the climax of the corrida, its ‘moment of truth’ – the only point at which the torero must throw himself over the bull’s horns, putting his own life at most risk, to achieve his objective and plunge the sword between the animal’s shoulder blades.

The bullfight has evolved as a ritualised means of killing cattle, one that involves both colourful beauty and danger. As we shall see in this book, each bullfight follows a similar pattern. Although there can be an element of competition between the matadors in a corrida (most of which feature three matadors, each of them facing and killing two bulls), bullfighting is not a sport, but rather a spectacle that has continued to evolve throughout the last 700 years around the killing of bulls. It involves youngsters making significant sacrifices in terms of their dedication to becoming toreros and the inevitable injuries that the profession brings, as well as the sacrifice of the bull in a demonstration that man’s intelligence can overcome the far greater strength and power and the danger posed by a ferocious toro bravo.

Like great theatre, the best bullfights can be moving and cathartic. As the taurine critic José Carlos Arévalo has written:

“The lidia – the method by which the violent aggression of the bull’s instinct for liberation is combined with toreo [passing the bull with the cloth] to the point where it is converted into rhythm – brings with it an unusual sacrifice, for the torero (the executioner) interchanges his role with that of the bull (the victim) by becoming the receptor ofits violence. In effect, without taking on the bull’s violence, there is no toreo. It is on these terms: that of the man in danger – that the ethical attitude of the bullfight public is based; in the circular enclosure of the arena, people identify with a fellow human at risk… We go to the bullring to attend the sacrifice of the bull and the victory of man, represented by the torero, over the risk of death on the horns of the bull… The bull’s bravery – in effect, its identity – will be discovered by the torero and spectators over the course of its lidia. It is explored by what the torero does through an almost scientific methodology – tauromaquia or the technique of toreo – accepting, internalising and shaping his art according to his emotions and his aesthetic sensibility while accompanying the bull. In this moment, there is cartharsis, ‘olés’, the collective clamour that celebrates the miraculous union of opposites, the squaring of the circle, of Man’s reconciliation with aggressive Nature and of life with death”.

A ritualised means of killing cattle; one that involves both colourful beauty and danger

Engaging in a fluid, aesthetically pleasing, series of passes

As bull breeders have developed their animals to meet the matadors’ criteria of what constitutes a good toro bravo, so the English term ‘bullfight’ has become increasingly a misnomer. Certainly, throughout his performance, a matador faces the possibility of injury or death if he does not overcome the superior strength of his adversary: however, today’s lidia is usually much more about achieving a dialogue between man and bull, with the torero attempting to bring out the animal’s best qualities while he performs as artistically as possible, composing his body and handling the cloth to produce beautiful-looking passes, ideally linked one to another in fluid sequences, rather than engaging in a rough-and-ready struggle for survival.

In opting to attend a bullfight, one is making a decision to experience a unique part of Iberian culture – an event that has been exported successfully beyond Spain to Portugal, to the south of France and much of Latin America (Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela all hold corridas featuring bulls of Spanish descent). Indeed, the cult of the bull, of which bullfighting is part, can be traced back to the taurine god Mithras of pre-Roman times and classical myths such as the Labours of Hercules or the triumph of Theseus over the Minotaur.

However, whilst some aspects of the corrida (for instance, the toreros’ costumes) remain traditional, it would be a mistake to view the bullfight simply as a throwback to the past. Bullfighting schools (escuelas de tauromaquia) are a common feature in most Spanish cities. In 2009, some 175 youngsters took part in novilladas con picadores in Spain and France in the hope that this would lead, in time, to successful careers as matadores de toros. Spanish ferias without bullfights are almost unthinkable; hence the decision of many local authorities to subsidise such events as part of the festivities that bring people together.

The title of matador de toros still carries huge status in Spanish society – the gossip press follows the love-lives of bullfighters with great interest; a number of matadors have been chosen to represent fashion houses and the like in advertising campaigns; the best performers are honoured at national and regional levels with cultural awards alongside other artists; while the profession provides an important role model in that the confidence, control, courage and self-reliance that the matador displays in the bullring continue to be seen as desirable virtues in men generally.

In a world that may seem increasingly concerned with celebrity and other trivialities, the action between man and bull in the arena stands out as a spectacle that encourages us to consider the more serious matters of our existence - life and death, sacrifice, hardship and triumph.

Anticipation

BEFORE THE CORRIDA

2Seats and Sand

Types of bullring

Ticket sales and where to sit

Pricing structure

The arena

Line markings

Terrains and querencias

Types of bullring

Bullrings come in a variety of shapes and sizes. They can be permanent [see page 11] or temporary (portátil) purpose-built structures [1], holding several thousand or a few hundred spectators. Sometimes town squares will be converted into bullrings for a day or two of festivities. The majority of bullrings are openair, although there is a growing tendency to build ones with roofs.