Issue #15

Toro, Toro, Toro


It occurred to me that many of my faithful readers are not on Facebook and so will not know that I am now a published writer! I can now claim to be a regular contributor to the El Dorado News.

I have been in Spain for many months and have yet to attend a bullfight. I am torn between an anthropologist´s desire to witness, first hand, a performance that is an icon of Spanish culture and an animal lover´s abhorrence at watching the bulls suffer. If the flurry of articles appearing in the English-language press is an indicator, I am not the only one who is conflicted. The El Dorado News provided a brief history of the sport indicating that cave paintings in Altamira, Spain dating back to before 2,000 B.C. suggest the roots of bullfighting. The Moors, according to the article, “changed bullfighting significantly from the brutish, formless spectacle practiced”. Some believe bullfighting to be a sacrifice stemming from Roman bull worship. The modern bullfight began to develop when the men on foot, who used capes to aid the men on horseback, attracted more attention from the audience and it is much the same today as it has been since about 1726 when the use of the sword and the small cape was introduced in Ronda.

Last month, Catalan parliament voted in favour of the introduction of a law to officially prohibit the killing of bulls for sport. Navarre´s regional parliament approved a declaration recognizing the region´s bull running festival and bullfights as an intangible cultural heritage. The running of the bulls in Pamplona in July is a huge tourist attraction and a spokesperson for the Convergencia de Democratas de Navarra said it was “advisable and opportune” to recognise the value of bullfights for Navarra, now that there is an open debate nationwide about such events. The conservative Popular Party is calling for respect for what it says is “a deeply-rooted, uniquely Mediterranean tradition that dates back to the days of Ancient Greece.”

Bullfighting, however, is more than a tradition, it is a business. In Torremolinos the town hall has put the contract for running the bullring up for tender. The five-year contract would cost about 20,000 euros per year and conditions include organizing at least fifteen bullfights every year. The economic crisis could turn bullfighting into a dying art. To cover the cost of breeding and feeding a fighting bull, it must sell for at least 5,000 euros. Some breeders are selling off fighting bulls for food for a maximum of 420 euros per animal. Others are diversifying into pigs or olive and cork production. The worst affected, according to industry experts, would not be the bull breeders but those directly and indirectly employed by the industry. Bullfighting employs approximately 200,000 people and accounts for 1.5% of Spain´s GDP. Ever dwindling numbers of spectators, cutbacks imposed by limits on fiestas´ budgets and a one third drop in the number of fights in the period of 2008 to 2009 may all contribute the end of bullfighting in Spain.

Some of the regional governments in Andalucia have launched a project to encourage tourism and targeting the beleaguered bull fighting industry. The project named `Torritorio toro´, or bull territory, will include tours of bull breeding farms to see the bulls in all stages of development and the chance to fight a small cow. There will also be visits to bullfighting museums and rings with a focus on learning about the customs and traditions that are part of the ´national sport´.

Issue #14

Semana Santa

                                                                                  

Alright, I´ll admit it - I went to Malaga, a city I know well, instead of Seville, which I have yet to visit, because I was hoping to catch a glimpse of Antonio Banderas. All of the English-language newspapers carried photos of him and mentioned how he takes part in the processions. One of the papers stated,"Banderas is a keen participator in Malaga´s Easter week processions which are considered on a par with those of Seville." This is a rather strange comment; not the "Banderas is keen" part but the "on a par with those of Seville" part because, in fact, Malaga holds the most elaborate in the world!

I took about 300 pictures of which only a third were clear enough to make out the Nazarenos dressed in the tall, pointy hats or the groups of 200-plus men bearing up to five tons of trono. Not one of the photos was of Antonio.

In Rachel Stewart´s piece `My Holy Week Experience´she wrote,"After a rather long wait and plenty of speculation as to which person draped in the cream robes of the brotherhood [Fusionaldes] could be Banderas, the `nazarenos´ came into sight guideing the rest of the group, accompanied by the elated squeal of a friend who was adamant that she could recognise him from his eyes and expensive-looking shoes."

Normally, I would have been freaked out by the crowd but this time I felt a part of it. When I excused my way through the throng and a man asked me, in Spanish of course, where I thought I was going in this crush, I simply smiled and pointed over his head into the ocean of people behind him. Yes, I was actually going to dive into the sea of bodies rather than run screaming from them.

I felt very fortunate to have been able to witness this important tradition.