Great trip to the Plaza de Toros in Madrid, a few days after the legislature down in Catalunya voted to abolish bullfighting in a few years.
The crowd at Sunday’s corrida del toros was feisty (ie, angry). A manifesto of solidarity with Catalunyan aficionados of bullfighting was read out loud, and there was a moment of silence. But, we were most surprised by the fact that the Madrilenos view this move as a cynical, political move by the Catalunyan legislature, and not an animal rights move. In the view of the central Spaniards (based on some polls in the newspapers here), the Catalunyans actually adopted this legislation to spite the rest of Spain by abolishing a central part of Spanish culture. (The best analogy I can come up with is this - what if Ohio abolished baseball, effective 2012?).
Moreover, the bullfight fans view this as a personal liberties/personal choice issue – fans were chanting “libertad” at the bullfight Sunday night, to our surprise. Lastly, the news papers view this as a ploy to distract the public from the real problems facing Spain, like 20% unemployment.
As for the bullfight – it’s the summer, and rookie bullfighters fight in the summer, just like preseason football. The hotshots seem to be on the beach in Mallorca and points south, leaving the newbies to fight to bulls. Our bullfighters won, of course, but weren’t the most graceful or athletic doing so.
As far as I can tell, the spectrum of judging goes like this, from “worst” to best.
· Silencio
· Applauso
· Ovacion
· Forte ovacion
· Oreja (the matador gets the ear of the bull, by order of the president of the evening)
The night we were at the plaza del toros, most of the matadors got silencio because they needed more than one try to plunge the sword in. The most promising guy, who initially got the crowd roaring by kneeling as he swept his cape around, flailed at the last minute and needed 3 tries with the sword. Silencio indeed for him. Of course, silence for the bull, too, in the end.
And so, we ended our stay in Madrid – on to Barcelona….
The crowd at Sunday’s corrida del toros was feisty (ie, angry). A manifesto of solidarity with Catalunyan aficionados of bullfighting was read out loud, and there was a moment of silence. But, we were most surprised by the fact that the Madrilenos view this move as a cynical, political move by the Catalunyan legislature, and not an animal rights move. In the view of the central Spaniards (based on some polls in the newspapers here), the Catalunyans actually adopted this legislation to spite the rest of Spain by abolishing a central part of Spanish culture. (The best analogy I can come up with is this - what if Ohio abolished baseball, effective 2012?).
Moreover, the bullfight fans view this as a personal liberties/personal choice issue – fans were chanting “libertad” at the bullfight Sunday night, to our surprise. Lastly, the news papers view this as a ploy to distract the public from the real problems facing Spain, like 20% unemployment.
As for the bullfight – it’s the summer, and rookie bullfighters fight in the summer, just like preseason football. The hotshots seem to be on the beach in Mallorca and points south, leaving the newbies to fight to bulls. Our bullfighters won, of course, but weren’t the most graceful or athletic doing so.
As far as I can tell, the spectrum of judging goes like this, from “worst” to best.
· Silencio
· Applauso
· Ovacion
· Forte ovacion
· Oreja (the matador gets the ear of the bull, by order of the president of the evening)
The night we were at the plaza del toros, most of the matadors got silencio because they needed more than one try to plunge the sword in. The most promising guy, who initially got the crowd roaring by kneeling as he swept his cape around, flailed at the last minute and needed 3 tries with the sword. Silencio indeed for him. Of course, silence for the bull, too, in the end.
And so, we ended our stay in Madrid – on to Barcelona….
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