About a week ago, we went to a bull fight in Sevilla. Before the fight, the director of our program gave us a lecture over the tradtions of the bull fight and everything that goes on so we would understand it more and wouldn't be completely lost. Thank goodness he did or else I think we all would have been extremely overwhelmed!
The bull fight is NOT seen as a "sport" here in Spain, and there are only a few cities that still have bull fights similar to this. After the bulls are killed, their meat is sold and all of the proceeds from the sales of the meat are given to charity. This has been a long standing tradition which I think is very interesting. The meat from these bulls is not very good at all, but they do use the meat from the tail bone area of the bull in a popular tapa dish here in Spain.
There are six bulls in every bull fight and all of them die, no matter what. There are three matadors in each fight and they go in order - 1,2,3,1,2,3. The matadors do not know anything about the bull they are going to fight until it is in the bull ring with them. The matadors outfits were INCREDIBLE. They were each completely unique and sequined. Once the it got dark enough and they turned the lights on in the stadium - their uniforms literally sparkled.
There is a strict process that each individual bull/matador go through, but the matador does not do all of the work. The matadors have their fair share of helpers. The whole idea of each fight is to weaken the neck muscle so that they become tired and their head will drop, making it easier for the matador to aim for the chest cavity with his final sword to kill the bull.
This is a good picture of the bull ring. The clay/dirt/sand that is used is special in that it does not become mud when it rains. It simply just gets about an inch worthy of water on top of it, but it is still durable enough to host the bull fight on. It was all open air and we were sitting on brick bleachers, if you will. One of the most uncomfortable things I've ever sat on. I didn't realize that the people standing outside the stadium with red and yellow striped pillows were selling those to SIT on, but now I completely understand. Not only were we sitting on bricks but the "bleachers" are all so close to each other that your knees inevitably dig into the back of the person in front of you. I don't know how the Spaniards stand it with the heat here! I guess that's just their culture and they're so used to it.
Here are some of the matadors and their "helpers" getting ready for the bull to come out. The first cape that they use in the process is fuscia and yellow which was the last thing I expected. The colors actually mean nothing though. The bulls are colorblind and, therefore, just respond to the movement of the fabric in general.
Here is a close up of one of the matador's helpers - their outfits are very similar to the outfits of the matadors but may just not be as flashy.
This is, what I'm going to call, step one. The matador helpers use their capes to move around and attract the bull so that he will charge the movement. The idea of this entire process - that is carried out throughout the entire fight - is to stay on the inside of the bull's turning range because they are so large that do not have the ability to turn sharp or really fast.
Step two: This little guy is called a "picador." He uses this spear to stab the neck muscle of the bull to help, and really begin, the weakening process. All of the picadors are on horses - there are two in the ring at a time. Usually just one of the picadors gets utilized because one is typically in the shade and one is in the sun and the bull tends to stay in the shade. The fabric around the horse is completely padded to protect them from the charge of the bull, and they are blind folded so they cannot see what is going on and do not get spooked. Our director told us that he feels like the picadors these days "do too much" and I could tell exactly what he meant by that when I went to the bull fight. They are supposed to cleanly stab the bull in the neck two times, but they would stab them more than twice and not in the correct area - they would even stab further down their back which really doesn't benefit the weakening of the neck muscle at all.
Step two in action. I promise - the horse IS okay! :)
Step three: This is when the matador really kind of steps in and starts doing his part. Again, here he is tiring the bull by attracting him with the movement of the cape. He is also trying to distract him from the helpers who are attempting to weaken the neck muscle again - six different times.
You can kind of see in this picture - the red and white things on top of the bull are actually other little spears that they helpers stab into the neck muscle two at a time. Each are decorated with paper in different colors.
This is a good picture of one of the helpers in action with the smaller spears.
Step four: This is when the matador begins to use the tradtional red cape. Again, he uses this cape to attract the bull - making it charge - and to tire it even more.
This is a picture of one of the helpers hiding behind a small section where the bull cannot reach. The helpers reminded me of rodeo clowns in that they would attract the bulls with their capes, causing them to charge, and then would run away from them and hide behind this barrier where the bull could not get to them.
Step five: The matador's toughest job. The matador is supposed to make one last, clean stab, preferably in the chest cavity and right into the heart, so that the bull stumbles a bit and falls to the ground. It is supposed to be an act of pride for the matador in that he has won and beat the bull in their duel.
We did have a fairly rare scenario during the bull fight we saw. One of the bulls was sent back because he was tripping and stumbling the moment he came out into the ring - signifying that he was weak. The "president" throws up a green flag to symbolize his desire for a new bull. There are always two alternate bulls available for each fight. This was our 6th bull that was sent back, so during the very last one we got to see how this was done. They send out all of these cows so that the bull will follow them out of the ring. Sadly, the bulls that are sent back and out of the ring are still killed.
Step six: I guess you could say the clean up crew comes out. Some guys hook the bull from the previous fight to the mules and the mules carry the bull out of the ring. Sometimes, if the matador has had a good fight, this is when they will cut off one or two of the ears from the bull and allow the matador to prance around the bull ring with it...this signifies honor for the matador who gave a good show.
I decided these guys were kind of like zambonies on ice rinks - they came out to clean up the ring before the next bull came out. Their nickname slowly changed to "sandbonies" though. :)
I hope this wasn't too gruesome of a post. It's a huge part of the culture here in Spain, especially in Sevilla, and I felt like it was a large part of my time here that I had to share. It is not viewed as cruel by the Spanish people - more like art - and it really is very artistic and interesting the way it is all done.
Now, with all of that being said, the bull fight we attended was APPARENTLY one of the worst bull fights that some of our teachers had ever seen. The bulls were all weak bulls and didn't put up a big fight or perform well. The picadors tried to do too much with their spears and the matadors were having to take 3-4 shots at the final stab of the bull. One bull even laid down in the middle of his fight, which we heard never happens. Nothing was too bad throughout the fight, I enjoyed it, I guess, and I would like to go again when there is a world famous matador or just in hopes of it being a better show.
I also learned through this process that whistling signifies a bad thing in Spain and clapping/waving white hankerchiefs signify good things. Needless to say, the Spaniards were whistling a lot throughout this bull fight - ha - and it was a hard concept to understand because I am so used to it meaning good things at a sporting event in America.
That's all for my gruesome posts! PROMISE! :)
I should get one more post up about feria some time soon!
Abrazos,
Paige
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