Bullfighting in Cadiz, Spain. Ole
Bullfighting- what an art. Tragically wonderful. I was kind of iffy going in to watching a bull fight for the fact that I love animals, but I am glad I did it because it is part of the Spanish culture. First off let me start by saying it is not what I expected. There were a bunch of men who helped the main matador (makes me think of when Mater calls himself “mater-dor” from “Cars”). The bull was let loose into the arena and they waved their pink capes and made the bull run around to make him tired.
What I had envisioned in my head was a bull charging like a mad man and not stopping. Nope. The bull would just casually stop running and stand there in the middle of the arena just taking a chill pill. They had to yell “torro” “torro” to get his attention towards the cape at some point. Then they would bring out a horse into the arena, fully armed, and the bull would stab the horse with it’s horns. No worries! The horsey didn’t die, he was armed. They do this so that the bull builds up confidence. I learned bulls don’t have very good vision so they don’t necessarily know what they hit, but they think they made it die. Following that, to bring the bull’s confidence back down the main matador came out and showed his skills by teasing him. It was amazing. He would spin his cape around and the bull would get so close to him. Then his little minions/helpers would stab some long thing into the bull (it wasn’t the sword, the bull was still alive after being stabbed). Then the matador would tease him some more with the red cape this time. Then when it was time he would pull out the sword and stab it in the upper back. I was expecting immediate falling into death, but that isn’t the case at all. The other minions come back out and wave their pink capes and the bull still runs around. Then randomly the bull will lay down. Not fall down. Lay down. Like my poodle Wilson does. Then the gruesome part that I am not okay with comes… They stab the bull in the head a bunch and make sure it is dead. Then they bring out the horses again and they drag the bull around the arena. Ekk.. Overall, We watched three different matadors. The first one was very graceful, the third was kind of an amateur (poor guy), but the second was OUTSTANDING. He even got a standing ovation from the crowd and a white bandana from the president’s box. This means that he won an award and the bull’s ear for being so good. And let me tell you he was damn good. Poor third guy though… he followed the best matador and he couldn’t kill the bull in one try. He stabbed his sword, but it was only half way in the bull. This I wasn’t okay with either cause the bull started oozing out blood. He finally got it after a couple of tries, but he still walked out of the arena with his head down :(. Poor guy. If it makes him feel any better if I were in an arena with a bull I would run frantically and probably die. P.S. Our guide said that the outfits the matadors wear are worth tens of thousands of euros… P.S.S. On our way out of the stadium I saw the bulls hanging in a room and men were sawing off their meat…. And there was blood all on the ground.. blahhhhh.
xoxo,
Em