Bullfighting

November 19, 2013 at 4:22 pm  •  Posted in animals, Spain, Sports by

Although guys in tights wearing bejeweled suits killing innocent bulls with their grace and skill all nonchalant may not be as entertaining as flamenco dancers, there are still some interesting factors about it. For starters, Jones seemed to be almost equally as compelled to it as he was the flamenco dancers, which is hard to believe that anything could possibly be greater than that!

Jones in front of the matador costumes in the Bullfighting Museum!

Jones in front of the matador costumes in the Bullfighting Museum!

 We began by entering one of the smaller, less emphasized doors that led you inside to a whole different Seville. Eyes trapped forever in the summers heat looked down at you, posters from every year hanging jovially on the walls beckoned to you. Not a minute after we stepped inside did we start our tour, which was unfortunately all in Spanish yet it happened to be Free Monday so at least that was good. Here, inside the ring, orange trees did not blossom, Starbucks Coffee was not an omnipresent 6th child, what was here was color and refined beauty, history, and a sport of such controversy.

Animal-rights activists and other opposers of bullfighting have been claiming it as a cruel or barbaric blood sport, in which the bull suffers severe stress and a slow, torturous death as people unashamedly applaud and cheer until he takes his final breath hitting the ground with a thud and is killed. Though others argue that unlike the meat cow which only live one to two years, the fighting bull has a full and natural life of four to six years. Along with that, bullfighting has been called an art-form that is deeply rooted in Spanish heritage and history. It was brought to many countries such as Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico, and the Philippines, though all of them banned it at one point or another. Spain even put a ban on bullfighting on several occasions but was always reinstituted later. The Canary Islands was the first community in Spain to put an official ban on the sport and soon more places—mostly in the region of Catalonia—including Barcelona have declared themselves to be Anti-Bulfighting Cities.

There are things to be said about both sides, who knows, maybe someday when we revisit this beautiful country, bullfighting will cease to exist.

Entrance for the bulls to enter the ring.

Entrance for the bulls to enter the ring.

Yve

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2 Comments

  1. Stephanie Craig (@steffinseattle) / March 27, 2014 at 7:38 pm /

    I’m crawling through all your IG’s and blog posts. Missing you! Not sure how I missed this post — so well written and it reminds me of when I was in Ibiza, Spain and one afternoon I turned on the tv and caught some bullfighting. I almost wanted to change the channel but didn’t. So intense! Nice to learn some new things about this cultural focus for the Spanish. I miss you writing. Keep up the posts! I wrote this on my iphone, hopefully no typos! XXOO

    • Yve / March 28, 2014 at 4:37 am /

      Miss you too Steff! Thanks for reading— more blog posts coming!

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