Bull
The other day I saw a peeling, sun bleached poster of a matador on a wall and it got me wondering about how popular bullfighting is today.
To me, sinking spears into a frightened animal’s neck and back muscles, twisted and gouged to ensure blood loss, thus impairing its ability to lift its head and defend itself, then taunting it with a cape and finally thrusting a sword through its heart has never seemed like much fun or fair game, for dead bull or audience.
The good news is that such barbaric cruelty has been in decline for years, with many of its venues abandoned or turned into something else, but it’s still a pretty big deal in Spain and in some South American countries.
In one form or another it’s been around for thousands of years. On the Greek island of Crete, where I was last year, a 4000 year old wall painting was unearthed at Knossos. It depicted male and female acrobats confronting a bull, grabbing its horns as it charged and vaulting over its back. Prehistoric bull worship and sacrifice took place across Mesopotamia’s vast expanse, the home of numerous civilisations spanning thousands of years and known today as Iraq.
But it was here that things really took off, initially as a brutish, formless spectacle, but later transformed into a more structured occasion by the Moors from North Africa who ruled parts of Andalucia for 800 years.
They created the mighty and beautiful cities of Seville, Córdoba, Granada and Cádiz, recognised throughout Europe and North Africa as centres of learning and renowned for magnificent art and architecture, and home to eminent scientists and philosophers. But, sophisticated as they were, they still had a taste for bull baiting and slaughter.
They turned it into a more ritualistic occasion, observed on feast and special days. Then, highly trained horses and riders were pitted against the bulls they eventually killed. They made it what it is today, or rather was in its heyday when, in the 18th century, it was popularised in Spain as a form of entertainment.
One reason for its recent decline, according to a 2019 survey by the Culture Ministry, is that fewer people live in the countryside and have any relationship with animals.
Another factor, as well as anti-bullfight sentiment among the young, is that tickets are expensive and, these days, few matadors, once as rich and famous as rock stars, are household names.
There are also identity issues. For Spain’s far-right Vox party who, Trump-like, want to ‘build a wall’ and have their sights set on the ‘reconquest’ of Spain, whatever that means, love of bullfighting is synonymous with being Spanish.
For anyone keen to do their bit to put an end to such barbarity, the organisation, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), have 2 petitions on the go.
One for the Pope
This one’s calling on the Pope, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, ‘to denounce the cruelty of bullfighting spectacles in the Church’s name’:
https://support.peta.org/page/54845/petition/1?locale=en-US
Signed and shared.
Gracias!