This bloody blog ate my story again and this time it was my fault as I asked it to do so. Damn!
The day started with a metro ride to the El Rastro markets which were overcrowded which made it difficult to stop and look at any of the produce. We had some lunch at a less crowded square before exploring the backstreets which were packed with old book sellers and antique goods. This made the journey worth the effort as I managed to find a copy of the decline of the roman empire in English.
Our main event for the day was the late afternoon bullfight. It was early season and the matadors were juniors and much of the crowd which packed into a small section of the stadium were curious tourists. Lots of colour and movement prior to the event with all the players coming into the bullring .Being new to the ‘sport‘ of bullfighting we didn’t know the role that each of these individuals would play in the bull fight but as time progressed we would sadly learn the roles of each and every one of them.
Nervous anticipation filled the air as we watched and waited for the first bull to appear. The enormous and angry black bull charged into the ring and then stopped and assessed what lay before him. Matadors ran out from behind wooden screens with their pink and yellow capes to get the bull to chase then would run rapidly back again with the bull trailing behind with every intent of hurting them. Matadors have an unfair advantage as they can provoke the angry bull and then retreat to relative safety whereas the bull has nowhere to hide. It was soon apparent that the purpose of these matadors was to tire the bull before the entry of a rider on a protected horse with a picallo. The bull charged the horse and while distracted the rider drove the picalo in between the shoulder blades to partially cut the neck muscles of the animal . Then more matadors run and plunge small swords into the neck muscles to further reduce the ability of the bull to raise its head and then the main matador with the red cape displays his ability to manage the exhausted and injured bull at close quarters.
After a while the Matador left the bull ring. A herd of big brown and white shaggy haired cows with bells around their necks came into the ring and the bull joined them before being encouraged to exit the arena. Naively we thought to ourselves that this was how the modern day bullfight ended. Torment the angry bull by playing catch me if you can ,stab it with a piccolo once or twice and then return it to the fields to repair and allow it to live to fight again. Regrettably we were soon to learn that this was not the case.
A second bullfight started and was similar to the first but there was more drama with the horse rider. The bull repeatedly charged the blindfolded horse until it managed to use its horns as a levering device under the horses heavy protective gear to toppled the horse over. The horse and rider lay motionless whilst we all held our breath and watched. The bull was eventually distracted away from its helpless victim and the horse who was obviously quite good at playing dead was eventually pulled back onto its feet with the assistance of many hands. The horse appeared none the worse for the event and was in fact almost toppled again by the bull 5 or 10 minutes late .Obviously not the first or last time that a bull will target a horse as I have since read that on bull fight days in times of old when horses didn’t wear protective gear more horses died from being disembowelled than bulls.
We suspected that this round was not going to end well for the bull when the red matador cape made an appearance carrying a sword . There were going to be no brown cows to take this exhausted bull home.
The bull whose neck muscles have been severed and weakened by the piccolos attempts a charge at the matador but falls to its knees weak from the unstemmed blood oozing from its wounds .It is difficult to watch as the once proud strong beast struggles to its feet only to attempt another charge and fall to its knees again. At one point the bull cries out in anguish and what we can only imagine is pain.
Obviously we can’t get inside the bulls head to know what it is thinking or feeling ,but on more than one occasion it appears that the bull is totally bewildered by the events that are occurring and simply wants to find an exit and leave. Can it smell the blood spilt from it fellow bovine in the sand or does it know that there can be only one escape from its tormentors.
The matador and bull were beside the side of the bullfighting ring and the reason for cutting the neck muscles of the bull became quite clear. This reduces the chance of the bull raising its head when the matador drives the sword through its shoulders and into its heart. The sword was driven into the bull but it didn’t die and another sword was called for and after a torturous time the second sword was driven into the bull and it died almost instantly.
The dead bull is dragged from the ring and from our view by powerful garland covered Spanish horses. The attendants quickly rush back and sweep the sand to cover the blood and ready the ring for the next session but we had witnessed more than enough so we left after the second round .One senseless death is enough to see…
Ultimately we all knew that the bull was going to die but its death was so drawn out and torturous that it affected many in the crowd and as we left we passed numerous people silently weeping and wiping away tears. Where are the animal rights activists???
A bullfight is not really a fight but a ritual killing where the only chance for it is a plea for mercy from the crowd. Could this mercy be a tradition from roman times past? The possibility of mercy for the bravely fought gladiator?
We finished off the day back at the Museo national del prado art gallery to finish looking at the remainder of the art gallery that we had not seen during the previous visit. It was an attempt to obliterate the memories of what we had seen at the bullfight and vowing never to return. This was too much of a cultural experience.
