from the bottom of the sea to the top of the world

two days ago, I had an experience that I just have to write about, though it might get a bit graffic, so hold on to your stomach. and don´t read this with food. I went to a bull fight, though I knew I wouldn´t enjoy it and didn´t agree with it, I compromised on my own values for the sake of experiencing a piece of their culture here in spain. So let me try to paint a picture of this experience for you:
picture going to your favorite stadium to watch your favorite sports team play. Imagine the enthusiasm, the energy, the popcorn and soft pretzels, the families out with little kids, exposing them to their first baseball/ football game, the cheers from the crowd, the excitment of seeing your favorite player and knowing all their stats, etc. Got the image? Now, put all those things in Madrid, but instead of your favorite sports star, sub. in a matador, and his opposition being a bull. I´m not sure what my expectations were going into this experience, but my imagination didn´t do reality justice. First off, I was late for the first bull fight, so just like at a performance at a theater, they don´t let you in until the fight is complete and they start the next one, so instead I had to wait for them to open the doors and watched the fight from a large tv screen . Again, this is just like any football or baseball stadium you´ve been to where they broadcast the game on tvs while you make a beer and nachos run. So there I am with others who are also waiting to be let in, watching the first bullfight of the evening. Now I knew that the matador stabs the bull, and holds out the red cape and the bull charges the matador and runs through the cape. That was not surprising. What was surprising was I´ve never seen the end of a bullfight. I watched in horror as the entire fight played out. First, 4-6 matadors or ring-clowns like at a rodeo come out to tantilize the bull, disorient it, anger it, chase it around, and even get their shot at stabbing it and marking it with the long knifes with streamers on the end that stay in the animal once they are imbedded in it. After the bull is sufficiently worn and angry and stabbed, these rodeo clowns make way for the REAL matador, the bigshot who is to go head-to-head with the animal. Initially, the matador comes out just with the cape and some long knifes with streamers on the end. And everytime one knife sticks in the bull, the crowd jumps to their feet and cheers on the matador, who takes a bow and turns his back to the bull, as if to show that the animal is completely under his control. Then after planting about 6 of these knifes in the bull, the matador goes to the side of the ring to get his sword. He then teases the crowd a bit, waiving the sword around in front of the bull, taking aim at the bull, but then backing off and just having the bull run through the cape again and again and again until the bull is completely exhausted and hyperventilating. At this point, you already see blood gushing out of the animal. you also notice the animal breathing and shaking and convulsing so heavily that at times it drops to its feet while just standing, but somehow gets up again to fight the matador. Once the matador is ready and feels the bull is sufficiently tired, the matador pulls back his sword like a bow and arrow, and takes aim at the bull´s whithers (the top of his back where his neck and back meet). the bull charges the matador again, obviously tired, but instead of him just running through the red cape, there is a sword waiting for him on the other end. The matador stabs the bull in the back, about 6 inches go deep into the animal. Now blood is being trailed behind the bull as it runs away, but it turns around to face the matador yet again, and again it charges and gets stabbed, and a pool of blood marks his trail. it takes about 3 to 4 times for the bull to be stabbed by the sword before it finally collapses to its knees in pain . At this point, the crowd cheers louder than before, though every time the matador successfully stabs the animal, the crowd is on its feet cheering like someone just made a touchdown or hit a home run. The matador takes a bow with his hands in the air, his sword still sticking out of the animals neck. Then one of the ring clowns walks over to the bull, which at this point is convulsing, and stabs the bull again and again and again in the head until it stops and finally dies. Then, once the bull is declared dead, a team of horses come out with a rope behind them, they lasso the bull, and drag its body around the stadium like a parade, with the matador still being cheered on. the bull is eventually whisked away into the confines of the stadium. Then, a team of maintanence people come out with rakes and cover up the blood and rake the sand so that you don´t see what the animal left behind. The field is evened out and made pretty again, and 5 minutes later, the next animal to be killed is released into the arena, and the crowd cheers and the whole process starts again, taking approx. 20 minutes per animal from start to finish. It by far is one of the worst cases of animal cruelty I´ve ever had to bear witness to, and my heart broke and it brought me to tears watching it. I paid about 50 american dollars to watch this horrific act happen in the stadium, for average seats. better seats could cost over 100 dollars. cheap seats as little as 10. I promised myself I would stay 1 hour. After watching 3 bulls be massacred and tortured in front of me, and watching thousands of people cheering it on, I was completely disgusted to the point of needing to vomit, and I left the arena and made my way back to the city.
There´s not much more I can say about this experience. my stomach turns as I write this, and I feel that I will never be able to get the image out of my head of the bull convulsing at its collapses to the ground, and the blood dripping down its neck and back, pooling under its body.
This experience has definately shown me the ugly side of Spain, and I feel sad to know that people these days know better, but that some customs are so entreched in a society that the obvious is easily overlooked, and things which in any other setting would be abhorable, suddenly become acceptable and even celebrated.