Sangre y arena

I felt like I was at a baseball game. We hopped on the metro and stood in line to get tickets for the cheap seats. There were people selling snacks at little stands with umbrellas and we stopped to buy a coke and some peanuts. I might as well have been wearing my Mauer jersey. Except that I was in Madrid and going to my first bull fight.

Stephanie, Liz and me at the bull fight

 Let me start by saying I was expecting to hate bull fighting. My language exchange partner had told me that I wasn't going to like it. My host mom said she thought we would find it ''interesting'' but that we would probably not return. And I have heard stories of other American students who left in tears. Mostly I was worried for my roommate Liz, who doesn't enjoy the idea of dead animals (and is afraid of meat on a bone). Nonetheless I was excited. I was experiencing a huge part of Spanish culture!

sol y sombra

SPOILER ALERT: I am going to describe the corrida de toros, the bull dies at the end.

First all the picadores, banderilleros, and toreros entered the ring in a procession. They began to warm up while we admired their outfits and began to pick out which ones we thought were ''good.'' A bugle is blown and here comes the bull! The banderilleros, who are essentially the torero's assistants, begin to test the bull by waving bright pink capes. Then the picadores enter the ring. Picadores are two men on horseback whose job is to begin to weaken the bull by stabbing it in a particular place on its back. This part was sometimes hard to watch because the bull would ram the horse continuously while it was being stabbed. The horse was blindfolded and wasn't reacting. We wondered if the horses were sedated, an idea that was later confirmed by a google search.

After the picadores, the banderilleros came back into the ring. Their job was to stab two sticks, called banderillos, into the back of the bull. They would run at the bull, jump, stab, and run away as fast as they could. Sometimes they would start to approach the bull, get scared and run away as fast as they could. It was pretty funny to see them running for their lives and jumping the fence to get out of the ring. After the banderillos were attached you could clearly see the blood coating the sides of the bull.

bloody bull with banderillos on his back

 Now it was the torero's turn (torero is a more commonly used term than matador in Spain). The torero walked to the middle of the ring, lifted his hat, and tossed it. It was go time. The pink capes were replaced with a red one and no one else was in the ring. The next few minutes were filled by passes of the cape and a very tired bull. The torero stabs the bull behind its neck (sometimes twice or more if necessary). Sometimes the sword would even go all the way in and you couldn't see the handle. After the bull fell, the banderilleros would come out and make sure it was dead. Then the horses would come out and drag the dead body across the ring leaving a trail of blood. I didn't find these last two steps to be necessary or fun to watch so we usually covered our eyes while the Spaniards stood and cheered.

There are three toreros in every corrida de toros, each kills two bulls. We were not a fan of the second torero (we called him ''Greenie'' because he was wearing green) because he was dragging out the bullfight. We wanted him to put the bull out of it's misery but he wouldn't. When he finally went for the big stab it didn't go so well. The bull knocked Greenie to the ground. I couldn't look away as he was trampled by the bull. Eventually he stood up and could hardly walk. His front side was covered in blood (shame, those suits are made of gold and I bet that stain doesn't come out!) He eventually killed the bull and even returned for his second fight which shows how important pride is in the bull fighting tradition.

I had a lot of fun at the bull fight and I can see how it became such a big part of Spanish culture. But I do know that I am not cut out to be a bull fighter so I can check that off my ''what I want to be when I grow up'' list.

This weekend I am off to Cordoba and Granada for a hopefully less-bloody class trip.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Animals were harmed in the making of this blog post.

Fui a mi primera corrida de toros el domingo. Yo estaba nerviosa porque muchas personas me han dicho que es difícil ver especialmente porque no soy de España. Pero quería ver una tradición muy importante en la cultura española. Entonces fui con mis compañeras de cuarto. Los movimientos entre el torero y el toro son como un baile, es muy rítmico y hay una coreografía. A mí me gusta la corrida de toros salvo algunas partes. En mi opinión, es triste que los caballos de los picadores estén sedados. Puedo entender la razón pero es triste porque ellos no tienen ningún idea de lo que está pasando. Otro parte que no me gusta es cuando los banderilleros aseguran el muerte del toro después del toro cae. Y cuando los caballos arrastran el cuerpo del toro a través de la corrida podía ver la huella de sangre. No vi esos partes de la corrida pero me disfruté mucho la experiencia.