"Death in the Afternoon"

Ernest Hemingway, in his book of the same title, talks about the tradition of bullfighting in Spain. We were fortunate enough to have been able to attend a bullfight, or corrida de toros, at the bullring Hemingway was referring to in his book, the Plaza de Toros de las Ventas, in Madrid, a few days ago. Our longstanding plans were foiled when the day's bullfight was cancelled due to some local city event, but we were able to secure some tickets for the corrida the next day, October 3rd. These were scalper tickets, and were not great seats, though.

I know that there is a lot of controversy around bullfighting, even among Spaniards. Barcelona is now formally an "anti-taurine" city. Far from me to judge other cultures, as a traveler, I think it is important to see with unbiased eyes, to fully appreciate what is out there, rather than try to judge other races with my, and my country's standards. Even worse is the person who already has strong opinions about something he has not seen or experienced firsthand. Within the realm of common sense, of course. The world is just too small a place for that. These little differences make the world an interesting place. While there are these differences, in the end, there are more things that unify us. Well, that is just my opinion and this is, my blog.

Bullfighting is dangerous. Sebastian Castella, the matador pictured above, and who, as you will see, was honored for his performance that day, was gored during last year's San Fermin festival, and also back in 2004. His bravery was even more impressive for this reason, as most matadors, once injured, tend to take less chance in the ring, if they ever fight again.

The bull is quite the opposite, however. Once the bull has been in the ring, it becomes too dangerous to use again. It will, almost always, attack and likely kill the matador. As Hemingway tells the story, this was true a few hundred years ago in a small town too poor to afford a new bull for each bullfight. The used the same bull repeatedly, and over a course of two years, it had wounded or killed more than 50 people. This led to bullfighting being banned altogether in Spain, until it was resolved to let the bull fight only once. Thus, the bullfight is meant to be "the first meeting between man and beast."

Well, enoough of that. Here is an excellent, concise wiki article on the subject. Isn't there anything that has not been wikified?


Here are some photos from that day, on my flickr. You may want to click on the "show info" tab on the upper right hand of the slideshow to see the comments.

Lastly, this is not meant to be a social commentary on bullfighting. So please refrain from making any political or activist comments as there are more appropriate forums for that. They will be deleted. Thanks.