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Published: October 1st 2008
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Sunday, September 14, a lot of the IES group went to a Corrida de Toros. During the two-week-long fiesta of La Virgen de la Vega, there is one bullfight every day. Each bullfight consists of three matadors, who each “fight” two bulls. The three matadors (though they’re actually called toreros) were López Chaves, Antonio Barrera, and Juan Bautista (strangely enough, he’s from France). Well, when we first got there, we were walking around the stands of the bull ring (plaza de toros), and found ourselves looking at the area the animals are kept. In case you didn’t know, there are more than just bulls in a bullfight. There are horses and a few cows. The horses have two uses. Two horses are ridden by the picadores to they can stab the bull easier. Two other horses are used to drag the dead bull out of the ring. The cows are used to lead the bulls from place to place: Around the pen, out of the ring (if the bull gets hurt before he can “fight” with the torero), or wherever else the bull needs to be moved. I find it hilarious how the bulls follow the cows around wherever they go.
Well, pretty girls, single guy, it makes sense. 😊
When the Corrida started, the music began to play and everyone that would participate in the bullfight processed out. The toreros walked out in their crazy outfits (button-down shirt with a tie, fitted pants up to their belly button, a cropped jacket, pink socks, and a funny looking hat that reminded me of Mickey Mouse; both the jacket and the pants had crazy amounts of golden embroidery, appliqués, and tassels). Picadores were on their horses, which were covered with thick, quilted fabric. The banderilleros were dressed up similar to the toreros, but not as extravagant. And finally out came the men-on-horses-who-take-out-the-bull-once-he’s-dead, who, in my opinion, were dressed the best in their 17th century-esque outfits and hats with a feather sticking out.
Then the first bullfight started. Each torero has his own group of banderilleros and picadores, so López Chaves’ five banderilleros came out, and the bull came bounding into the ring (probably led to the entrance by the cows). Each banderillero had a large cape (fuchsia on one side and yellow on the other) they swished around to attract the bull. In this part of the bullfight, the bull has a
lot of energy because it’s been cooped up all day, so it was running around, charging every cape in sight. Sometimes the banderilleros had to jump behind wooden barriers near the walls of the ring to avoid being gored. After a few minutes of running the bull around, came my least favorite part. For the first bullfight, since I had never seen one before, I watched the whole thing, but for the other 5, I had to cover my eyes for this part. The two picadores came out on their “protected” horses, carrying a lance. It is the picadores’ job to stab the bull in the back so that it bleeds, gets a bit angry, and loses some of its energy. Somehow, the bull knew that these guys on horses were bad news, or bulls just have an innate hatred for horses because, every time, the bull charged at those poor horses (did I mention that the horses were blind-folded as well?). The cloth protection on the horses, however, does not prevent the bull from trying his hardest to kill the horse. He thrust his head into the belly of the horse as hard as he could. During the first
Claire, Liz, and Susan
Girls from the IES program who happened to be sitting near Kelsie and me two bullfights, the bull rammed the horses so much that they fell over. That was when I cried. Because the horse is so helpless, and once the horse is down, the bull can continue to try to trample and gore the horse, but the horse has no power to run away. And the picador is trapped under the horse, trying to get the bull away by stabbing it more, which just makes the bull angrier. After awhile the banderilleros finally came to help the horse, and the bull can’t really do much damage, so the horse doesn’t really get hurt, but it’s still really hard to watch.
Now that the bull had a bit less energy (as it was bleeding freely from its back), three of the banderilleros exchanged their capes for two stick-like things that had blades attached to one end. One at a time, the banderilleros charged the bull, stuck their mini-spears into his back, which (if they didn’t fall out) remained in the bull, with the blade in the bull’s back and the stick-part hanging on by a piece of string (I think) so they bounce around while the bulls runs and bucks. That must be painful.
Kelsie and Me
In the Plaza de Toros At this point, the bull was bleeding a lot. So out comes the torero. His cape is the red you all are used to seeing, and he has a sword. The bullfighter gets the highest “score” when the bull follows his “instructions”: following the cape, being close but never touching the cape, and being very close and maybe touching the bullfighter. These bullfighters do some daring things to get a good score. Like get on their knees right in front of the bull. Or turning their backs completely on the bull and walking away from him. After a few minutes of doing daring stunts and flicking his cape around and having the bull follow it, the torero exchanged his sword for a better sword, as it was time to kill the bull (oh, did I not mention that? Yeah, the bull gets killed after every single bullfight, so 6 bulls died that night). The torero put the bull into position with a few swishes of his cape and took aim. He flourished his cape once more, the bull charged, and the torero stabbed the sword all the way up to the hilt into the bull’s back. The bull didn’t die
instantly. He still charged a bit, but as he moved the sword around in his body, he eventually fell over, or crumpled onto his knees. Now comes to the importance of doing well and getting a good “score”. Depending on how much the crowd cheers (as decided by the president of the plaza), the torero gets nothing (not too good at all), one ear (good), both ears (really good), or both ears and the tail (wow that was absolutely amazing). And they cut off the ears/tail off the bull right then and there. That’s the sort of prize anyone would want to keep forever, huh?
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