La Corrida

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this is a long but (i hope) fascinating one...

In my Asia blog this summer I made a joke about ‘finding myself’ or returning having changed in my very core, as so many hippy-dippy sorts claim they do.

Although my views on Western travel changed, as did many of my ideas about ‘development’ it was only jokingly that I noted how many new (fairly gross) things I had eaten/done. Well, this last Thursday has shown me that although my morals changed for the better in terms of the people of this glorious earth, my views on what animals can be eaten/gruesomely killed for sport have obviously changed even more dramatically. Farewell to squeamish Katy, BRING IT ON!!

And so it was with great relish that I found myself sitting (in the prized shade) with Mum two thirds of the way up the bleachers in the Plaza de Toros de Real Maestranzas. I was feeling quite nervous, more out of not knowing the way it worked or how I was supposed to act, than worried about the gore (I guessed that yelping as pikes and swords pierced flesh wasn’t a good idea so kept my mouth firmly behind the cushion I had bought to sit on). Watching big Mafiosa families file in, laughing and joking like they were at a Sunday BBQ and listening to the brass band fine-tuning was enough to start getting me excited…you can’t help but be caught up in the carnival atmosphere (as it happened it was a festival day in Spain, and the Corrida was a special event for this and the retirement fight of a famous Matador).

Mine and Mum’s jumpiness was soon shocked into stillness as the band exploded into a medieval-esque fanfare, announcing the arrival into the ring of the Matadors and their crew of horsemen, correadors (runners, like lesser matadors that use pink cloaks to wind the bull up in preparation for its death at the hand of the matador) and mules who have the pleasant job of dragging the bull out by the horns once it has surrendered to the sand. As you can imagine girls, I was rather chuffed to see that it’s not only in the promotional literature that the matadors’ very toned lower halves are tightly clad in Lycra, and it can be said that it was from this moment that I fully relaxed - when I realised that no matter how bad the ‘fight’ got, there would always be a pleasant view I could focus on 😉 and they say footballers have great legs…

Anyway! Back to the matter in hand. Once they’d all paraded around and got a good cheer from the crowd, it was time to get serious, quieten down (death by evil glare and a unanimous sssshhhhhhh… from your neighbours is the punishment if you utter a word during the Corrida itself, which I’ll assure you we didn’t!) and wait for the first bull to enter…

My first sight of the bull shocked me, I hadn’t quite realised just how enormous the animal would be. The phrase ‘built like a brick s**thouse’ (excuse the French) came to mind immediately. How on earth would a measly man be able to survive a merry dance with that???? I was soon to see as three correadors began by catching the bull’s attention one at a time with their pink (and yellow on the underside) cloaks and encouraging it to run at them, only to swerve their bodies out of the way at the last moment and swish the cloak over the head of the increasingly infuriated bull. This went on for about five minutes in which time we saw a number of correadors having to leap the wooden barrier when the bull got a little too close for comfort or losing their capes to the bull’s horns. Another fanfare signalled that this first part was over. As the correadors kept the bull occupied, two medieval looking horses came out with riders holding long wooden poles with a solid metal spike on the end (rather like a jousting rod) and took up position, one at the back of the ring, and another at the front (in front of the fight master who sits up in a gallery). When the front horse is positioned correctly in relation to the bull, about 2 metres away…horse side-on to the bulls head…the rider makes eye contact with the bull and provokes it to slowly but very firmly charge into the horse’s side while the rider thrusts the spike into the neck/upper back area of the bull. The aim of this part is to try and anger the bull with the blunt pain of the spike but also to hold it away from toppling the horse, whilst constantly controlling the horse and giving it the willpower to withstand the bulls (fierce) pressure. I didn’t understand about this part until I had seen it 3 or 4 times so you can imagine how my heart plummeted when the first horse was knocked flat over (and the rider too) by the bull. The bull has to be spiked two times in each Corrida before the band starts up again to announce the next section. I was pleased and amazed to see that after the first horse fell (and rose to walk off uninjured), all of the other horses managed to (just) withstand the bull and let their riders get the two jabs in.

As the horses trot out of the ring, out come the correadors again to get the bull charging again. In this part, once the correadors have got the bull in the right position, fairly central, the matador does a little tiptoe dance about 10metres from the bull, maintaining eye contact as he raises two brightly coloured spikes in a cross above his head. When the matador is sure he has the attention of the bull, he gives a loud yell to provoke it into charging at him and then he too himself launches himself at the bull…just before they meet the matador simultaneously leaps into the air alongside the bull and sinks the spikes into the bulls back. If the matador manages to get the sticks in and get out of the bull’s way in a stylish manner the crowd erupts into a clapping and ‘ooooh’ frenzy. Then as abruptly as the cheering starts, it finishes as the next matador prepares to take his turn, and so on until 3 runs have been had and six spikes are firmly imbedded in the bull’s back with their tissue paper covered sticks bouncing off it’s side. Note by this point you can see a fair bit of shiny blood trickling down the bull’s middle. The bull however, even by this point when he’s been jabbed more than I’d ever put up with, doesn’t seem to notice whatsoever that he’s got these things daggling off him (apart from one who seemed more irritated by them than in pain and started bucking to try and stop what looked like his dreadlocks from hanging down in his face). That reassured me lots to realise that actually, with all the firm muscle and thick skin they have (these bulls are super prime-bred quality), they hardly even feel these pinpricks, and it is the being run in circles that annoys them more.

So now, about 15 minutes have passed since the beginning of the Corrida, and the last 5/10 minutes are for the Matador to come on and do the real dodging and showing off with his red cape. He also holds a thin sword at first that he uses to help hold out his cloak when he’s swishing it around the bull. The aim here, which I managed to cotton on to after 3 or so corridas, is for the matador to get the bull to go around him, as close as possible in 5 consecutive turns and then turn the bull back on himself for one last turn in the opposite direction. After the third or fourth turn the crowd starts going ‘oooh’, ‘oooh’ with each turn and if the matador holds the bull’s concentration until the final turn the crowd erupts again into clapping, while the matador turns his back on the bull to receive his applause. (Yes! He turns his back on this beast less than a metre away from him!! Talk about arrogance huh?? Hehe..no, its just that the bull is unlikely to charge as long as the red cape is not flapping away in front of his face, and here matador is very careful to sweep it up out of the way).

So after this next to final act of daring, the matador exchanges his thin sword for a thicker, shinier one (ah, men and their toys huh?) and begins the last part of the Corrida by doing a couple more turns of the cape until the bull again is in a good position for the master of the Corrida to judge it’s end…and then, the part that I had been very nervously waiting for…the crowd is silent…you can hear everyone’s hearts beating as if they’re watching and waiting for the last penalty kick of the world cup final…and then, with eyes locked on each other, the matador raises his sword high and with a final small charge from the bull, plunges the sword up to the hilt between the animal’s shoulder blades, all the while remembering to leap up around the bull to avoid getting gauged himself. Another cheer goes up if the sword is inserted properly. If not, like one we saw that only went in about 8 inches and then hung off the bull, the crowd started muttering and almost booing, because it’s extremely bad sportsmanship not to kill the bull quickly. People don’t want to see the bull suffer a long death, and only those matadors that finish the Corrida quickly and cleanly are given a real hero’s cheer.

In three of the corridas the bulls swayed after this last wound and wobbled to the ground in about 30 seconds, which the crowd viewed as acceptable and a final cheer would go up, along with the waving of white handkerchiefs if overall they were pleased matadors performance in the Corrida. In another one, the matador obviously got the sword in just the right place because within a couple of seconds the bull was coughing blood into the sand and he toppled over in about 15seconds, very quick, and the crowd were impressed. More cheering. There was little cheering however in the first fight we saw (and believe me, we nearly walked out) because it took the matador a couple of attempts to get the bull down with his sword and even then the bull lay writhing on the ground until the official finisher-offer (what a job) came over with a dagger and pummelled the bull’s brain and spinal cord to put it out of its misery. And it was just our luck that this first one was positioned on our side of the ring, just a few metres from our feet. I have rarely seen my mother on the verge of crying or vomiting but by the end of that she looked like she might do both…and it took all of out yoga deep breathing techniques to calm ourselves ready for the next one.

Finally, at the end of each Corrida it is decided by the master of the fight if the matador deserves to win a prize for his bravery or not. Tokens work as so…very good fight, one bull’s ear (freshly cut off the dead bull), extremely fabulous fight, two ears, and outstanding, out of this world example of machismo, two ears and the tail!! In total three lots of one ear were handed out and the matadors strutted around in a lap of honour waving their precious bit of black furry cartilage. Lovely. I’m putting one of those on my next list to Father Christmas.

And so it’s with a final oompapa from the band that the matadors, correadors and horsemen come out and receive their applause before everyone leaves the ring and the bulls are eagerly received on platters below in the restaurant. Quite a delicacy I hear.

So…with the sun almost set, mum and I filed out of the plaza not quite sure how we felt. All I know is that I had a huge huge buzz inside that told me I had seen something special and weird and wonderful and just a bit gross. It wasn’t until we were free of the bullring and wandering the streets near Sevilla’s cathedral that we started to relax and actually talk about the spectacle we had just witnessed. And what children we became! ‘Oh my god, do you remember that bit! And this bit! Oh! And when that civilian nutter jumped the barrier and charged at the bull with a red coat and a stick, and would have been minced meat if it hadn’t been for the correadors and security men manhandling him out!!’ (Yes, that DID actually happen after the fourth fight…possibly the scariest bit of the evening…could have been really ugly..even though mum thought at first it was a clown! hehe).

And it was over the bottle of delicious Rioja and plate of Iberico ham and cheese that we found ourselves consuming on the pavement in Santa Cruz (one of Sevilla’s oldest and prettiest neighbourhoods), that we started smiling and saying thank god we’d been. To see such proud animals live up to their reputation and go down blazing, and to see such an infamous Spanish custom.

What an Experience…

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Photos

outside the plaza de toros
mum, are you psyching yourself up for what we´re about to see??

Bull vs. Horse
once the rider has held the bull back with the spike for a good 15/20 seconds, the correadors attract the bulls attention away from the horse again with their capes.