*Disclaimer: This post is about bullfighting. I enjoyed it but others may not. Pictures are not gory but I know some are disturbed by this topic. I encourage you to still read the post and maybe learn something new!
Sunday (May 9) I went to my very first bullfight! It was the Real Maestranza Plaza de Toros de Sevilla. I surprised myself by really loving it! I'll give a brief explanation of what goes down, and what Judy told us about it. There are three parts, about 5 minutes each. The whole thing goes really quickly. From start to end it is only 15 minutes or so per bull. Each torero gets two bulls per bullfight. The whole evening of bullfighting lasted about 2 hours.
It sounds like the bull is being tortured, which I guess I can't really argue, but think of it this way: bulls weigh 1000 pounds and the men are less than 200 pounds, so isn't it extraordinary that a man can learn such art and skillmanship that he can kill something 5x his size?
Watching the torero wave the cape and shout "ole!" for the bull to run through it was just amazing. The bulls sprint SO fast at the beginning. It's crazy the bullfighters don't die. Each section the bulls get more tired and slow down a little. It seems like a very natural process.
Also, bulls live the best lives. They are nurtured as soon as they are born. They graze the fields and can run around as much as they like, very contrary to how most cows are raised (locked in a tiny metal cage?). Lastly, if any of you have ever seen any of the PETA videos that show how animals are slaughtered, they are terrible. Not that PETA endorses bullfighting at all (ha..) but I am starting to be a believer that bullfighting is a good thing!
There are three toreros or matators per day. Each of them fights two times. I went to a "novillero" match, where the toreros aren't full matators yet. They are "novices" to bull fighting. The novices try extra hard to give a good show so the crowd will support them and help them get to a full matador. The novilleros I watched were Paco Chaves, 25; Patrick Oliver (French), 21; and Antonio Rosales, 21.
During his first match, Patrick Oliver got gored by the bull!! He was okay though. It is amazing how quickly the helpers or "ayudantes" come out to distract the bull so he doesn't nudge the torero with his horns.
The whole plaza. It was so pretty. I can only imagine how awesome it would be to go during the Feria when everyone is all dressed up. That would be so cool.
Here are all the toreros in the first line, and then their helpers behind them. They all did a little lap around the bullring at the beginning with everyone on each "team" if you can call it that: the toreros, the ayudantes, and the picadors.
There are three toreros or matators per day. Each of them fights two times. I went to a "novillero" match, where the toreros aren't full matators yet. They are "novices" to bull fighting. The novices try extra hard to give a good show so the crowd will support them and help them get to a full matador. The novilleros I watched were Paco Chaves, 25; Patrick Oliver (French), 21; and Antonio Rosales, 21. 
During his first match, Patrick Oliver got gored by the bull!! He was okay though. It is amazing how quickly the helpers or "ayudantes" come out to distract the bull so he doesn't nudge the torero with his horns. The whole thing happened really quickly: Patrick got tossed into the air by the bull's horns and then landed on the ground and rolled away (as they are instructed to do) and then hobbled off to the corner. The picture that I have is Patrick bent over and the other guys are around him. He bent over for a long time and I thought maybe he was throwing up, but he was probably only on the side for a few minutes until he stood up straight and returned to finish the fight!! It was amazing. I would have been so scared.
The whole plaza. It was so pretty. I can only imagine how awesome it would be to go during the Feria when everyone is all dressed up. That would be so cool.
Here are all the toreros in the first line, and then their helpers behind them. They all did a little lap around the bullring at the beginning with everyone on each "team" if you can call it that: the toreros, the ayudantes, and the picadors. When I got home I looked up the news story online and it actually got bad reviews, haha! After I had loved it so much! I guess the people thought it was boring. There were a lot of silent times during the fight when the toreros couldn't get the bulls to move through the cape. I still thought it was so cool though, and now I really want to go to a real one!
They have bullfighting in Latin America. Maybe someday I will go to one in Mexico City-- the largest bullring in the world!
Bullfighting is part of the final for Culture and Society. We have to memorize the parts and what everyone does. After seeing the corrida 6 times, I think it was a pretty good review for my final Wednesday.
Speaking of finals, one down and four to go! Woo!
Thanks for reading, everyone! sorokeee@bonaventure.edu if you have any questions. :)
Hasta luego!
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