LES ARENES DE BEZIERS - Aug. 15, 2003
Photos of the 3 bullfighters (matadors):
Pepin Liria, Jesus Millan, Javier Valverde
| On friday August 15, 2003, we went to our first Spanish-style corrida (bullfight). We really didn't know what to expect and to be honest, we were a little anxious as to the outcome, since we'd heard horror stories about bullfights, about the death of the bull... But we had to see for ourselves... Corridas are highly ritualized events where all the participants have a specific role to play, the apex of the ritual being the death of the bull. A corrida is comprised of six bullfights. Each of the six is about 15 minutes long. When you attend a corrida, as we did, you actually see 6 bullfights with 3 matadors - literally the "death-bringer" - (2 bulls each), with all the bulls coming from the same ganaderia (or ranch). Our bulls came from the CEBADA GAGO ranch. The name of the ranch ensures the purity of the breeding lineage and the temperament of the bulls; the most famous ganaderia is MIURA. |
| PHOTO ABOVE - Before the corrida begins, all the participants enter the arena and acknowledge city and Feria officials in order: - the 3 matadors (toreros or bullfighters who will put the bull to death) - behind each matador follow his toreros who help him and protect him if needed, and who will plant the banderillas in the bull's back - then the picadors on horses - and finally the staff with the corrida vets On the arena ground, you can see the ranch brand (in this case, that of CEBADA GAGO) drawn in white clay. |
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The corrida is divided into 3 sections : the opening with the matador "dancing" with the bull; then the picadors come out and pick the bull with a long spear; then the toreros plant the banderillas in the bull's back; finally the faena, the core of the corrida, where the matador tames the bull, the faena ending with the death of the bull. PHOTO ABOVE - The opening section. You can see the matador dancing with a very excited 540-kilo bull, the picadors and the other toreros are watching without participating. The matador's cape, as well as the toreros', is magenta on the outside and yellow on the inside; during the faena, the matador uses a red cape. |
| PHOTO ABOVE - The role of the picador on horseback is to poke the bull on its back to weaken it. However, he can only do it twice and he cannot go past the clay circles on the ground. Part of the difficulty is that he must get the bull to come to him in order to poke it. As you can see here, the bull is a tad upset and attacks the horse. The bull even threw the picador off his horse! The matador and his toreros stand back, way back! After the picador leaves the arena, and once more to weaken the bull, the toreros try to lodge banderillas into the bull's back. Banderillas are decorated woodsticks with a sharp hook - very painful! Each torero gets a set of 2 banderillas, 6 banderillas total per bull. |
PHOTO ABOVE - One torero runs towards the bull with his 2 banderillas.
PHOTO BELOW - Another torero after he has just lodged
the banderillas in the bull's shoulders ...
a little too close for comfort!
| After comes the faena, where the matador really shows his style and his art. A beautiful faena is when the matador mesmorizes the bull, when the bull answers to the call of the matador (Toro, toro, venga!). Below are several shots of the faenas we saw that day, the best one being that of Liria who won 2 ears for his performance. |
Here's a shot of Liria during his faena. Impressive!
And finally, the matador puts the bull to death
by lodging a sword between the bull's shoulders and
puncturing the spine and hopefully the heart
... kinda sad ... and nasty ...
| Having earned 2 ears because of his superb faena, matador Liria does a round of honor around the arena, with his toreros. During that round, people from the crowd throw personal objects at him (fans, bandanas, shoes even), for him to touch and kiss and throw back. |
| All in all, we must say that watching this corrida was not only entertaining but above all instructive. In itself it is a beautiful performance, full of ritual and pageantry, but unfortunately a lot of that escaped us. The bottom line is that the reason for the corrida is archaic and simplistic: one raises bulls just so that they may be killed in an arena. But, as meat-eaters, we must be honest and say that the feelings of repulsion we may have felt watching the bullfight are feelings based in hypocrisy: in so far as we accept that animals are slaughtered in secret, in conditions we can't and don't witness, while feigning repulsion at a public slaughter, which at least dignifies the death. The death is quick and the animal doesn't seem to suffer, only weakens slowly until the matador kills it. Corridas aren't for vegetarians; but even though we thought we were going to witness a bloody slaughter and even if we may never again see a bullfight, we must say that it was worth seeing. |
