DESPITE pressure at home and abroad, Spain’s ancient art of bullfighting – it is never described as a sport – is still as popular as ever and plays an important part in Spanish tradition.
Virtually every city, town or village in Spain celebrates its annual fiestas with at least one bullfight.
But there is growing opposition in some regions, where animal rights movements are trying to ban the activity. They face an uphill task.
This week the president of the autonomous government of Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, threw her own cap into the bullring, declaring the fiesta brava to be part of Spain’s cultural heritage and asking Unesco to grant it world heritage status.
“Goya, Picasso and other great artists painted bullfights and bullfighters, and writers like Cervantes, Garcia Lorca and Ernest Hemingway all wrote about corridas de toros,” she said. Yesterday she received support from the Valencian government and from the president of Murcia region.
Catalonia, however, is one area without a deep bullfight tradition, and it is here that the anti-bullfight movement is most vociferous.
The anti-bullfighting movement there has produced 180,000 signatures. One opponent likened the bullfight to clitoral ablation, or the “Spanish tradition of mistreating women”. Another produced an arsenal of bullfighters’ weapons, including the banderillas (darts) and a sword, to show how the bull suffers.
On the pro side, José Miguel Arroyo, a top bullfighter and breeder, argued that the bull lived an idyllic existence for four years and died in less than 20 minutes in the ring.
“It is the most beautiful animal in the world and one of the best treated. The toro bravo is an ancient breed, and without the fiesta nacional it would probably become extinct,” he said.