Feria Taurina de Olivenza

Two weekends ago my friends and I went to a festival in a nearby town, Olivenza, that marked the beginning of the the Bullfighting season in Spain (Feria Tuarina = Festival of the Bulls). Like any other Spanish festival it involved alot of eating and drinking in the streets. The most important part, however, was the bullfight. The festival lasted 4 days, and there was a bullfight each day. In each bullfight there were three toreros (bullfighters) and six bulls, and each torero fought two bulls.

We tried to get tickets to one of the fights, but it was completely sold out. We left, but then came back about an hour into the fight just to see if we could buy tickets from people who didn't use the tickets they had already bought. Instead of watching the bull fight we saw something much different.

When we walked up to the bullring we saw a large crowd of people standing outside of the doors. We didn't know why they were standing there waiting, but we soon found out. There was a knock on from the inside of the bullring, then police began to push the crowd to the sides. The doors burst open, and three horses ran out, dragging a dead bull out of the ring. The children ran over to the bull and tried to pull out the banderillas (the long, colorful things with a sharp end that are used to weaken the bull). The children who got the banderillas were really excited. Then, the bull was lifted with a machine into a truck, where butchers were waiting to butcher the bull for everyone to see. They used axes and huge knives, and you could see the blood spraying all over the walls of the truck and the men. Yuck! We had no idea that they butcher the bulls right outside of the ring. It turns out that watching the butchering of the bulls is almost as fun as watching the bullfight. The amusing part was that the outside of the truck had a cartoon of a smiling bull, but inside the bull was in pieces, and i don't think it was happy...

Bull with banderillas

Cayetano Rivera

Though I really didn't like watching what happens after the fight, I still want to see a bullfight. It's been a large part of the Spanish Culture, and I think it would be worthwhile to see once. I have heard many different opinions of bullfights since being in Spain; some people saying it is a disgrace, some saying it is extremely important to Spanish Culture, and some saying they are indifferent. While I was studying in Granada, people talked about the artistry and beauty of the bullfight, which is interesting to me, so I'd like to see one to be able to make my own opinions. Also, I think the traje de luz (the outfit that the torero wears) is beautiful, and toreros have a stereotype of being super guapo and manly! Nowadays, toreros have become huge celebrities and are viewed as sex symbols, as can be seen in the ad for Loewe's cologne. So, the bullfight interests me more because of artistic and fashion side, rather than watching a man fight and kill a bull. There will be bullfights in Badajoz during the Feria de San Juan in June, so I will probably go to see one then.