Bullfighting

Bullfighting or tauromachy (Spanish toreo, corrida de toros or tauromaquia; Portuguese tourada, corrida de touros or tauromaquia) is a sport that involves, most of the time, professional performers (generally called in Spanish toreros or matadores) who execute various formal moves with the goal of appearing graceful and confident, while masterful over the bull itself; these maneuvers are performed at close range, concluding (in Spanish-style bullfighting) with the death of the bull by a well-placed sword thrust as the finale.

Styles of bullfighting

At least three distinct styles of bullfighting are practiced in Spain, France and Portugal. The "classic" style of bullfighting which comes to most peoples' minds, where the bull is killed, is the form practiced in Spain and many Latin American countries.

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Spanish

Spanish-style bullfighting is called a corrida de toros (literally a "running of bulls", the name being derived from the past participle of the Spanish verb correr, "to run"). In a traditional corrida, three toreros (also called matadores or, in French, toreadores) each fight two out of a total of six bulls, each of which is at least four years old and weighs up to about 600kg. Each matador has five assistants — two picadores ("lancers") mounted on horseback, and three banderilleros. Collectively they comprise a cuadrilla or team of bullfighters.

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The corrida is highly ritualised, with three distinct parts or tercios. The participants first enter the arena in a parade or paseíllo to salute the presiding dignitary, accompanied by band music. The ritual is a key factor, for example: The oldest matador goes to the far left, and the newest will be in the middle. And if a matador is new in the Plaza, where the bullfight is taking place, he will do the "paseíllo" without his hat on.

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Next, the bull enters the ring to be tested for ferocity by the matador and banderilleros with pink and gold capes. In this first stage the behavior of the bull is observed by the matador by the way the bull behaves in the arena, how he attacks the capes. Then the matador goes and confronts his rival. He needs to stop the running of the bull and leave it, as close to the center of the ring as possible. And if he performs with art and courage, he will be rewarded with an ovation.

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Then two picadors enter the arena, armed with lances or rejones. Each is mounted on a heavily armoured and blindfolded horse of extremely large stature. The bull is encouraged to attack the horse, which is well protected by its armour and generally treats the attack with stoic patience. The picador stabs the bull with his lance to weaken it, often leading to a considerable loss of blood on the part of the bull. The idea is to weaken the bull, and to damage his neck and shoulder muscles so he lowers his head and horns, making it possible for a matador on foot at the end of the bullfight to attempt to stab the bull with a sword between the bull's shoulder blades. The audience often objects to excessive use of the lance, as this is seen as making the fight too one-sided.

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In the next stage, the suerte de banderillas ("act of the banderillas"), the three banderilleros each attempt to plant two coloured, harpoon-pointed sticks (banderillas, literally "little flag") on the bull's flanks. These further weaken through loss of blood the enormous ridges of neck and shoulder muscle which set fighting bulls apart from ordinary cattle, while also frequently spurring the bull into making more ferocious charges. The placing of the banderillas is also the last chance to correct or fine tune the charging tendencies of the bull. Some of the more skilled matadors will often do this themselves.

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In the final stage, the suerte de matar ("act of killing"), the matador re-enters the ring alone with a small red cape or muleta in one hand and a sword in the other. Having dedicated the bull to an individual or the whole audience, he uses his cape to attract the bull in a series of passes, demonstrating his control over it. The red colour of the cape is a matter of tradition, as bulls are actually colour blind. There are a number of distinct styles of pass, each with its own name. For instance, the veronica is a pass in which the matador slowly swings the cape away from the charging bull while keeping his feet in the same position. The faena is the final series of passes before the kill, in which the matador with a muleta attempts to manoeuvre the bull into a position to stab it between the shoulder blades and through the heart. If this fails he must then cut the bull's spinal cord with a second sword, killing it instantly. The task of killing the bull is given to the matador alone; his title means literally "killer".

Related Topics:
Colour blind - Veronica

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Very occasionally, a bull will be allowed to survive a fight as an indulgence or indulto granted in recognition of an exceptional performance. Such bulls are generally retired from competition, as their experience in the ring makes them extremely dangerous opponents.

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While most bullfights take the form described above, occasionally mano-a-mano ("hand to hand") contests are held in which two matadores fight three bulls each.

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Barcelona came out a few years ago with a complete ban of all kinds of bullfighting in the Catalunya region as a signal of advancement and distinction along with the coming of the International Forum of Culture, and, after voting, was declared an Anti-bullfighting City - during a public event in front of Barcelona City Hall. Bullfighting has also been banned in the Canary Islands.

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Other lesser spectacles

• The rejoneo — A rider on horseback (a rejoneador) tries to stab three colourful javelins called rejones de castigo on the bull's back and in the final stage, kills the bull with a lance called rejón de muerte.
• The encierro — A "running" of the bulls in the streets, in which youths compete to outrun the charging bulls. Originally, it was the moving of the bulls from the pen to the plaza. The most famous are those of Pamplona in July.
• The Toro de la Vega in September at Tordesillas. A bull is carried to an open terrain by the river. There a crowd (on foot and on horse) tries to kill it with lances.
• The vaquillas (sokamuturra in Basque) — A young cow is freed in a small ring (often built and dismounted for the festival period) among local youths who tease her. The cow may have a dangling rope to recover her.
• A Mediterranean variation is placed on a dock. When youths are cornered, they jump to the water.
• Another variation is the nightly toro de fuego ("fire bull"). Balls of flammable material are placed on the horns, frightening the bull. Nowadays the bull is substituted by a runner carrying a chassis on which fireworks are lit. Dodgers run to avoid the sparks.
• Comedy spectacles, such as El bombero torero y los enanitos toreros ("The bullfighting fireman and the bullfighting dwarfs").
• The recortadores (similar to razeteurs in France) — Where a bullfighter dodges around the bull and does not use a cape or sword http://www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2005/06/20/1119250922406.html. Bulls are not killed during this type of bullfight. Most specialists of bullfighting of this art come from Aragon.
• Before the diffusion of modern sports premises, bull rings were used in the Basque Country for challenges of resistance running. Public betted on the number of laps the runner could make. No bulls are involved.

French

Since the 19th century Spanish-style corridas have been increasingly popular in Southern France, particularly during holidays such as Whitsun or Easter. Among France's most important venues for bullfighting are the ancient Roman arenas of Nîmes and Arles, although there are bull rings across the South from the Mediterrannean to the Atlantic coasts. A more indigenous form of bullfighting is widely propular in the Provence and Languedoc regions, and is known alternately as "course libre" or "course Camarguaise". This is a bloodless spectacle (for the bulls) in which the objective is to snatch a rosette from the head of a young bull.

Related Topics:
Southern France - Whitsun - Easter - Provence - Languedoc

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The participants, or razeteurs, begin training in their early teens against young bulls from the Camargue region of Provence before graduating to regular contests held principally in Arles and Nîmes but also in other Provençal and Languedoc towns and villages. Before the course, an encierro – a "running" of the bulls in the streets – takes place, in which young men compete to outrun the charging bulls. The course itself takes place in a small (often portable) arena erected in a town square. For a period of about 15-20 minutes, the razeteurs compete to snatch rosettes or tassels off the bulls. Afterwards, the bulls are herded back to their pen by gardians (Camarguais cowboys) in a bandido, amidst a great deal of ceremony. The star of these spectacles are the bulls, who get top billing and stand to gain fame and statues in their honor.

Related Topics:
Camargue - Arles - Nîmes - Cowboy

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Although the course Camarguaise does not end in the death of the bull, it is at least as dangerous to the human contestants as a corrida. At one point it resulted in so many fatalities that the French government tried to ban it, but had to back down in the face of local opposition. The bulls themselves are also fairly small ones, much less imposing than the adult bulls employed in the corrida. Nonetheless, the bulls remain dangerous because of their mobility and impressive, vertically formed horns. Participants and spectators share the risk; it is not unknown for angry bulls to smash their way through barriers and charge the surrounding crowd of spectators.

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Portuguese

The Portuguese now practice a type of bloodless bullfighting which is in many respects different to its original form. A Portuguese corrida de touros has three main events:

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• Horseback fight (Rejoneo) - A rider, dressed in traditional 18th century costumes fights the bull from horseback. The horses are Portuguese Lusitanians, specially trained for the fights. These horses are usually skilled in dressage and may exhibit their art in the arena. The purpose of this fight is to stab three or four bandarilhas (small javelins) in the back of the bull. Horseback bullfighters are usually members of old aristocratic families.
• Bandarilheiros - Akin to the Spanish matadores (see above), but without the sword. These men simply play the bull with a red coat.
• Forcados - The forcados are a group of eight men who challenge the bull directly, without any protection or weapon of defense. The front man provokes the bull into a charge to perform a pega de touros (bull catch). The front man secures the animal's head (usually it is a violent choke) and is quickly aided by his fellows who surround and secure the animal until he is subdued. Forcados were usually people from lower classes who practice their art through amateur associations.

The bull is not killed in the ring and the fight is accordingly referred to as a "bloodless bullfight". After these three sets, the bull is removed from the arena alive and is sometimes killed, away from the audience's sight, by a professional butcher. More often than not, many bulls are entered into other events, such as rodeos in California, or released to pasture until their end days. Nevertheless, tradition was so strong at the small town of Barrancos, where the bull was illegally put to death in the arena, that the government was forced to relent and permit the town to follow its ancient matador tradition and kill the bull in the arena. There are many forms of traditional, popular bullfighting in Portugal, differing from the "official" version, some of which involve groups of people doing a tug-of-war with young bulls, by holding large wooden structures into which the animals charge. In the Azores, bullfighting is often remniscent of the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, in which those most at risk are human beings, not the bulls themselves.

Related Topics:
Barrancos - Pamplona

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In Portugal, some bulls have their horns severed in a way that they do not present sharp points. This practice is believed to have been introduced by King Joseph I of Portugal after a tragic event in a bullfight he was presiding. The son and heir of the Marquis of Marialva was fighting a bull on horseback when the animal wounded his horse. The young man fell, was kicked by the bull and killed. The Marquis himself, then around 70 years of age, jumped from the royal cabin that he shared with the king, drew his sword and killed the animal.

Related Topics:
Joseph I of Portugal - Marquis

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Also in Portugal, the main stars of bullfighting are the cavaleiros, as opposed to Spain, where the matadores are the most prominent bullfighters.

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Bullfights are not accepted in some parts of Portuguese society, as it is in some parts of Spanish society, and to that extent, has seen a decline in the number of spectators in those sectors. However, southern regions such as Ribatejo and Alentejo, and the Azores are traditionally more interested in the corrida de touros, than Portugal's central and northern regions, where it has little presence. Part of this decline is traceable, for good or bad, to the homogenization and uniform moral subjectivity of European culture and ethical standards.

Related Topics:
Ribatejo - Alentejo

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Tamil

An South Asian form of the sport is called Jallikattu. It is practiced in villages in the Indian state of Tamilnadu. In contrast to certain better known European forms of bullfighting, the bull is not killed intentionally.

Related Topics:
Jallikattu - Indian - Tamilnadu - European

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Usually several unarmed matadors are in the ring at once. The aim is to subdue the bull and collect the prize from the bull's horns. The bulls used in this form of the game often intoxicated, but have sharpened horns and are larger than European breeds.

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