by: Rachel Canlapan

Submitted to: Dr. Arias

El Toro El

Torero En El Estadio

Describe the Spanish cultural event you are going to discuss in your project.

What:

Bullfighting is a national sport and spectacle of Spain they call as corrida de toros in Spanish. It involves a conflict between bull and man that is fought in an outdoor arena according to certain rules and procedures.

Where:

The bullfight takes place in a large outdoor arena known as the plaza de toros. The biggest arena in Europe is the Plaza Monumental de Las Ventas in Madrid, while in the whole world is Plaza Monumental in Mexico City.

When:

This mostly happens during a feria. A feria is usually held in most Spanish towns and cities to celebrate a particular religious feast day. Some ferias such as Pamplona's feria of San Fermin are held on fixed dates whereas others such as Seville's April Fair depend on when a religious feast day falls. Many ferias start and/or culminate on a Sunday. The cities of Madrid and Seville usually have bullfights every Sunday during the whole season and Barcelona has them every Sunday during July and August.

The objective is for one of the matador to kill the toro with a sword. A modern bullfight consists of three tercios. When the bull enters the ring, toreros wave their capes to incite it to charge. Then the picadors administer pic thrusts, which tire the animal and cause him to lower his head. In the second part, the banderilleros come out and puncture in the banderillas on the withers of the bull. This is done to enliven the bull for the final tercio. In the final tercio, the matador holds the muleta in one hand, and a sword in the other. Daring passes at the bull work to dominate the animal until it stands with feet square on the ground and head hung low. The matador must then approach the bull from the front and kill him by thrusting his sword between the shoulder blades and into the heart. A matador's performance requires great skill and courage. Successful matadors will be awarded a massive amount of money and adulation. If the crowd and the President considers the performance as outstanding he may award the matador with 1 or 2 ears or even the los maximos trofeos.

How & who:Matador - expert bullfighter

Toro - bull

TeRcios - parts divided into three

Picador - those on a horse which uses a pic to weaken the bull’s neck & lower its head

Pic - lance used by picador

Banderillos - a torero who works in the team of a matador who places banderillas into the bulls back during the second tercio

Banderillas - short barbed sticks used to enliven the bull for the final tercio

Muleta - a small red flannel cape used in the final tercio

Los Maximos Trofeos - the maximum award a matador can get: 2 ears & the tail of the toro

Why did you choose this particular event for your project? Discuss what intrigued, interested, or surprised you about it.

I originally chose the topic about the feria of San Fermin. However, as I was researching, I was more intrigued about the bullfighting that happens during this festive. I really never had a good picture of what bullfighting is. All I knew about it was that if the bull sees something red it will attack it and the bullfighter has to elude from it.

Bullfighting appealed to me because of the danger and the challenge it has. I found the sport as one of the very hazardous sports ever. As I was searching through the net, I found some web sites showing their opposition to this practice. Most of them were the supporters of animal rights because they are against the killing of the bulls. I was shocked that the goal of bullfighting was to kill the bull in the end because I feel like it is quite inhuman to do so. Still, I do want to see even just one performance of bullfighting just to have the experience of it.Another reason why I chose this because a dance that I really love, the Pasa Doble, is based on bullfighting, wherein the man plays as the bull and the woman is like the muleta, wearing a red dress and being chased after by the bull.

What other information did you gather about this topic from doing research on the topic?

Bullfighting used to be a

sport for the royalty in Spain that served as a commemoration to important events and to entertain their guests.

During the reign of King Philip II, Pope Pius V, appalled at the unconscionable carnage of the bullfights, forbade the practice of the corridas. The people, however, ignored the papal decree and continued to relish the fiesta brava, forcing Pope Gregory VIII to recant the decree.

"the bullfights are in the blood of the Spanish people, and they cannot be stopped without facing grave consequences."

Some of the notable bullfighters

ever:

Francisco Romero

Rafael Molina

Belmonte

Manolete

Bullfighting could not exist without

the Toro Bravo, a species of bull of an archaical race that is only conserved in Spain. Formerly this bull's forebears, the primitive urus, were spread out over wide parts of the world. Many civilizations revered to them, the bull-cultus at the Greek island Creta is quite well known. The Bible reports on sacrifices of bulls in honour to the divine justice. Also in the religious ceremonies of Iberian tribes living in Spain in prehistorical times bulls played an important part.

Los Sanfermines is a festival in Pamplona, Spain observed in honor of San Fermin. People from all over the world go here to experience and see the enjoyment, danger and excitement during this festival. It is a mixture of the official and the popular, the religious and the irreverent, for the people of Pamplona as well as the outsiders, the old and the new, order and chaos. All of this happens only in one week from midday of the sixth of July, ending at midnight on the fourteenth.

The Sanfermines is a fiesta where everyone is equal and in which the festive spirit is never broken. The festival of San Fermin is by far the most renowned event that takes place in Pamplona. People all over the world are shocked or amused when they watch the wonder of bulls running through the streets of the town, chasing after hundreds of young men, usually garbed in white shirts and red belts. Doing this frequently ends in blood and tears.

The San Fermines have always been a special festival but when Pamplona was not yet popular then, the Sanfermines found their most avid fan in the American writer Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway was very impressed by Pamplona's Sanfermines, as by the tradition of bullfighting in general. He even included this event on some of the books he made.

How do you interpret the information you gathered about your topic? Why? How does this information compare to a comparable American cultural aspect?

Though Bullfighting is risky, it is still something that cannot be taken out of the culture of Spanish speaking countries. It is a sport and an art as well. It is something beautiful that can be done depending on the bull and grace of the matador. It proves the daringness of a man to something that is almost impossible to handle. People even consider it as a dramatic ballet dance accompanied with death.

I can not think of any American cultural aspect that is analogous to this event. The best I can think of is the all time favorite sport of Americans, the football. However this is just a national sport, not an art. Both are dangerous still, bullfighting requires more skill on the moves as well as the bull. In here, the opponent, which is the bull, do not have mercy on man and never stops attacking once it is triggered. It is a performance of nature versus man, something that is hard to fight.

What did you learn about Spanish culture from doing this project?Through this project, I have become aware of the

true bullfighting. I believe that it is one of the great things in Spanish culture that shows many sides of their customs: sports, art, people, religion and history. The challenge and thrill it gives the matador as well as the audience is incomparable. The death or otherwise the possibility of death of the bulls may be ruthless but its part of the culture as a sacrifice in honor of the divine justice. It is not all about the bulls, but also the excellence of Spanish people on how they astonishingly control the situation with the bull. Truly it is a great wonder that should really be valued and appreciated.