Bullfightsculture or sport?

Ses 12

Sports&SocietyXavier Carmaniu Mainadé

The man & the bull, an ancient relationshipSince the prehistoric times

man has had a relationship with the bull (hunting, agriculture).

Games with bulls (Greece).Roman events (animal

fighting).Evidence of events with bulls

during VIII-XI exists:Related to celebrations:

weddings, baptisms... This evolved into bullfighting

by foot and horse.

Modern bullfighting appeared in XVIII (Sevilla).

Fernando VII closed universities but opened bullfighting schools.

XXths was the golden era of bullfighting (above all 1910-1920).

The best “toreros” nowadays are : El Juli y José Tomás.José Tomás is very

popular.

“Tauromaquia” and cultureLament for Ignacio Sanchez MejiasBY FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA

1. Cogida and Death

At five in the afternoon.It was exactly five in the afternoon.A boy brought the white sheetat five in the afternoon.A frail of lime ready preparedat five in the afternoon.The rest was death, and death aloneat five in the afternoon.

Federico García Lorca

Ernest Hemingway, huge fan of bullfighting. Wrohte about them and San Fermín.

Goya, artist from XVIII –XIX, engravings about tauromaquia

Ramón Casas, modernist catalan painter.

Picasso loved tauromaquia

Barcelona, bullfighting cityWas traditionally very popular in Barcelona. It was the only city in Spain with 3 “plazas”

(venues) constructed:El Torín (1834-1923): in Barceloneta. Ramón

Casas (modernist artist) painted many works there. In 1954 a soccer field was constructed for workers.

Arenas (1900-1977): nowadays a mall.Monumental (1914-2011): neo-mudéjar style

(moorish revival) architecture very in-style.

Arenas

Pl. de toros Monumental

Pl. de toros El Torín

La Corrida step by step

El torero and “cuadrilla” (assistants) enter the arena and walk (saltar al ruedo y hacer el paseíllo).

Toro in the “toril” (dark and narrow cage).They stab “divisa” (steel harpoon with the

colors of the ranch).Enter the arena (“sale a la plaza”).Bullfighters are behind a barrier

(“burladeros”).Bull does laps until the “matador” (killer)

appears.

Primer Tercio (picadores): Los picadores (hombres a caballo): pican al toro 3 veces (con una lanza

llamada puya). Esto es peligroso para los caballos (antes no iban protegidos y morían muchos por

las cornadas del toro). La puya tiene 3 centímetros de punta y 11 cms. más de acero (para debilitar al

toro).

Segundo Tercio (banderillas): Banderilleros clavan las Banderillas.

(Palos con arpones de acero (5 cms) clavados a la espalda del toro (para avivar el toro).

Normalmente 4 banderillas en total. El toro va perdiendo sangre.

Tercer Tercio (o tercio de muleta): El matador torea con muleta roja al toro (cuanto más arriesga más aplaude

el público). Al final de esta parte mata al toro. Utiliza una espada de 88 cms que tiene que llegar al corazón del toro.

Cuando el toro cae, se le clava la puntilla (puñal) en la columna vertebral para rematarlo.

Los toreros que hacen buenas corridas reciben las orejas y el rabo del toro. Algunos toros (muy pocos) pueden ser indultados (son toros muy valientes,

pero quedan muy mal heridos).

Los tres tercios:

Tercio de picadoresTercio de banderillasTercio de muerte

Not everyone approves of bullfighting

Criticism of “la fiesta” (bullfighting) started very long ago:Some roman people were against animal torture

(Cicero).In XVI there was a debate reggarding the prohibition

the bullfighting due to its link with anticristianity (was a demonic act, and caused many deaths).

Francisco de Quevedo (big poet in the XVII) criticized animal cruelty.

Felipe V (he was french) considered bullfighting to be tasteless. Aristocrats abandoned the bullfighting but common people still supported it.

In XIX some progressive intellectuals spoke about "Pan y Toros" (as if it were "Panem et circenses” of Rome).

During XX an image of “typical spanish” was created: toros, flamenco. (Specifically in Franco’s era).

For Catalonia, national catalan identity abandoned the bullfighting (even though betwee the last decades of XIX and the first decades of XX was very popular) In the catalan french zone bullfighting is

"catalan identity".