The GCW Tour, Spain & Morocco: San Fermin, Day 3, aka, At Least Six Animals Were Injured in the Making of this Blog Post

Since the balcony scene was cancelled, today's entertainment boiled down to catching up on sleep (very nice) followed by the evening's bullfight.

Bullfights, like most blood sports, are currently a topic of much political dispute. Hence, the mostly naked protesters gathered around the arena before the first run, as well as the recent referendum in Catalonia that outlawed the sport. For now, though, the Spanish are sticking to,the cultural importance argument, and so bull fighting continues.

From my perspective, the are two incontrovertible truths. First, everything dies. Working to prevent bullfighting doesn't "save" the bull, it just changes the when and how of its death. Second, good, bad or indifferent, humans rule this planet, and don't really interact well with other species. Thus, the alternative to bullfighting isn't some return.to nature where the bull gets to roam free over endless pastures until it dies of old age, it's castration, a brief life as part of modern industrial ranching, followed by an eventual bolt to the brain. Well, that or extinction. Given my assumptions, I'm willing to consider that five years on a ranch being left to its own devices, followed by twenty-five minutes trying to gore the people that are annoying you with capes or stabbing you with swords and spears, may not be the worst option from a bull's perspective.

So, bullfighting. I can't really say I understand it, or that it makes much sense to me as a cultural practice. I asked the woman at the bullfighting museum how it got started and what it's supposed to "mean," and had no idea what I was asking. For her, bullfighting just is.

For those who don't know, here's the basics of a bull fight. The matador leads a team of people: four or five with capes, two on foot with short, fuzzy, hooky, speary things, two on horseback with long spears, and himself. Each bullfight has three teams that will face two bulls each. Each of the bulls faces the same basic process:

1. The bull runs out into the arena and looks impressive. 
2. The four guys with the capes are spread around the arena, and start using their capes to get the bull's attention causing it to run the length of the field numerous times, tiring in the process.
3. After the bull has run around for a few minutes, the guys on horseback come out and one of them has to stab the bull twice with his spear.
4. When that's done, the horse guys leave and the two capeless pokey short spear guys come out. Their job is to run up to the bull and jab it with their spears until,he has at least four, sometimes six, of the decorated spears hanging from his back.
5. Now the matador comes out and does his Sasha Baron Cohen impersonation, getting the bull to chase after his cape. Once he believes he's convinced the crowd of his bravery he trades his fake sword for a real sword. He engages the bull again and tries to stab him in the back over the top of his head. If the bull dies, we're done. If the sword stays in but the bull keeps moving, the matador gets a second sword and stabs him through the side killing him immediately. And if the first sword falls out of the bull, the process starts over with a new sword.

There's probably a more precise way to describe all that, but that's basically what the niece and I saw. 

And here's what I thought:

1. This is a lot like watching a really good magician with a really bad audience. The bull is always looking in the wrong direction. Why chase the empty cape? Aim for the skinny, breakable legs that don't move much.

2. The game is totally stacked in the human's favor. Occasionally things go wrong, but when they do the rules are changed. So, for example, after a couple of horses got killed during a bullfight, they changed the rules so the horses get wrapped in armor.

3. All the Matadors really do look like they're doing Sasha Baron Cohen impersonations, which makes it really hard to take them seriously.

4. The danger in a bullfight isn't really the it's the humans and chance. Accidents happen, and people often choose to do really dumb things, and sometimes those combine to produce terrible results. 

All things considered, I'm glad I saw it once. But I wouldn't bother to go to a second one.