Bullfighting Essay, Research Paper

Bullfighting is a tradition, art and athletic sport combined in one.

Bullfighting originated in the classical world. The first bullfights supposedly

took place in Knossos, Greece, ?a contest of some sort is depicted in a wall

painting unearthed? dating from about 2000 BC. It shows male and female

acrobats confronting a bull, grabbing its horns as it charges, and vaulting over

its back.? (Encarta) Bullfights stayed popular after the Greek era had

declined, in Rome. The spectacle of bullfighting during this time period was

scarcely an art form but pure sport. It was not until the Moors of North Africa

conquered the Visigoths of Europe in 711 AD that bullfighting started to evolve

into an art. The Moors would ride skilled horses on feast days on which they

killed the bulls. During this time period, when the Moors were redefining

bullfighting, there were those bullfighters that rode horses and killed the

bulls but there were also those men who stood on the ground with capes. The men

that wielded the capes aided the horsemen in how the bull was positioned during

the fight. These men began to draw most of the attention from the crowd due to

their expertise and craftsmanship with their capes; these men eventually became

the matadors of 2 today. With this development, a corrida de toros (?the

running of the bulls?) began to take the shape in which it is seen today as

modern bullfighting. In 1726 Francisco Romero of Ronda, Spain fit the last piece

into the bullfighting puzzle when he introduced the estoque (the sword) and the:

?The muleta [bullfighting cape]? a Spanish cloak, and you can even see it

being worn at times, if rain falls, by fighters off duty? It is nowadays made

of two thicknesses of heavy silk, the outside being blotting-paper pink and the

inside generally yellow. It is very strong.? (Machnad 58) The modern sport of

bullfighting is strictly an art form, having evolved from its origin in ancient

Greece and firmly taken its roots mostly in Spanish speaking countries. Bulls

used for bullfighting are a special breed of animal and their lives and breeding

reflect that fact: ?This Spanish fighting bull is a long way removed from the

Hereford or the Jersey, or even the Texas longhorn. You can let cattle run loose

on the open range for generations until they are complete ?outlaws?, but

they will never turn into what the 3 Spanish call toros bravos or fighting

bulls. The reason is that the race is different.? (Machnad 5) There are two

races of cattle native to Spain, one domestic and the other wild. The domestic

animals came over by land from Asia and were already domesticated by the Celts.

The other race came by sea from Northern Africa and was being thoroughbred in

ancient Egypt at that time. These latter animals were only barely domesticated

and began to roam the Spanish mountainsides wild. This fighting bull is called

Bos Taurus Africanus. This bull is a descendant of Bos Primigenius or the

Primordial Bull. Some of these Primordial Bulls survived in herds in the German

forests and were hunted by men such as Julius Caesar who said, ?In size they

are a little less than elephants; in species, colour and shape, they are

bulls.? (Machnad 5) Most bulls that enter the ring with the bullfighter are at

least four years old, one year older than those bulls in the slaughterhouse. In

the eyes of the spectator, the last twenty minutes of the bull?s life are what

matters. The fighting bull lives the life of peace in nature until it is time

for the fight, having the best pastures and rations of food than that of its

cousins, the domesticated cow. Calves are born in the winter and suckled by the

mother until just after the second summer of the calf?s life. At this point

the calf is separated from the mother and branded shortly thereafter. When the

calves reach a certain age they are put through a rigorous bravery test. This

test, called a tienta, consists of most 4 everything in an actual bullfight

minus the banderillos and the kill. Experts determine which calves will become

fighting bulls by grading ?the animal?s attitude, style, speed, smoothness,

nervousness or calmness, nobility and mode of going for the cloth lures,? (Machnad

41) After the bull has matured he is put into a traveling box and taken to his

final destination. The unboxing of the bulls is a very tense moment for all

involved because the bulls may be ill tempered and be feverish with swollen

feet. After this, the bulls rest and are prepared for the fight. In the

bullfight itself, the matador has many different moves in his arsenal along with

weapons that he uses to survive and to dispatch the bull. One of the basic

passes that the matador uses is called the veronica, which is the basic pass

with the cape. This move as with all the passes takes an immense amount of

practice. Another pass is the pass of death, which is a swing of the cape when

the cape is held out and spread wide by the estoque. A derechazo is a pass where

the matador attempts to regulate and direct the charge of the bull. This

particular pass deals with the distances between the animal and the bullfighter,

requiring a lot of skill for knowing the temperament of the animal. The matador

will walk steadily into the path of the bull shaking the cape the entire time

until the bull passes under the cape of the moving matador. This pass requires

nerve, skill, and timing. The Pase Por Alto is a pass in which the Spanish

phrase ?Parar, templar, y mandar? has originated, coined by Pedro Romero.

This phrase means planting the feet, slowing 5 down and smoothing out the

bull?s charge, and dominating the bull and controlling it?s path,

respectively. These are some of the basic passes of bullfighting. An experienced

matador would also add more complex, artistic and beautiful passes such as the

manoletina, the arrucina, and the afarolado. ?The most dramatic of the cape

passes is the larga cambiada. The man kneels, swirls the cape out on the sand in

front of him, and holds onto the corner with one hand. When the bull charges,

the matador waits until the animal is about six feet away, then flips the cape

over his head. As it flares out, it changes the bull?s direction so that

instead of passing on the man?s right side, it goes by on the left. It can be

highly exciting, beautiful, and dangerous. The problem is knowing the exact

moment to swing the cape.? (Conrad, Barnaby 52) As in many sports each

bullfighter has his or her own superstitions about thing pertaining to and

things not pertaining to the sport which in the end affect the outcome of the

bullfight. The obvious immortal of bullfighting is Pedro Romero who is said to

have perfected the art of bullfighting. Chronologically speaking, Francisco

Romero would have to come first. Francisco Romero was a 6 great bullfighter in

his own right but he is best known and remembered for inventing the estoque and

the muleta and being the grandfather of Pedro Romero. Pedro Romero is the

unchallenged ruler of all that is and was modern bullfighting: Pedro Romero is

the Homer of bullfighting: first in time and still unchallenged in supremacy.

Grave, hieratic, with the air of a judge and the face of an aristocrat as Goya

depicts him, he made it into a science and an art, and laid down the classical,

imperishable norms of how to dominate a wild bull with a piece of cloth. No one

has ever departed from those norms except to his own physical cost and to the

detriment of the art.? (Machnad 107) Beginning in 1771 and continuing until

his retirement in 1799, Pedro dispatched about 200 bulls per season. He did this

using the receiving method, which is nearly obsolete today due to its difficulty

and danger to the matador. However, Romero was a master also of the attacking

method newly invented at the time by Costillares. Pedro Romero was coaxed into

the ring one last time at the age of eighty. He, without the facilities of a

younger man, dispatched and killed all of the bulls that fell to him. Pedro died

at the age of eighty-four and when it came time to bury him; there was not a

single scar to be found on his body. Then there were others like El Chiclanero

who was a braggart that loved the firewater and the 7 ladies. Uneducated except

in the ways of the bullfight he was loud and quarrelsome and fit the stereotype

of the bullfighter of his time period to a tee. He came from a small town named

Chiclana, which was also the hometown of Francisco Montes, the foremost disciple

of Pedro Romero. His actual name was Jose Redondo and he was the best of his

time. There have also been many other greats such as: Rodolfo Gaona, Armillita (Ferm?n

Espinosa, 1911-80), and Arruza, of Mexico; and Belmonte, Manolete, and Antonio

Ordo?ez, of Spain. All of this is the art of bullfighting. Bullfighting has

evolved from a raw adrenaline sport ancient Greece to a worldwide art form in

modern times. There are many techniques and many traditions. The clothing and

the weapons along with the respect for the animals and the courage and grace of

the bullfighters.

All about Spain. Corrida de Torros. 17 April 2000.

?Bullfighting.? Encarta Encyclopedia. CD-ROM. Redmond: Microsoft, 1996.

Conrad, Barnaby. How to Fight a Bull. New york: Doubleday, 1968. Conrad,

Stanley. Bullfighting Reference Material. 17 April 2000.

Hemingway, Ernest. Death in the Afternoon. New York: Scribner, 1960. Hemingway,

Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner, 1954. Machnad, Angus. Fighting

Bulls. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1959. Michener, James A. My Lost Mexico: The

Making of a Novel. Austin: State House Press, 1992.