Bullfighting Essay

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A sports spectacle involving conflict between a bull and one or more contestants, fought in an outdoor arena according to certain rules and procedures. Traditionally, the bullfight is a combination of ritual and mortal combat, with an attempt, at the risk of the principal contestant's life, to maneuver a bull gracefully and kill it in a manner both courageous and aesthetically unrepugnant. Although bullfighting is confined largely to Spain and to the Spanish-speaking countries of the Western Hemisphere, especially Mexico, such contests take place also in southern France and in Portugal.

History

Often termed indefensible but irresistible, the spectacle of bullfighting has existed in one form or another since ancient days. For example, a contest of some sort is depicted in a wall painting unearthed at Knossos in Crete, 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. Bullfights were popular spectacles in ancient Rome, but it was in the Iberian Peninsula that these contests were fully developed. The Moors from North Africa who overran Andalusia in AD 711 changed bullfighting significantly from the brutish, formless spectacle practiced by the conquered Visigoths to a ritualistic occasion observed in connection with feast days, on which the conquering Moors, mounted on highly trained horses, confronted and killed the bulls. As bullfighting developed, the men on foot, who by their capework aided the horsemen in positioning the bulls, began to draw more attention from the crowd, and the modern corrida began to take form. Today the bullfight is much the same as it has been since about 1726, when Francisco Romero of Ronda, Spain, introduced the estoque,the sword, and the muleta.

The Spectacle and its Principals

Six bulls, to be killed by three matadors, are usually required for one afternoon's corrida, and each encounter lasts about 15 minutes. At the appointed time, generally five o'clock, the three matadors, each followed by their assistants, the banderilleros and the picadors, march into the ring to the accompaniment of traditional paso doble music. The matadors are the stars of the show and can be paid as high as the equivalent of $25,000 per corrida. They wear a distinctive costume, consisting of a silk jacket heavily embroidered in gold, skintight pants, and a montera. A traje de luces, as it is known, can cost several thousand dollars; a top matador must have at least six of them a season. When a bull first comes into the arena out of the toril, or bull pen gate, the matador greets it with a series of maneuvers, or passes, with a large cape; these passes are usually ver nicas, the basic cape maneuver. The amount of applause the matador receives is based on his proximity to the horns of the bull, his tranquillity in the face of danger, and his grace in swinging the cape in front of an...

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