Ole! Bull Fight in Madrid

This past weekend I went to my first and probably last Spanish bullfight. I forgot to blog about it because the week just got the best of me with midterms and all so I’m writing about it now.

One of my good friends here, Syd, lives right by the bullfighting ring so she bought our tickets ahead of time and we just paid her back which was nice because it was a lot faster to go and know that we for sure had seats. We got the cheapest seats up the highest but it ended up working out because it’s apparently better to be higher up if you don’t see all the gore.

In a Spanish bullfight they end up killing 6 bulls in total and it is a big production. The Matadors also get better with each bull so to have a grand finale I assume or whatnot. I only watched 2.5 bulls, and that was plenty enough. The first thing they do is release the bull and then have it run around. The Toreadors taunt it with their hot pink cape-y things, which the bull seems to be attracted to/aggravated by. Every time the bull runs through or near a cape-y thing the entire stadium yells “Ole!” (with an accent on the ‘e”, I don’t know how to do that one my computer). The Toreadors wear bright neon colors heavily decorated and embroidered. They all wear hats and tights and little black slippers. I saw many lose their shoes and their hats during the show. The outfits were actually really cool and surprisingly flattering. I never would have guessed sequins and neon on a man would look so good. 

Bull Ring/Stadium

After the bull is taunted for a bit, multiple Toreadors try to stab the bull with these red marker thing. The marker is for making a hole in the bull’s back that will eventually be where the Matador stabs a sword into it.

Toredor getting the bull all fired up. Note the blood

After at least one marker (they usually have multiple) is stabbed into the bull this guy riding a horse comes around and starts to stab the bull where the marker is to make the hole bigger. The horse is super armored up (as it has to be just in case a bull rams into it or something, which happened while I was there) and blindfolded and I saw it actually fall over and I didn’t think it would get back up because the armor looked so heavy. This is the part were the bull really starts to bleed.

Then the Matador comes out into the center of the ring and does a slow twist around the stadium taking his hat off and bowing for applause from the crowd. The Matador is the most skilled of the Toreadors from what I witnessed and like I said above, it is his job to stab a sword all the way into the bull where the hole was made. I’m assuming that the sword goes into the bull’s spinal cord and this is what leads to the bull’s eventual death. Anyways, before he Matador sticks the sword into the bull he make him run around him very closely and makes a big show of it. Everyone yells “Ole!” which each successful attempt at making the bull run by the hot pink cape

Matedor, notice the fanciness

dragging off the first dead bull, this took only a few seconds and I found it to be morbidly quick

Taunting the bull

The horse guy

you can see the red markers in this one

getting ready to put the sword in its spine

Me at the Bull Fight

The first Matador we saw was obviously not very good because the bull actually ran him down to the ground and was ramming his horns into him. It was quite frightening. I was actually scared he might be seriously injured and after witnessing this my friend Tyler decided he had to leave because it was just too much.
The Matador ended up being fine and they killed the bull successfully. I don't think the bull ever wins. After the bull is stabbed with the sword he is run around for a bit and then he eventually falls over and they stab him in the head with a small sword or something (I was too high up to actually see) and then he dies. Then they cut off his ears (some type of spanish tradition) and drag him away quickly with this horse drawn cart thing. It's all pretty morbid. Then they just grate the sand of all the blood and start with another bull.
It was definitely an interesting experience but I think one time was enough. I'm glad I went though because bull fights are already starting to be outlawed in parts of Spain (they are no longer allowed in Barcelona) so it may be the end of an era.