Death in the Afternoon

On our last day in México City, Enrique and I went to a bullfight. Stephanie didn’t want to go, so instead she went to a museum. Initially I was hesitant–I had gone to three bullfights in Pamplona over the years, and they always had something that depressed me a bit. However, Enrique knows about the bulls, La Mexico is the worlds biggest bullfighting ring, and this was the last Sunday I’d spend in this city at least for a while. So I went. I was happy I did.

I do have very conflicting feelings about bullfighting. Detractors talk about a savage and cruel spectacle, without really pausing to understand history or context. Bullfighting is not a sport. What a bullfight is is the ritual killing of a bull. So saying that you wish for the bull to “win” is like going to mass and hoping that the wafers will win.

Now, after understanding this, it is of course still possible to be very much against bullfighting. It’s cruel and pointless, yes. It’s also beautiful and elegant and full of tradition. And if we are going to talk about animal cruelty, there are other much bigger fights to fight. A bull for a corrida has a pretty happy life, until that last afternoon. They don’t really see humans at all (that’s part of the point,) and they are well fed and free to roam in open spaces. Compare that to your typical cow consumed at McDonald’s. A life spent mostly standing on their own filth, in small spaces, eating antibiotics. Sometimes that life ends painfully too, depending on your local laws and regulations. So if you’ve ever eaten a hamburger or two, cruelty is not really the best reason to not go to a bullfight.

So, “bullfighting is bad” is too simplistic a reaction. I won’t give money to a foundation for the preservation of bullfighting, but I won’t heavily oppose it either. In my case, it would be more productive to become a vegetarian.

Anyway, I went, and took photos. I think there’s an elegant beauty to this ritual. Here is my account of a bullfight:

So that’s what a bullfight looks like. Just to end on a light note, in case the photos depressed you a little bit, here is something I worked on years ago. I did the big effects shot in the middle:

[google-map-v3 width=”0″ height=”0″ zoom=”12″ maptype=”roadmap” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”19.382628, -99.180137{}bullfight.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]