Bullfighting

This past week, many new things were unfolding in Valencia. The beginning of primavera (spring), the unveiling of the fallas, and the commencement of the bullfighting season. The corrida de toros, bullfight, has been a tradition in Spain for centuries. Not knowing much about the event or the history behind it, I decided to check one out with an open mind. Needless to say, the three-hour event left an intense curiosity about the tradition, its cultural relevance, and the fierce debate surrounding it.

Bullfighting started as a small tradition of competition between knights in Medieval Spain. The Iberian bull is known to be the fiercest animal of the wilderness surrounding the battlefields in Spain. Often weighing over 1200 pounds (600 kilos!) and having a provocative anger, they were seen as a noble animal to fight and when beaten, brought the challenger praise and honor. The tradition spread and since then, blossomed into a form of artistic entertainment.

So what exactly happens in a bullfight? There are three matadors, killers, in each fight, and each matador fights two bulls. A corrida is separated into three tercios, each setting the bull up to a different challenge.

First, in the tercio de varas, the lancing third, the bull faces a lance on horseback dressed in armor. As the bull charges, the lance stabs a long spear into the bull's neck, causing the first open wound.

 Tercio de Varas

The next part is the tercio de banderillas, third of flags, where banderillos plant two barbed batons into the bull's back.

Tercio de Banderillas

The final stage is the tercio de muerte, or third of death. This is when the matador enters the ring and fights the bull with a red cape. The bull charges closely past the matador many times, becoming more and more enraged at its taunter. 

Finally, at the end of the stage. the matador thrusts a long sword into a specific spot through the spine of the bull and pierces the heart. At this moment, if done correctly, the bull will soon fall.

The Crippling Blow, or Estocata

For each matador, two bulls are slaughtered. Each fight, six bulls die. In a week, over 50 bulls are killed, and in one season, hundreds. Where does the dead bull go? Immediately after its execution, the bull is dragged across the street to a butcher's and made into top-quality steak right away. Six half-ton animals must provide a lot of steak.

The main animal rights issue focuses on the torturous killing of each animal. Bred to be large and strong, these bulls spend their lives being trained to fight. Over a half an hour, the bull is pierced seven times, facing numerous taunting matadors, made to run throughout the entire stadium while losing blood, and finally killed in a spectacle for entertainment. Bullfighting as a blood sport has already been banned in most countries, including the U.S., and faces controversy all over Europe.

As an art, however, the bullfight seems like a dance between a man and a beast. The matador must be skilled enough to have a steady stance and move fluidly to please the crowd. He must move the cape in a sweeping motion, just enough to draw attention from his body, while directing the bulls charging past inches away from his torsos. Fear has to be put away, as a bull would readily impale a shuddering man; instead, the matador looks into its eyes and holds dominance over the beast with human intelligence and grace.

Humane or not, the spectacle was interesting to say the least, and I'm glad I attended and learned just one more thing about this crazy country and the history of the people who live here.

The Mid-Fallas Post

It is now Wednesday morning, 4:17 am, and I finally have a chance for a quick update.

What is Las Fallas? Las Fallas literally means "The Fires" in Valencian. The five-day festival is centered around each neighborhood or plaza creating its own ninots, together which make over 350 statues constructed with paper mache and plaster. Each day of the week has its own purpose to either set up, commemorate, celebrate, or burn the building-sized creations. Also, every day processes in a similar schedule:

08:00 - La Despertà: The Wake-Up Call. A parade of fireworks accompany a brass band while marching through the city, creating incredibly noise to rouse the city.

14:00 - La Mascletà: Sound Fireworks, aka Deafening Explosions. Each day since March 1st, there is a daily ritual of a sound fireworks show in the Plaza Ayuntamiento. Instead of it being a display of color, it is a display the sound. The fireworks are set off rhythmically to sound like "music" and reach incredible earth-shaking volume. Every day shows the work of a different pyrotecnic while thousands of people gather to see and hear it, often offering roaring applause to the best and the loudest.

01:00 - Castillo de Fuegos Artificiales, the Castle of Fireworks. Every day of the week, a firework show is performed after midnight in the riverbed Turia.

Among this daily routine, the days lead up to the eventual peak: La Cremà. On Friday, March 19th, every falles except for the best one will be filled with explosives and lit on fire. The streets will then become open-air nightclubs, as all of the residents of Valencia pour outside to celebrate the cremation of the statues.

So far, there are explosions everywhere. Firecrackers are handed to small children like candy, and massive booms have nearly become normal. As part of Spanish cultural exploration, we saw a bullfight at the Plaza del Toros, ate churros con chocolat while sipping horchata, and threw a couple fireworks ourselved. At night before the firework shows, we walk around the city centro through avenues adorned with hundreds of thousands of lights. The entire city shuts down; people don't work, students don't have class, everybody is just happy throwing firecrackers at each other and enjoying the crazy festival. To say the least, Las Fallas is a shitshow. After going hard for the past week already, my night is relatively early (before sunrise) and trying to rest up for the few crazy days to come.

Back from Barça

So a semi-uneventful week ended with an extremely eventful weekend!

I spent the most of last week being enferma (sick). I've still got a bit of a cough left over but the most of last week was going to class, sleeping a lot, and enjoying the beautiful weather (sunny, 70, with a bit of wind).

But on Friday morning, we embarked via hella-expensive Renfe train to Barcelona! Just another dingy hostel, but what a beautiful ciudad (city)! First of all, not knowing Spanish is enough. But in Barcelona, Catalan is spoken everywhere. From appearance, it looks like a mash-up of Spanish, French, and Italian. Spoken, it's uninterpretable. While the language is interesting, the city streets are even more of a wonder. The carrers (street in Catalan) are littered with incredible Gaudi architecture. We visited Gaudi's masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia. The enormous cathedral, conceptualized over 130 years ago, is one of the most unique buildings I have ever seen.

Among other touristy things we did, my favorite was climbing to the highest point in the city, the top of a big hill in Park Guell. The 360 degree view from the top was more than I have ever seen before, and the photos don't do it justice.

 Among amazing sights, there was also amazing food. We walked through a market, had the best gelato of our lives, and feasted on the sights of fresh fruits and delicate chocolates throughout.

On Saturday night, we all gathered for a mini-botéllon in a nearby park and headed to Camp Nou, the largest fùtbol stadium in Europe belonging to the best team in the world, having held the winning La Liga title for 3 years and the Champions League for last season, FC Barcelona. We got the worst seats but still had an incredible view to the Barcelona v. Málaga game. Barcelona won, 2-1. Amazing stadium, amazing victory. Go Barça!

Besides the incredible sights, we did endure a few bumps along the way. Our hostel, despite the incredible location along Passeig de Gracia, was absolutely shit. They only had bedding and towels for an extra charge, and stacked twelve beds in each large but drafty room. Needless to say, we spent most of the night out on the clubbing avenue La Rambla or climbing up to the top of Park Guell for a midnight view of the city. Also as Barcelona is well known for the pickpockets, a few members of our large group were robbed. They catch you off guard, appear to be friendly and strike good conversation with you in English. They ask where you're from, try to relate to whatever place and distract you for a good time to reach into your back pocket and take your belongings. For anyone who wants to visit Barcelona, beware the pickpockets.

So far since I've been back, it has been the start of something new in Valencia: Las Fallas! The festivities started on February 28th, and go all the way until March 19th. Every day, there is a marching band wakeup call to the city at 8am. There is also a daily enormous fireworks display which they call La Mascleta, occuring unusually promptly at 2pm. The fireworks are incredibly loud, reaching up to 120 decibels, and thousands of people gather every day to see and hear the commotion.

As Fallas draws closer and closer. the streets are starting to light up with signs and decorations. I look forward to March 15th when all the falles (constructed statues) are finished, and the 19th when all but one are burned in the ceremony called La Cremà.

Hasta luego!