Only Black Bulls Fight

There has been a little spat via the letters pages of "The Bulletin" regarding bullfighting. It's a subject prone to spats and indeed rather more heat. The editor of the paper defends the publishing of a piece by arguing that it is a cultural facet of life whether people "like it or not". He also says that he has never been to a bullfight.

I have been to a bullfight. I was taken when I was 14. It was in Palma. Nowadays I doubt that I would be allowed to go; bullfighting is for the over-18s or so I understand. When I went it was just the "men" who attended; the females of our holiday party stayed by the pool, not because they weren't allowed to go but because it was decided that this was a man's event. It was a spectacle, no question; it was also grotesque and I wanted the matador to get it in the neck (or elsewhere). I would, should go again. Not because I want to see a bull humiliated and killed or a matador to be gored, but because it is worth observing the event, the crowd, the formality of the ritual and ceremony through more mature eyes; because it is, as the editor rightly points out, a part of the local culture whether we like it or not.

I am neither in favour of nor against bullfighting. Were it to be banned tomorrow though, I would not be in favour. In terms of animal cruelty it is hard to defend, but I defend many things from the self-righteousness of the "ban". Fox-hunting was similarly open to attack, but its outlawing was - in my view - symptomatic of a societal and political culture of banning anything that does not meet with majority approval. Such though, one might say, is the will of democracy. Other cruel animal "sports", dog-fighting for instance, have no defence and are rightly outlawed. The bullfight retains a defence in terms of tradition, but this is slowly being undermined by shifts in opinion. The bullfight may still attract large audiences, but it has been removed from national television in Spain and it has - as was the case with fox-hunting - become more of a political issue. The Zapatero administration is not wildly enthusiastic, but it may well have observed the reaction of Labour's rural England in deciding it is not worth a political fight. There are bullfighting strongholds round the country that the PSOE does not wish to antagonise. There is a further political dimension; as so often it has to do with Franco. The Generalissimo was very much in favour of the bullfight, given its symbolic "Spanishness". There are those who seek to justify a ban by reference to Franco's support. By the same logic Real Madrid should be banned.

The bullfight is not really analogous with fox-hunting though. Sport is a bad word to use, but it is a spectator "sport"; fox-hunting was never that. Bullfighting is also not identifiable with some form of class or demographic, even if its matador roots go back to the nobility. Its very act, while repulsing many, requires human bravery and skill. It is also emblematic. The image of the matador is one of the strongest to be associated with Spain.

You can go to the bullfight here if you wish. The fiesta weeks of Sant Joan in Muro and Sant Jaume in Alcúdia include bullfights. There is still popular support despite the regular protests that appear to be gathering momentum. In Puerto Alcúdia there is a restaurant that is a shrine to the bullfight. Its walls are adorned with bulls' heads and other paraphernalia of the bullring. The owner, Antonio, used to be a bullfighter, a matador. Quite a well-known one, it would seem. He once pressed my fingers into the gore holes in his back. He is proud of his bullfighting past, as the photos and all the rest demonstrate. Though discretion stops me from naming the restaurant, many of you may well know it or may have eaten there, as I have. Antonio has told me that he would like to open a bullfighting school. Was there the interest or demand, I asked. Oh yes, said he. And he would like his small son to follow in the tradition.

When you talk to someone as close to bullfighting as he has been, you come to realise that not only is there the tradition there is also the sense of honour. To be or to have been a matador is an honourable distinction in a country where honour runs deep in the national psyche. You might well argue that there is little honour in slaying an animal, but that is where cultures collide, while the bull itself - hard to rationalise I know - is also granted honour especially if it has fought hard.

To defend the bullfight by reference to culture or tradition can be too simplistic, but that culture does exist, albeit that it is being eroded. It is the culture of the old and increasingly the culture of the new Spain that are clashing over bullfighting. It is a debate into which foreigners should intrude with caution, as it is one for the Spanish to decide for themselves.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Robin Williamson, one-time half of The Incredible String Band. Today's title - this is a line from something by which English singer popular in the late '50s and early '60s?

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