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Bullfighting in Malaga
Bullrings in Malaga
-
Plaza de la Malagueta - opened in 1876, capacity
14,000 spectators
-
Plaza de Ronda - opened in 1785, capacity
6,000 spectators
- Algarrobo - opened at the end of the XIX century , capacity
3,000 spectators
- Antequera - opened in 1848, capacity
8,200 spectators
- Benalauria - capacity 5,000 spectators
- Benalmádena
- opened in 1968, capacity 3,600 spectators
- Carratraca
- opened in 1878, capacity 3,000 spectators
- Coín
- capacity 4,000 spectators
- Cortes de la Frontera -
capacity 1,000 spectators
- Estepona - opened in 1972,
capacity 8,000 spectators
- Fuengirola - opened in 1962
- Gaucín - capacity
6,000 spectators
- Marbella - opened in 1964, capacity 9,500
spectators
- Nueva Andalucía - opened in 1968
- Torremolinos
- opened in 1968
- Vélez-Malaga - opened in 1894,
capacity 5,000 spectators
History of Bullfighting
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 (rapier) and the
muleta (small, more easily wielded worsted cape used
in the last part of the fight).
Bull fighting: The Spectacle
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 5 PM - the three
matadors, each followed by their assistants, the banderilleros and the picadores, march into the ring to the accompaniment
of traditional paso doble (“march rhythm”) music.
The matadors (the term toreador, popularized by the French
opera Carmen, is erroneous usage) are the stars of the show.
They wear a distinctive costume, consisting of a silk jacket
heavily embroidered in gold, skintight trousers and a montera (a bicorn hat). A traje de luces (“suit of lights”),
as it is known, can cost several thousand pounds; 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 verónicas, the basic cape maneuver
(named after the woman who held out a cloth to Christ on
his way to the crucifixion).
The amount of applause the matador receives is based on
his proximity to the horns of the bull, his tranquility
in the face of danger, and his grace in swinging the cape
in front of an infuriated animal weighing more than 460 kg
(1,000 lb). The bull instinctively goes for the cloth because
it is a large, moving target, not because of its color;
bulls are color-blind and charge just as readily at the
inside of the cape, which is yellow.
Fighting bulls charge instantly at anything that moves because
of their natural instinct and centuries of special breeding.
Unlike domestic bulls, they do not have to be trained to
charge, nor are they starved or tortured to make them savage.
Those animals selected for the corrida are allowed to live
a year longer than those assigned to the slaughterhouse.
Bulls to be fought by novilleros (beginners) are supposed
to be three years old and those fought by full matadors are
supposed to be at least four.
The second part of the corrida consists of the work of the
picadors, bearing lances and mounted on horses (which are padded in
compliance with a ruling passed in 1930 and therefore rarely
injured). The picadors wear flat-brimmed, beige felt hats
called castoreños, silver-embroidered jackets, chamois
trousers, and steel leg armour. After three lancings or less,
depending on the judgment of the president of the corrida
for that day, a trumpet blows, and the banderilleros, working
on foot, advance to place their banderillas (brightly adorned,
barbed sticks) in the bull's shoulders in order to lower
its head for the eventual kill. They wear costumes similar
to those of their matadors but their jackets and trousers
are embroidered in silver.
After the placing of the banderillas, a trumpet sounds signaling
the last phase of the fight. Although the bull has been weakened
and slowed, it has also become warier during the course of
the fight, sensing that behind the cape is its true enemy;
most gorings occur at this time. The serge cloth of the muleta
is draped over the estoque, and the matador begins what is
called the faena, the last act of the bullfight. The aficionados
(ardent fans) study the matador's every move, the ballet-like
passes practiced since childhood. (Most matadors come from
bullfighting families and learn their art when very young.)
As with every maneuver in the ring, the emphasis is on the
ability to increase but control the personal danger, maintaining
the balance between suicide and mere survival. In other words,
the real contest is not between the matador and an animal;
it is the matador's internal struggle.
The basic muleta passes are the trincherazo, generally done
with one knee on the ground and at the beginning of the faena;
the pase de la firma, simply moving the cloth in front of
the bull's nose while the fighter remains motionless; the
manoletina, a pass invented by the great Spanish matador
Manolete (Manuel Laureano Rodríguez Sánchez),
where the muleta is held behind the body; and the natural,
a pass in which danger to the matador is increased by taking
the sword out of the muleta, thereby reducing the target
size and tempting the bull to charge at the larger object—the
bullfighter.
After several minutes spent in making these passes, wherein
the matador tries to stimulate the excitement of the crowd
by working closer and closer to the horns, the fighter takes
the sword and lines up the bull for the kill. The blade must
go between the shoulder blades; because the space between
them is very small, it is imperative that the front feet
of the bull be together as the matador hurtles over the horns.
The kill, properly done by aiming straight over the bull's
horns and plunging the sword between its withers into the
aorta region, requires discipline, training, and raw courage;
for this reason it is known as the “moment of truth”.
Source: Microsoft Encarta
More information:
Mundo Taurino - Since 1995, the Internet's premier independent
guide to the world of bullfighting,
a virtual library of all things taurine.
PETA
- Bullfighting: A Tradition of Tragedy - An alternative
view of bullfighting from the well known animal rights organization, PETA.
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