The outside of the Plaza de Toros in Seville. Interesting fact #1: it's the oldest bullfighting ring in Spain.
A statue of Curro Romero, a famous torero from Seville. He was a professional bullfighter for 42 years and participated in almost 900 bullfights. In 1997 the Spanish government awarded him a medal for his achievements in the fine arts. Umm... what? I know art is subjective but I don't know if bull slaughter is comparable to painting.
We got our tickets, went inside, found our seats, and waited a few minutes for the show to start. There were a good number of people there, both tourists and Spaniards. After the bullfight started, you could easily tell who the Spaniards were because they were the only ones who knew what was going on. Also they were much less likely to be hiding their eyes.
What has two thumbs and is ready to watch all kinds of gruesome deaths? This guy!
Now, a real Spanish bullfight is very different than you'd think. It's not one bull and one matador: there are actually six bulls and three matadors, each of whom has six assistants. The matador doesn't kill the bull in just one blow: the bull is actually stabbed many times before its death. I'll describe the structure of a bullfight below, using my pictures.
Part 1: The bull runs out, and immediately charges at the matador and the banderilleros (assistants with pink capes) who take turns waving capes at it. The purpose of this stage is to tire out the bull and to allow the matador to observe the bull's behavior (which side it favors, how it acts, how fast it can run, etc).
Part 2: Two men on horseback (called picadores) come out with lances. This is where things get bloody: each one takes a turn stabbing the bull in the back of the neck. If they hit the right area, the bull's neck muscles will weaken significantly and it will hold its head lower for the rest of the fight, making things safer for the matador. When they stab the bull, however, the bull always charges the horse they're sitting on. The horse is wearing protection (a massive mat-type cover), but it's still definitely painful for the horse and uncomfortable to watch.
Interesting fact #2: before 1930 the horses didn´t have any protection, and the bull would usually disembowel the horse at this point in the bullfight. Gross. The number of horses killed during a fight was actually higher than the number of bulls killed.
Part 3: Each of the three banderilleros stick (or attempt to stick) two sharp knives into the bull's shoulder. They tempt the bull into running at them, hold the knives up straight up, and then jam them down as they dodge out of the bull's way. This further weakens and angers the bull, who at this point has lost a significant amount of blood.
The best picture I have of this stage, alas. The man on the right is holding two of the knives and you can see one (they're very brightly colored) in his right hand.
Part 4: The matador re-enters the ring with the famous red cape and a sword. He uses this cape to attract the bull in a series of passes that serve to exhaust the bull and delight the crowd. It ends when the matador maneuvers the bull close enough to him that he can stab it through the shoulder blades and into the heart. The ideal end to this stage is immediate death for the bull, but we unfortunately didn't see one.
If the matador has performed very well, the crowd will wave white handkerchiefs to suggest that he should be awarded an ear of the bull he has just killed. If the performance was exceptional, he will get both ears. As for what you do with a bull ear once you get it, exactly, is beyond me. Make it into a necklace? Bronze it and put it on the mantel? Throw it away because it is a BULL'S EAR and that is disgusting?
Interesting fact #3: It's a common misconception that the color red is supposed to anger the bull. In fact, bulls are color-blind: they just go after movement.
Just before going in for the kill. Poor little bull, I'm not squeamish but he's super bloody.
After everything is over, a team of horses drags the bull away and a bunch of men come out to quickly clean the arena for the next horrific killing.
Bullfighting is an interesting cultural experience, but I will certainly never go to another one, for the following reasons. 1.) I just really, really don't like watching things die. Seeing as there are six horrible deaths every bullfight, this probably isn't the form of entertainment for me. 2.) Unlike other sporting events, the result of a bullfight is always the same: dead bull. There's no way that the bull can possibly survive, which is no fun at all. All I am saying, is give bulls a chance. 3.) I'm a Taurus. That means those are my astrological brethren out there being killed. 4.) My favorite basketball team growing up was the Chicago Bulls. Would you want Michael Jordan to get stabbed in the back six times for someone's viewing pleasure? I think not.
In conclusion, don't go to bullfights.