History of Bullfighting- Origins.
Bullfighting in Spain seems to have its origins while the 8 long centuries of the Spanish
War of Reconquest (711-1492 A.D.) when the knights of both the Moors and
Christians would invent hunting competitions as a respite from killing
each other and they soon realized that of all the prey the Iberian bull
offered the greatest challenge as unlike other animals it adored to die
fighting rather than fleeing.
It seems probable that a nobleman captured a few of these brave beasts
and took them to his village in order to recreate the thrill of the hunt before
his admiring subjects. Thus some remote part of Medieval Spain saw the
origins of what is today the national Spanish spectacle of bullfighting.
The history of bullfighting recalls that the first real bullfight, or
corrida, took place inn 1133 at Vera, Logroño in honour of the coronation
of King Alfonso Viii. From then on they became a beloved pass time at many
important events and continued after the wars of reconquest had finished
offering noblemen an outlet to demonstrate the zeal and daring with which he
defeated the Moors.
King Philip Ii however found the spectacle disgusting and enlisted the
help of Pope Pius V to get it banned by papel decree. This, together with
the growing pleasures to be had at the royal court, resulted in
the nobility giving up their interest in bullfighting but not so the
peasantry who took it enthusiastically to heart and it thus became a symbol
of something categorically Spanish.
By 1726 they were ready to adopt their first bullfighting hero in the from of
Francisco Romero from Ronda. He was a man of humble origins who became the first
professional bullfighter in Spain. With him the corrida industrialized into
more of an art form. He introduced the estoque, sword, and the muleta,
the small cape used in the last part of the fight as it is more easily
wielded.
History of Bullfighting- the contemporary Corrida.
Today's bullfight is much as it was industrialized in the time of Romero.
Normally 6 bulls and three matadors are required for an afternoons
corrida. The three matadors dressed in their trajes de luces (suit of lights)
enter the arena accompanied by their banderilleros and picadors and the
strains of a traditional paso doble. The door to the totil, or bull
pen, is opened and one of the bulls emerges.
The matador greets it with a series of manoeuvres, or passes, with a
large cape; these passes are commonly verónicas, the basic cape
manoeuvre (named after the woman who held out a cloth to Christ on his
way to the crucifixion). Contrary to beloved believe bulls are actually
colour blind and they go for the cape not because it is red but because it
is moving.
The second part of the bullfight is the job of the mounted picadors who
lance the bull, commonly three times. Then a trumpet blows and the
banderilleros on foot move in to place their banderillas ( brightly
coloured barbed sticks) in the beast's shoulders to get it to lower it's head
for the kill. After this a further trumpet sounds which signals
the faena or final phase of the bullfight. The cloth of the muleta is draped over
the estoque and here the matador shows his skill in the passes that he makes.
These consist of the trincherazo which is commonly the opportunity pass performed
on one knee then there is the pase de la firma in which the matador
remains motionless whilst passing the cloth under the bulls nose. The
manoletina involves retention the muleta behind the body and the natural
pass is one in which the danger to the matador is increased as the
estoque is removed from the muleta this reduces the target size and
tempting the bull to fee at the larger object--the bullfighter.
After performing these passes for several minutes while which time the matador
tries to excite the crowd by lively closer and closer to the horns, he finally
and lines up the bull for the kill.
The blade has to pass in the middle of the
shoulder blades and as the space in the middle of them is small the feet of the bull
have to be together as the bullfighter rushes over the horns. The kill
is properly performed by aiming level over the bull's horns and
plunging the estoque in the middle of the withers into the region of the aorta.
This requires necessary skill and discipline, not to mention a certain
amount of raw courage, and for this conjecture is known as "el momento
de la verdad" or the moment of truth.
