BULLTORTURING DOES NOT END TODAY IN CATALONIA

BULLFIGHTING IN MEXICO

Some people around the world will be very happy to read that bullfighting is ending today in Catalonia. Unfortunately the same parliament that voted to ban bullfighting in Catalonia voted in favour of correbous in Catalonia which means that bull torture will continue in Catalonia.

People around the world must know that the reason why bullfighting has been banned in Catalonia is because it is a way to look different to Spain. I am not saying that all the Catalan politicians were just wanting to look different to Spain and did not worry about the rights of the animals but it is very strange you ban bullfighting and you do not ban the correbous. What are the correbous?The correbous are bulls (bous) that run (corren) through the streets of some towns. Sometimes they put fire next to their horns so that at night, the bull and the fire create an unforgettable image. It is obvious that not civilised country should allow this. Besides it is torture that anyone (children, for example) can see because it happens on the streets.

So I just want to point out that I am disgusted. I am disgusted because this ban is unfair. It bans the killing of the bull but it does not ban the torture of the bull. And the only reason for that is that bullfighting is associated worldwide with Spain and correbous is seen as a tradition in some Catalan towns.

Needless to say the tradition of Catalan bullfighting in Catalonia is older than the existence of Catalonia or Spain. The reason why this ancestral tradition is banned now in Catalonia is just because this old tradition happens to be also a tradition in other parts of the peninsula.

I remember some decades ago that in a class we talk about bullfighting and a quite Catalan nationalistic student supported the bullfighting. If you take into account that the bullfighting is something that goes into hundred and hundred and hundreds of years ago you may have some respect for a tradition and not just ban because it looks too Spanish.  The bullfighting is so much a tradition of this lands in Catalonia as other lands in the Iberian peninsula and elsewhere. It is part of our wild heritage.

By these words I am not saying that I support current bullfighting and the torture of animals. What I am just saying is that bullfighting has been banned in Catalonia for a wrong reason (just to look different to Spain when in fact bullfighting is prior to the existence of Spain or Catalonia!) If bullfighting and correbous were had been banned at the same time then I would have nothing to say against this measure.

So now, we won’t have any more animal torture in Barcelona because the torture looked “too Spanish” but we will continue having torture with the correbous in some towns of Catalonia. So, what has happened in Catalonia is not a case of animal protection but of just banning a tradition who smells Spanish and protecting a tradition who smell more Catalan.

While we have correbous in Catalonia the ban on bullfighting in Catalonia won’t be seen by me as a symbol of civilisation but as a symbol of  just wanting to look different to Spain. In Afghanistan some talibans broke some old budas.

My solution to all this would have been similar to the Portuguese one: to maintain correbous and bullfighting but without killing the bull and without putting the fire on the horns and I would add without torturing the animal. A tradition that is much older than the existence of Catalonia or Spain should have been respected. And as it is obvious that the tradition is not civilised nowadays it should have been adapted to our times. Some Catalan nationalism has not shown respect for the old heritage of Catalonia and has preferred to infuriate Spain than respect an ancestral tradition. If they had not banned correbous because no bull is killed then it was enough they had banned the killing of bulls in bullfighting but not bullfighting as a whole.

Let me end by saying that fortunately in Catalonia some politicians have really cared about bulls and are against bullfighting and correbous too. This people and the people who, on the contrary, support correbous and bullfighting deserve my respect. Those who do not allow torture in Barcelona but allow torture in the south of Catalonia (where the correbous more often take place) don’t deserve my simpathy because they seem to me not to care really for bulls (correbous suffer torture) and at the same time are banning a tradition in Catalonia that is an ancestral one and prior to the existence of Catalonia or Spain and their quarrels.

Related articles

• The Masterpiece of Miquel Barceló (trenhoteleuropa.wordpress.com)
• Last bullfights in Spain’s Catalonia before ban (sfgate.com)
• Last bullfights in Spain’s Catalonia before ban (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Last bullfights in Spain’s Catalonia (cbsnews.com)
• Spain’s Catalonia region staging final bullfights (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Spain’s Catalonia region staging final bullfights (sfgate.com)
• Spain’s Catalonia Region Staging Final Bullfights (foxnews.com)
• Bullfighting to end in Catalonia (bbc.co.uk)
• Barcelona to stage last bullfight before ban (msnbc.msn.com)
• Spain: Catalonia Bullfights Enter Final Weekend Before Ban (worldwright.wordpress.com)

GOODBYE TO BULLFIGHTING

Image by victorillen via Flickr

This is the last weekend of bullfighting in Catalonia. I wonder what will happen now with LA MONUMENTAL. It would be nice if they open it to the public. I would be happy to visit it. Until now I have not visited it because I do not like bullfighting. I still do not understand that Catalan politicians ban bullfighting but not correbous. That makes no sense.

The poster of Miquel Barceló for this last corrida is a marvel.

Related articles

• Miquel Barceló’s posters for Barcelona’s final bullfight create collector frenzy (guardian.co.uk)
• Fleeing Bullfighter Arrested For Cowardice [Bullfighting] (deadspin.com)
• Protest bullfighting as French cultural heritage (our-compass.org)

THE MASTERPIECE OF MIQUEL BARCELÓ

In some days bullfighting will end in Catalonia. This should be a good news for the people against the bullfighting. The sad thing for me is that the Catalan politicians, (some of them) who voted against bullfighting had no problem to support correbous in Catalonia (in correbous they put sometimes fire next to the horns of the bull) So do not think that in Catalonia we love animals more than in the rest of the Spanish State. The bullfighting in Catalonia has been banned in order to look different to Spain. If the Catalan politicians truely were worried about the suffering of the animals they would have banned also the correbous. But it seems that for some Catalan politicians when the torture of an animal is made in Catalan is less torture. Be assured that if bullfighting only had taken place in Catalonia and not in the rest of the Spanish State then bullfighting would have not been banned in Catalonia. I just say that so that the whole world realises that some of the politicians who voted against the killing of the bulls had not problem in supporting bulls with fire next to their horns.

I must say that I also do not  like bullfighting but as it is a tradition, also in Catalonia, I think that I would have done like in some countries were the bull is not killed. That’s just my opinion. People who like bullfighting in Catalonia have all the reason to be angry with the ban because it is unfair that the bullfighting has been banned and the correbous not.

All that said I just want to talk about the poster that MIQUEL BARCELÓ has made for the last CORRIDA in PLAÇA MONUMENTAL in Barcelona. I wonder if it would become a masterpiece. I like it:

Anyway

Related articles

• Fleeing Bullfighter Arrested For Cowardice [Bullfighting] (deadspin.com)