Bullfighting in Spain

Bullfighting in Spain

SPN306

Culture and Society of Spain

Mario L. villarreal

Bullfighting in Spain

Introduction - Origin of Bullfighting

What is the origin of bullfighting in Spain? According to Martin Seufert's book La Corrida de Toros - The Tradition of Bullfighting in Spain, there are "several" hypotheses that attempt to explain how bullfighting began in Spain. One of those hypotheses is that the tradition of the "corrida" has roots in the Middle Ages; it was a form of Roman entertainment, Seufert explains on page 4 of his book (Seufert, 2011, p. 4). It is possible that bullfighting evolved from "the sacrifice of animals in religious festivities," Seufert explains, or perhaps it was created by the Moors.

Actually, fighting bulls was a "popular activity" in the Middle Ages but it was an event that only the elite participated in, Seufert explains. On the occasion of marriages or other ceremonies of "honor" nobles on horses fought "...with long lances" to demonstrate how strong and noble they were (Seufert, p. 4). The bull has for centuries been a symbol of "power and fertility," and the in the first mentions of bullfighting in the literature, the Spanish "Poem of the Cid," a protagonist battles a bull (around 1040) at the marriage of the king's daughter (Seufert, p. 4).

According to Seufert, by the first half of the 1700s bullfighting became "extremely popular and produced its first professional of historic significance, Francisco Romero" (p. 4). Romero was a shoemaker who was born in Roda in southern Spain and reportedly he was first to use the small cape (a muleta) and sword to kill the bull, Seufert writes (p. 4).

Meanwhile Michael Ogorzaly traces the origins of bullfighting back to "bull cults" that existed during the Roman era. Ogorzaly acknowledges that there are conflicting reports as to which of the bull cults actually had a direct impact on the launch of bullfighting as it is known today in Spain, but the "...sacrificial cult of Mithras," which was a "minor Zoroastrian deity especially favored by soldiers," witnessed live bulls being "sacrificed at the baptisms of initiates" into the cult (Ogorzaly, 2006, p. 15). The Mithraic priest would kill the bull "...on a special platform known as the taurobolium," then the blood from the slain bull was splashed on the "faithful, presumably endowing them with strength, fertility and even immortality" (Ogorzaly, 15).

Once Christianity had become the rule of social order in Rome, these kinds of cults were "driven underground or out of existence altogether," Ogorzaly explains (15). That said, it is possible that "vestiges" of the bloody cult practices continued through certain "rites" like Spain's "medieval nuptial bed," which according to anthropologist Timothy Mitchell views as the actual origin of the modern bullfight in Spain. The medieval nuptial bed custom is explained by Mitchell:

The custom "...called for the bride and the groom to stick darts into a

bull that their friends had tied to a rope. The object was... to evoke the

fecundating power by 'arousing' him and ritually spilling his blood.

Tradition called for the couple to stain their clothes, and sometimes

their bedsheets, with the bull's blood they had drawn" (Ogorzaly, 15).

Because the bull has always been a symbol of fertility, Ogorzaly explains that the link between killing a bull and marriage seems logical. The darts the couple stuck into the bull "...are clearly phallic symbols" and the "penetration of the bull by the darts and the blood gushing forth suggest the consummation of the marriage of husband and virgin bride" (Ogorzaly, 15).

Another possible explanation for the origin of the modern bullfight dates back to the Middle Ages at a time when the Church (Catholic Church) depicted the devil (Satan) with "...cloven feet and horns" (Ogorzaly, 16). Hence, the killing of the bull in the Middle Ages can be thought of as representing the slaying of the devil himself; it could be that today's bullfight suggests the slaughter of Satan, Ogorzaly continues. In Brazil, the "Festival of the Bulls" (Farra