Winter
is well behind us, spring is here, and, happily so is the taurine season. We
have enjoyed the February and March aperitifs such as Valencia, Olivenza and
Valdemorillo, but the season starts in spring, and more specifically, over
Easter Week.
There
have been a great deal of corridas over the past week with strong attendances. More
corridas is a sign that the significant decrease caused by the economic crisis
shows some signs of levelling off and turning into an upward curve (some
reduction was necessary after the mid noughties peak, but the eventual drop off
was disastrous), while their positive attendance shows that, despite the
increased belligerence of the anti-taurine movement, people continue to enjoy
going to los toros when an interesting spectacle is presented to them.
Therefore,
on opposite sides of the taurine spectrum, there was a sell out in Madrid last
week for Fandiño’s solo corrida with the encastes minoritarios and yesterday la
Malagueta was full for a corrida with the figuras and Domecqs. Of course, we
now know that each corrida did not produce the entirely desired result, but the
importance was the expectation that la fiesta had created in each plaza and
among the crowd that attended. Besides, Las Ventas was able to enjoy the
emotive lidia of a José Escolar bull, and Perera performed a faenón in Málaga
showing that he might, once again, be the torero to beat in 2015.
It
would be wrong to reduce the entire week’s proceedings to these two corridas,
thankfully, throughout taurine Europe there have been worthwhile and varied spectacles
all week. Hellín was the scene of an important Prieto de la Cal corrida, where
Javier Castaño showed his worth as a lidiador, and the Veraguas gave a varied performance capped with the vuelta al ruedo
to the sixth bull. While Benidorm and Cabra were the sets for a more populist,
but no less worthy, fiesta where El Fandi Castella, Padilla, Finito and Abellán
each showcased their wares at well attended plazas.
The
principal feria of the week, in Arles, also provided further evidence, that
toreo is alive in this first week of April. It was a varied feria, the crowd
was able to enjoy the good performance of a string of Rehuelga bulls, one of
which received a vuelta al ruedo, that provided Lillian Ferrani with the material to cut a couple of ears yesterday
morning and José Maria Manzanares cut a tail in the evening to a Garcigrande
that was also awarded a vuelta.
In
short, there was plenty of action to keep us interested throughout Holy Week.
However, today was Easter Sunday, a day that has a special ring to the
aficionado. The curtain raiser in Sevilla signifies the birth of a new season.
Once again, as has been the theme for the week, there was a healthy programme of
corridas to follow away from Sevilla: from Madrid to Arles, and from Aignan to
Zamora, each of which was well attended.
I
followed this afternoon on the radio and social media, not ideal, I would
rather be in a plaza, but, even via the radio the sound of La Maestranza was
enough to make the hair on the back of my neck stand. Would the corridas live
up to the expectation? Happily, they did. Of course, as aficionados, every time
we see a cartel we imagine each of the toreros exiting on shoulders. In
practice that does not happen, therefore, we are, for the most part, satisfied
when we have a bunch of good performances to enjoy.
This
afternoon, we were able to turn back the clock to the late eighties with Espartaco’s triumph in Sevilla. Eugenio
de Mora reminded us why we had such high hopes for him at the turn of the
century. While Victor
Barrio and Borja
Jímenez, who each impressed
us in Valdemorillo, brought us back to 2015 and showed the
impresarios that there are a significant group of young toreros that are
ready to supplant the host of second class toreros that still get contracts and
muddy our ferias.
Why
this brief run through the significant positives of the past week? As some of
you will no doubt have picked up, the bipartisan aspect of toreo has once again
reared its head. This week the battle has been between those who prefer seeing
a spectacle with minority encastes and those who “support” the feria of Domecqs
and the figuras. Interested parties on either side have been attacking the
other through their websites and on the 21st century battlefield
that is twitter. The focus of each side has been Las Ventas and Málaga
respectively. Certain editorials and twitter messages have used Fandiño’s disappointment
as “proof” that this type of fiesta does not work and the way forward is
Domecq, while others have pointed to Málaga as the embodiment of everything
that is wrong with the fiesta.
Both
of these arguments is misguided and ignores that there is space in the fiesta
for all type of corridas, and that all type of corrida are also prone to
failure. As this week has shown. Moreover, there is something bigger at stake
for the fiesta. Although the aficionado may be preoccupied with supporting this
or that type of fiesta, we should all join forces because the anti-taurino does
not discriminate between both spectacles. They would like to destroy them all.
It
is fun, and necessary, to debate the direction that the fiesta is taking. Which
ganaderías are performing well and which toreros are on the rise? However, such
debate among aficionados should all take place from the standpoint of mutual
respect among us. Supporting one type of corrida over another will only lead us
to get bogged down in a civil war when the invading forces are on our doorstep.
We
should reserve our belligerence for those sections of the mundillo that ignore
the structural issues that the fiesta suffers and leaves it as the current
organised chaos. We should also keep some in reserve for the potential invading
army of anti-taurinos that have now surrounded our plazas in order to hurl
insults and stone to the aficionados. And, why not keep some in reserve for the
authorities that seemingly treat the aficionado as a second class citizen and
expose us to the anti-taurino’s ire? (In this last respect Spain should look
north to France and the attitude they have taken towards the anti. In the
meantime, the aficionado in Spain is left exposed by a poorly organised
mundillo and they need to organise their own
petitions to try and stem the anti’s advance).
Arguing
amongst ourselves in such a destructive way misses the wood for the trees, therefore
let us focus on the positives of this week: of toreo’s rebirth for another
season, of the bulls sent by of Prieto de la Cal, Rehuelga and Garcigrande, of
the triumphs of Espartaco, Manzanares
and Castaño and, above all, that there are still a significant amount of people
in 2015 that are willing to go to the plaza, wtch corridas on TV, listen to taurine
radio and read taurine output on the web. Moreover, we have even had a minor
triumph on the front line against the anti-taurinos – a full plaza in Padrón (La
Coruña, Galicia) can only be hopeful news.
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