15/04/2015 – THE NEED FOR WARTIME TAURINOS

There is a telling scene in the Godfather when Michael Corleone takes Tom Hagen to one side to tell him that Hagen is not a wartime consigliere and that he should step aside to focus on the family’s legal business. It is a recognition that changing contexts require a change in tact; that the modus operandi that may serve you during calm times may not necessarily work in tougher conditions.

The fiesta faces a similar challenge. For a great deal of the twentieth century it was at the forefront of Spanish popular culture, good times were assured. However, over the last thirty years, there has been a paradigm shift. Los toros have fallen from the Spanish national consciousness and although, as is often trotted out, its appeal is only second to football, one gets the feeling that has been forced underground. Moreover, its mere existence is openly questioned in many quarters. To me that has been the anti’s principal victory of the last ten years, the man on the street, generally, does not care about the fiesta, neither positively nor negatively, however, the antis have wanted to create a debate around the fiesta’s future, and they have succeeded.  

As this debate has been forced upon us, the onus is now on the taurinos to defend ourselves. Therefore, the fiesta requires, if not a wartime consigliere, certainly a wartime mind set. The modus operandi that has held us in good stead previously is no longer valid, moreover, I am certain that the mundillo’s reticence to develop a new business model has accelerated our fall from grace.

To say that the taurino lacks the appetite for a fight would be wrong – we see arguments across the mundillo as a matter of course. Last week we discussed the running battle between toristas and toreristas, but as soon as I had posted the column a new front opened in the form of niñato-gate. Carlos Herrera, a well-known Spanish journalist called the G4 group of figuras out on twitter, referring to them as “niñatos” (little snots) for not appearing in Sevilla. Of course twitter erupted, as is its wont, with certain sectors decrying Herrera’s crass lack of respect and others wondering why the first group had their knickers in a twist.

This was of course a minor battle within the wider conflict between the Empresa Pagés and G4, a cynic might suggest Herrera was doing the empresas dirty work by shovelling some more dirt on the figuras. As we all know by now, at a time when the fiesta could do with a strong Feria de Abril to give the temporada some momentum and prestige, the impresarios and the figuras have been unable to settle their differences and left the aficionado with a hobbled feria. Without wanting to get into a blame game, which would owe much to speculation because I do not know all the facts for certain, this is precisely the type of scenario I refer to when I call for a wartime mindset. With the anti’s pitched at the gates of the Maestranza, the fiesta is engaged in a battle against itself.

Taurinos fight against each other in all corners of the fiesta: let us channel this energy and take aim at the antis. This is what I mean by shifting our mind set. Fortunately, there are signs that the ungainly taurine beast is stirring. The news broke this week that PACMA’s Seville protest against los toros would be allowed to march up to the Puerta del Príncipe. Once again the tweetendido stirred, this time in a more positive sense directing its ire at the authorities that had authorised such a route, especially in light of an ever increasing tendency to violent protest among the anti-taurine movement. Thankfully, the authorities reconsidered their position and are now preventing the antis from marching to the Maestranza. Whether this was down to the protests from taurinos (both through twitter and a more traditional lobby route among certain professional associations and peñas) or not, the truth is that the mundillo stirred and achieved its aim.

The stark reality is that we must get used to these types of action to stem the advance of the anti movement – the French have being the fiesta’s standard bearers in this respect. In France, despite the deep taurine tradition, the bulls have never enjoyed the place of cultural prominence that they have in Spain. Unlike the Spanis aficionado, who could rely on cultural momentum to take the fiest forward, the French taurine has been forced to defend and vindicate his fiesta at every stage in its development, and is therefore used to protecting his afición with belligerence. This wartime mentality needs to pervade the Spanish mundillo.

Of course, in order for the defence of the fiesta to develop accordingly, it should be a centralised and co-ordinated effort. Thus far the fiesta has relied on the individual and efforts of aficionados and certain professional entities acting independently, but a taurine lobby created by the professional taurine world is now necessary. This would be the only type of entity with the budget and the reach to face up to the uber-financed, hyper-organised anti-taurine effort. There are certain sectors of the mundillo that are working towards it, let us hope that they are successful because, and I do not think that this is an empty threat, the fiesta’s future depends on it. Grass roots aficionado efforts, either by individual aficionados or peñas are important, but it all needs to be backed up by a centralised effort. A wartime mentality would see that such an entity be created.

Aside from organising a concerted defence of the fiesta, I feel that some of the wartime mentality needs to be channelled positively into creating a better fiesta. Even this early in the season, a range of toreros have triumphed and a good number of different ganaderías and encastes have lidiado good bulls. However, the pervading feeling as ferias are announced is that the same names, with varying degrees of merit, repeatedly appear. It would take a whole column to analyse the current state of the escalafón and ganaderías in order to present and assess how a fresh approach can be achieved. But I will say that the cartels for Nimes, Zaragoza and Jerez, to name but three that have been presented in the past week, leave much to be desired and lack imagination. I have nothing against figuras appearing in ferias, it is the second class of matador that leaves me unfulfilled. They do nothing other than block the young group of toreros that promise to be tomorrow’s figuras. A wartime mentality would bring with it a fresh approach to cartel building, creating cartels that appeal to the aficionado while promoting a spectacle that is attractive to the casual fan.    

These three ideas, a belligerent mentality, a central lobby and an enticing fiesta are but three core ideas for the fiesta in its bid to move into the twenty-first century. They are not the only ideas that can be put forward and, as always, the devil is in the detail. However, the mundillo needs to realise that its current course may not be sufficient to quell and defeat the antis; we need a wartime taurino to take the initiative and develop the fiesta as it deserves.