Should I or should I not blog about bullfighting?
I had been mulling this question over the weekend but decided to just go ahead. Suanne and I had no idea how bloody this sport is until we actually saw it. So, a word of caution before you proceed reading this post. Some of the pictures are graphic.
We went to the bullfight event on the night of the second day in Seville. The event started at 10PM and stretches until past midnight. The seats are numbered and so we just arrived about 15 minutes before the show.
I noticed that people do dress up for bullfights. I hardly see anyone in shorts or T-shirts. We were kind of under-dressed because we were in Ts and jeans!
We were kind of lost and thought we should just enter by one of the many side entrances. The people at the side entrance took a look at our tickets and pointed us to the grand entrance. He he he … we had choice seats and so we get to enter through the grand entrance.
We love our seat. It was just on the second row and just under the main box. We rented a couple of cushions for an euro each. The cushion sure was useful because otherwise we will be sitting on hard concrete for two hours.
The bad thing is that we were sitting just above a couple of chain smokers. Suanne was quite mad with them. But for me it was perfect spot for photos. I handily brought along the 70-200mm lens along with a 1.6x extender. I had a great time taking pictures.
The arena was not full at all. After all, it was off season. I still do not know why there is an event planned. Maybe it is for tourists? *shrugs*
The night started announced with trumpets …
… followed by a parade of the matadors.
Matadors warming up.
The bull was excited as they charged through the gate when it is opened.
Each night, there will be three matadors who will fight six bulls. Yeah … we learned from the Bullfight Museum tour that these bulls are born and bred for this one night.
If you ask me, it is a one side fight. The whole sequence are made to weaken the bull gradually …
… until the time when the matador pulls out his sword for the kill.
The objective is to plunge the sword through the shoulder blades of the bull into the heart. Killing the bull is not instant, sad to say.
It is a brutal sport.
The matador who manages to kill the bull with a single thrust of the sword will be cheered. The pictures above is the sequences of a matador who did such a bad job it was painful to watch. It took him seven attempts. It was painful to watch and the crowd moaned.
In the next few posts, I will write more about bullfighting and also a shocking accident when a matador was gored right in front of everyone. But I will sort of password it so that no one will accidentally look at the pictures. The password is iagree.
chowtimes.wordpress.com 
Come on people stop talking about bulls it’s getting old you know?
Thank you for an informative post — and also being fair enough to allow all comments bad and good on your blog.
Don’t worry about people like Brian. He’s the type of person who hides behind a computer to belittle others but never does anything about real injustices in the world. He knows what he is.
Yeah I’m hiding Disgrace as opposed to you? You want my name and address so I can let you attack my family because I happen to believe that killing animals for sport is wanton destruction? Well argued little girl
Ben,
thank you for your posting, you did what you could to warn people of what the consequences would be by following through with the password. As for Brian, this is not your site and you don’t have the right to criticize Ben’s decision to post, it’s not obscene or pornographic, it’s the culture of a country with centuries of history.
Ben, like i posted before, i have watched a bullfight, i didn’t get into it, but i don’t disagree with the deep rooted tradition. thank you for posting.
Hi Brian,
How are things? Have you thought that by posting entries on bull fighting that it actually discourages people from visiting bull fighting? I have visited Spain twice and met many wonderful people and also have friends there who are against bull fighting. It is important to remember that some people doesn’t mean all the people.
Also, I never attended bull fighting as it is not my cup of tea. There are many great places to eat and visit in Spain as evidenced in the blog entries.
Nice reversal of logic. Blogging about bullfighting and showing the bloody destruction of innocent animals is just plain wrong. Of course Ben has a right to do this. But why hasn’t he responded to this controversy? Because he is wrong and knows it but doesn’t want to deal with it. Lame!!
Just let it go, Brian. I’m over this matter … am not going to sweat over the small stuff. Shall we talk about food now?
no i’m done with this site-u think blogging about killing bulls for sport and then eating dim sum belongs in the same blog? your son would be proud
If you don’t like it, just skip it. We don’t need a censor here. This was a very informative posts on a part of Spain that some might not want to see.
Censor? So you like the senseless killing of animals? OK you know what you are.
“flippant general comments like barbaric spaniard would also put you in a bad light to any reader”
Flippant? general? Never been to Spain?
I still maintain this post doesn’t belong on this website.
Guilt tripping? At least I’m not sicking the PETA mob on him but I know at some point the post will come up on its radar and then you’ll see some serious guilt tripping.
I don’t have a problem with him posting about it, this is after all HIS blog and HIS site and he can post what he wants.
He wants to chronicle his trip to Spain and this is a part of it. As much as you want to complain and whine, you also have the choice to not read and skip the post.
I think Ben has done a very good job with being informative and taking the time to research and understand this tradition. For you to rub slander all over it like this is very distasteful and shameful.
Please don’t take down this post. I found it very educational and I am sure others do too. Not every thing we read about needs to be sugar coated and I am glad you tell it like it is Ben.
Personally, I find it hard to respect anything regardless of tradition that involves torturing a living creature. This would not stop me visiting Spain one day though but I will definately be skipping the bullfighting.
The post didn’t offend me as much as it told me something about you which was kind of a surprise. So be it.
Stop trying to guilt trip Ben (flippant general comments like barbaric spaniard would also put you in a bad light to any reader).
This post has no endorsement of bullfighting but shows what a bullfight involves. It was also the choice of the reader whether they wished to view the post as well and they were warned in the first few lines about the graphic photos.
I would rather have the full story of the good and bad of another country than be left in the illusion that every country has no barbaric practises.
Due to this post, I will probably never endorse or go to a bullfight because Ben actually wrote a good, informative post.
Bullfighting (it’s not really a fight as you pointed out)is a disgusting and barbaric torture of animals that has no place on a class website like this. I come here to read about restaurants and food, not the prolonged, systematic torture of a helpless animal. I cheer every time I hear about the all too infrequent goring of the butcher who maims and then kills these helpless creatures with thousands cheering him on. It is why I will never vacation in Spain or Mexico. Do yourself a favour and take down the post. Hopefully you’re a compassionate Canadian, not a barbaric Spaniard.
I don’t know what else to say but that I understand your position. I am sincerely sorry knowing that this post had offended you. I had mulled this issue for days and I know it will be offensive to some people. I will leave these posts on the site as it describes our experiences on our vacation – the good, the bad and in this case, the ugly.
Thanks for posting the pictures. I will be going to Spain in the next few years and your ringside seats are priceless.
It is their national tradition, and while brutal, it needs to be respected. The pageantry is beautiful.
That’s so depressing. I don’t understand how people can just sit back and watch that sort of stuff..and the ones who actually enjoy it..eh. It’s a pointless killing of a beautiful money for a spectator sport.
I’ll never agree with that sort of thing.