Bottom falling out of Spanish bullfighting

Press, 20 September 1982, Page 16

Bottom falling out of Spanish bullfighting

From ‘The Economist,’ London j

Spain’s “fiesta Nacional" is losing its national appeal. It. has been trampled on by football, tossed by soaring pricesand gored by the indifference of young middle-class Spaniards, who would rather spend Sunday afternoon in the countryside than grill in a bullring. Most Spaniards see bulls only on television or in. stews. A growing number of Spaniards ' would like to see bullfights abolished and; criticise the bloodthirsty northern European and American tourists who keep the Sunday-evening killing alive. Not only the fans are foreigners: this year a Chinese bullfighter appeared in the ring and got a frosty response. Robot bulls from Japan may be next. Even Spanish aficionados fear that bullfighting is going to the dogs. Partly, inflation is to blame. Bullring labour and maintenance costs have soared; bulls are expensive; and the top matadors expect to be paid like pop stars. Many rings which once offered first-class fights now hire mediocre matadors and buy bulls fed on compoundfodder -that allegedly lack maturity. But, aficionados grumble, even if the bulls.and fighters

were good, how many cameraclicking tourists would appreciate them? The tourists cheer the desperate or half-witted bullfighter who risks his life in order to get a line in the local press, but ignore the finesse of better, but less spectacular, cape work. Attitudes vary according to latitude and ideology. The bullfighting lobby is strongest in Castile and Andalusia, ■ which breed both bulls and matadors. The Franco regime followed the bread-and-bulls policy of earlier authoritarian regimes (Ferdinand VII closed down universities and opened bullfighting academies) and Jesuit teachers are said to have encouraged their pupils to go to bullfights rather than the theatre, where they might be exposed to ' dangerous ideas. Many Right-wingers still see bull-fighting as a symbol of Spanishness and machismo. The Communist mayor of Cordoba has encouraged bullfighting.- making cheap tickets available to young people. Opponents of bullfighting tend to be liberals, socialists or Basque and Catalan nationalists. eager to mark their rejection of Castilian mores and to show their European sensbili-

ties; but they also include a few Right-wingers, notably the neo-fascist Mr Jorge Mota. Although bullfighting has inspired some artists and poets—memorably Federico Garcia Lorca—it has been condemned as barbaric and degrading by leading intellectuals for the past two centuries. One distinguished Spanish historian wrote recently that the 1936 Civil War was fought between taurine diehards and anti-taurine reformers; some Spaniards would say the fight is still on. Catalan campaigners for four-legged rights have corailed a sixteenth-century bull which they hope Pope John Paul will champion when he visits Spain next month. This one is a papal bull, dated 1567, which condemns bullfights as “a shameful and bloody spectacle" and "a slur on Christian faith and compassion, worthier of Satan than of human beings.” Most aficionados however, consider themselves good Catholics. Every bullring has its chapel with a statue of the Virgin. Mary, to whom bullfighters offer prayers and gifts. Pope John Paul will no doubt enter the arena cautiously. Spanish dilemmas have sharp horns.