Animals in Peru,  Bullfighting,  Crossing Cultures

El Híjo Weighs in on Bullfighting

After our encounter with Peru’s famous child matador yesterday morning, El Híjo and I hunted down a YouTube video of 10-year-old “El Andi” at the 2008 Las Palmas fiesta.

Figure 1: Peru’s boy matador Andrés Roca Rey, at in the “Senor de los Milagros” bullfighting festival, in the historic Ancho bullring, in Lima, Nov. 4, 2007, by Martin Mejia (AP)

The footage started out great: El Andi executing beautiful passes, tossing his silken hair in true matador fashion, the young bull charging at him with alarming ferocity. The boy’s presence and athleticism were riveting – or so I thought.

“Can you believe that’s the nice kid  we just met in the park?” I asked. “Isn’t he amazing?”

“He’s pretty good,” EH said,

Then El Andi brought out the barbed lances and stuck them in the bull’s back.

“Yuck,” said EH. “I’m going to play Legos.”

Evidently my son is more North American than Latin American.

I was surprised. EH plays video games where fantasy characters battle with swords and light sabers. He’s not into guns, but when he’s in his room playing with “action figures” (translation: dolls for boys), the characters blow up each other’s towns and slay each other in “duels to the death.” I figured he’d be impressed by real mortal combat between Man — make that Boy & Bull.

But, no. Animal cruelty and actual bloodshed gross him out.

Today, I tried to interest EH in another El Andi video. (I’m trying to sort out my complicated reaction to the sport, which both horrifies and fascinates me.) EH looked at it for 30 seconds before stomping away.

“The poor bull,” he said. “How would the dumb people in the audience like it if they had swords stuck in their back?”

My American son doesn’t give a rat’s patooti about the art of bullfighting or the matador’s courage. He doesn’t care that the star of the video is a boy who showed him torero moves in the park. He’s on the side of the bull, one-hundred percent.

In fact, it’s the bull he identifies with, not the 10-year-old kid.

This morning, looking through my notes from the short interview I had with El Andi and his coach, I found a drawing that El Híjo had scribbled in blue ink (don’t ask me when).

It’s of a bull waving his horns. A text balloon from his mouth reads: “I am pissed and somebody is gonna die!”

I am an American writer who lived in Lima for seven years (2007-2014), where I covered Andean traditions, melting glaciers and daily life in the capital for Miami Herald, MSNBC and Huffington Post. I now live and work in northern Florida where I champion climate change advocacy and compassionate, affordable eldercare.