• Bullfighting

    The Great Leveler

    Sand leveller Carlos Echevarria, Plaza de Acho, Lima; photo c. Jorge Vera 2008  Carlos Echevarria has been leveling the arena at Lima’s Plaza de Acho bullring for 35 years. It is his job to cart in fresh sand, spread it over the 60-meter-wide arena and pack it into a firm, even surface. Then a pair of workers uses a rope and spike to draw concentric circles inside the 360-degree arena, to mark where the bulls and matadors will fight. Echevarria watches to make sure that the circles are neat and round. Built in 1766, the Plaza de Acho arena is the oldest bullring in the Americas, the second oldest in the world after La Maestranza, in Seville,…