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Confessions of a Redhead in the Callejón: What I Learned at the Bullfights
November 29’s corrida marked the penultimate bullfight of the Señor de los Milagros festival, held in Lima’s historic Plaza de Acho bullring. The last day to see bullfighting in Peru’s capital is December 6, next Sunday. (Ticket information here.) My husband, El Fotografo, and I haven’t gone to any of the corridas this year, and we don’t plan to. EF is grossed out by bullfighting, even though he admits the sport makes for great picture-taking, especially when you have permission to stand inside the callejón, as we did last November. (The callejón is the low-walled alley surrounding the bullring where the toreros enter and exit the sand circle or ruedo. Occasionally a bull will leap or knock over the wooden wall, injuring…
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Vegan Antitaurino Activist, Plaza San Martin, Lima, Peru
Animal-rights protestor Jessica Santilla, demonstration at Plaza San Martin, Lima, Peru, Nov. 2008 / photo c. Jorge Vera El Fotografo and I met this protestor at an antitaurino (anti-bullfighting) rally held on the opening day of the Plaza de Acho bullfights, last November. Jessica Santillan is 20 years old, a student and an ardent vegan. Unlike many of the antitaurinos I met in Lima that day, Santillan believes that slaughtering animals for food is as morally reprehensible as killing bulls in the bullring. She and her boyfriend were holding up a sign that said “Neither bulls in the Plaza nor cattle in the slaughterhouse.” They were wearing matching toro outfits and chained together. Some of the demonstrators…
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Anti-bullfighting Protests Heat up in Lima
Public outrage over animal cruelty in bullfighting is mounting in Lima, home to the famed Senor de los Milagros bullfighting festival (Nov. 2 – 23, 2008). The festival takes place in Plaza de Acho, the oldest bullring in the Americas and the second-oldest in the world. Say hello to my little friend: Anti-bullfighting posters in Lima feature a blood-crazed matador a la Tony Montana (poster: www.peruantitaurino.org) Last Sunday, November 2, about 300 members of the group Peru Antitaurino rallied at the Plaza San Martin, in downtown Lima, to protest the start of the month-long festival. (The Spanish word for “antibullfighting” is “antitaurino.”) The protestors marched at 2;30 p.m. to Acho…




