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Bullfighting Thrives Amid Growing Protests in Peru
Peruvian bullfighter Fernando Roca Rey, Acho stadium, Lima, Nov. 2, 2008; photo c. Jorge Vera My news feature on bullfighting in Peru appears on the front page of today’s Miami Herald (“Many protest bullfighting in Peru“), with photos by El Fotografo. The Herald edited the story and retitled it to put more emphasis on the antitaurinos (bullfighting protestors) than I did in my original version, which I titled, “Bullfighting Thrives Amid Growing Protests in Peru” (see my original below). The subject of bullfighting intrigued me because the tradition is undergoing a curious revival in Lima — curious because while attendance is rising at the Acho bullfights, there’s also a growing countermovement to end bullfighting in…
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Interview with Bullfighter José Uceda Leal: “Women like to see a man face death”
Spanish bullfighter Jose Uceda Leal before his first corrida at Plaza de Acho, Lima, Nov. 1, 2008: , photo c. Jorge Vera 2008 Born and trained in Madrid, José Igacio Uceda Leal ranks among the top toreros in Spain. Tall and slender, the 31-year-old bullfighter moves in the ring with an elegant, commanding presence. When he’s not dancing with bulls or stabbing them through the aorta, Uceda Leal is prone to giving introspective, rather philosophical answers to questions from the press. “In life and in bullfighting, there are moments that are real trials by fire,” he told a reporter in 1999, “some of which you cannot imagine, but which raise you up as…
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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…
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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,…
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Spanish Bullfighter Gets Gored in Nuts, Drops out of Peru Bullfight Festival
“There’s no way to be a great matador and not get gored.” That’s what Bob Simon of 60 Minutes drew from his experiences while reporting on bullfighters in Spain, and it’s an ethos shared by most professional matadors. (Click here to read about Simon’s getting gored himself while researching his story.) Horrendous groin accidents are part of the job, which involved shimmying as close as possible to the horns of a furious 2,000-pound beast. (What were people thinking when they invented this sport?) A particularly brutal bullfight in Madrid earlier this month left several matadors bleeding in their partes nobles (literally, “noble parts,” or gonads), among them Miguel Angel Perera of Spain.…
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Beefcake at the Corrida: Photos of Tauros and Toreros in Acho 2008
Matador David Galan, who stars in the Nov. 2 corrida Raging bulls, elaborate torture rituals, hot sun and sand, seriously handsome guys in skin-tight outfits skewering animals through the aeorta: Lima’s Feria de Acho bullfight season (Nov. 2 – 23, 2008) showcases raw, in-your-face Spanish-style bullfighting, and the Peruvian crowds love it. Spanish matador Uceda Leal, of Madrid, who fights in the first Acho corrida, Nov. 2 It’s death and seduction and sadism all wrapped in the stiff trappings of Spanish colonialism: arcane rules, classist seating arrangements, trumpet calls, elegant brocaded jackets. The event exerts a weird, insidious fascination on some foreigners who might otherwise never be caught dead (lol) at a ritual animal slaughter. Just purchasing a ticket and braving the…
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Make Way for the Matadors
Back in the United States, tension and uncertainty are mounting to excruciating levels as November 4 nears. One guy will win, one guy will lose, and the specters of voting improprieties and riot police haunt many Americans’ visions of what might happen on Election Day 2008. Hopefully the presidential candidates’ “duel to the death” will be metaphoric, not literal. Here in Peru, the end of October signals the arrival of another highly anticipated, combative event: bullfighting season. The blood shed in Lima’s historic Plaza de Acho stadium this November is certain to be real, however. South America’s oldest bullfighting ring (c. 1766) draws crowds for its annual festival of Spanish-style…
