Tapas & Bullfights

Jamón serrano, pan tomaca, lomo al pimiento...these are typical tapas, small portions of food. Last night I went out with one of my students to taste some delicious tapas and those are some of the ones I ate. We then ran into some other teachers and students from my school so we hung out with them for a while. So they were talking with me about the cities I have been to in Spain (42 and counting to be exact). They kept saying cities to see if I had been there and it lasted a while as you can imagine. Finally, they said one I hadn't been to!! They said I know Spain better than they do themselves!!

So the student that I had tapas with explained to me a little more about bullfights in Spain. Tonka, you can tell me if this is accurate or not. The Spanish love the toros (bulls). Over the years, they have perfected the raza (breed) for the fiercest (toros bravos). English bulls, for example, are more calm and have longer hair. The fiercest bull of 1 bull is bred with the fiercest bull of another bull, and so on. The same is true for Latin America and southern France. So why do they kill the bull? That was my question. It is a glorious death and an honor for the bull to be killed at its prime instead of when it is old. A rare few bulls are pardoned from death in a corrida (bullfight) by the voice of the people for being so valiant and fierce, but it's not very common. Bullfights have turned into a business to make money nowadays. Many of the bulls are injected with drugs and therefore is easier to kill it and less dangerous for the matador. The more corridas a matador is in, the more famous and the more money he makes. The people even know about the injection of drugs as well. When the bull falls down, it is evidence of drugs because it wouldn't happen otherwise. These are the strongest and best bred toros bravos! so because of this, even though the Spanish love bulls, many of them don't like to watch bullfights. Interesting...