La Corrida del Toro

While in Guadalajara, I attended a Corrida del Toro (literally, running of the bull). It is such an ingrained aspect of Mexican culture that I couldn't not go.

The event was scheduled to begin at 4:30, but as with most scheduled events in Mexico, that was an estimate. A rough estimate. Really, it means it certainly won't start before 4:30 and will most likely start within an hour thereafter. Probably.

Ah, here we go.

Fun tidbit: seats are priced by how close to the field they are (of course) but also by whether they are sol (sun) or sombra (shade). My general admission, asiento del sol cost 100 pesos, or about $8. And, after the third bull, all seating is up for grabs and you can move down to the best seat you can find.

The general format is to let the bull into the ring fighting mad and energetic, tire him out by jabbing barbed lances into his shoulders and then do the red cape routine before finishing him off with a sword. Sometimes the various assistant matadors take turns inserting the barbs on foot, sometimes one of the main matadors handles this duty himself. By far the most impressive style, however, is to do it all from horseback.

At times he would lean completely over backward, at a gallop, controlling his mount with his heels (I presume). The sheer horsemanship is pretty stunning.

And now, for the full effect: video. Be forewarned: this is the real deal. If you don't want to see the bull die, don't watch the third video all the way through.

Tiring out the bull from horseback.



The red cape routine. These matadors just have to be the most machismo, self absorbed alpha males on the planet. Check out the hip waggling, head tosses and the way he turns his back and struts away from the bull. You can almost hear Chris Kattan on SNL as Antonio Banderas on "The.. how do you say? ah, yes.. Show".



And the inevitable end. When the initial stroke down through the shoulders is well executed, the bull keels over within seconds, blood gushing. Here we see the second method. After pulling out the first sword the matador aims for the base of the skull, severing the brainstem and killing the bull almost instantly.

Overall, I'm glad I went but feel no need to go again. The atmosphere is really great: there were two bands playing rousing Mariachi music, the crowd gets into and actually yells ¡Olé! (yes, on the video you can hear me joining in at times) and it's always fun drinking a beer or two sitting in the stands, any stands.

But the violence. Oi vey, the violence. I didn't get any of the really bad stuff on tape, but a couple of times the blood ran as though from a firehose and even one of the matadors got a bit gored (in true machismo fashion, he had a tourniquet tied about his leg and finished off the bull with a single, masterfully placed stroke). Beyond the sheer bloodiness, the violence is numbingly repetitive: nine bulls over the course of three or four hours. After a while the novelty and excitement fades, leaving only the sad spectacle of an animal worked to bloody exhaustion and then killed simply for entertainment.