During our last trip to Mexico, I had my first experience at a bullfight. I had always heard about the corridas, but my husband said that they were not very popular where he lived so there weren't many around. However, while we were visiting there was to be a bullfight in the local plaza. Although the thought of the way the bulls are killed bothered me greatly, I still wanted to experience this spectacle at least once. My reaction was very hard to explain. I was appalled by the gruesome death of the bull, yet I couldn't take my eyes off of the bullfighters. As much as I wanted to cover my eyes, I couldn't do it. I was both disgusted and awed at the same time.
Probably the main reason that I wanted to see this bullfight was because of the rejoneadores. These are the people who fight the bull from the back of a horse. Just a week before our trip, I fell upon a special on one of our Spanish channels about this "art form". I am a great horse fan, so I was glued to the TV watching these beautiful horses. The showbill for the bullfight featured a 16 year old girl and her horses. (I figured that if I really didn't like it, we could leave after we saw the horses).
We arrived early to the bullfight. The girls "coaches" were out exercising her horses in the ring. They were such beautiful horses, I decided the price of the shady side ticket was definitely worth it. (The price for a ticket on the shaded side of the plaza is a little more expensive than on the sunny side). As I studied the showbill more carefully, the 16 year old girl was the oldest of the four matadors that afternoon. The youngest was only 10!
I really didn't understand much about the bullfights even though we had studied it in my high school Spanish class. There was such a difference seeing it in action than just reading about it. There were some differences in these bullfights due to the young age of the fighters, but basically they were the same as any traditional bullfight. Also, the bulls themselves were not "calves" they were good sized bulls and just as fierce as a "regular" bull. I couldn't imagine being the mother of any of the children in the ring!
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