But Cruz’s star appeal back home quickly went to the bulls last week after it was discovered she signed an inflammatory letter sent by an American animals rights group to Pamplona Mayor Yolanda Barcina.
The letter, written in English, called on Barcina to cancel the renowned “running of the bulls” –an annual two-week event in Pamplona that is part of the city’s San Fermines Festival in early July.
Ernest Hemingway’s 1926 novel The Sun Also Rises immortalized the festival, which draws thousands of tourists to Pamplona to run at breakneck speeds in front of small herds of bulls through the city’s narrow cobblestone streets.
“Cancel the annual running of the bulls and use more humane measures to attract tourists to the beautiful and historic city of Pamplona,” says the letter signed by Cruz.
“The majority of tourists are appalled when they learn the bulls running through the streets during the day are later tortured and killed in the plaza in the afternoon,” it continues.
Spaniards are peeved not only at the letter’s content, which they say falsely condemns a centuries-old tradition in Spain. But they also think the letter is a load of bull because Cruz signed it even though it was written in English and was sent to a fellow Spaniard.
Spanish radio and television commentators mocked Cruz saying she had forgotten how to write in Castilian Spanish.
Mayor Barcina also shot back with a letter of her own.
“It is difficult to understand how you allowed your name to be used, your professional prestige, to publicly whip our culture –a culture in which bulls make up a vital component,” Mayor Barcina wrote in a vehement response to Cruz.
“Before starting a crusade in the defense of bulls it should have been more of a priority to combat the death penalty,” the letter continues and then goes on to allude to the Basque separatist group ETA.
“Another noble cause would have been to condemn the terrorist acts that we suffer in Spain.”
Frank Griffiths may be reached at fgriffiths@suite101.com
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