My first (and last) bull fight

The Tuesday after returning from Barcelona, about 10 of us went to see the first bull fight in Granada. Before I saw it, I knew it would be quite the shocking event to watch. I am not for the bull fights nor support them, minus the 20E for the ticket, because it truly is a brutal sport. One of my professors is passionately against them, as are most Spaniards, and spent a good 5 minutes of class discussing how the brutality does not represent Spain and should never be used as a symbol to represent it's people because most do not relate to it. This comes as a shock to many people because they think Spain and bull fights go hand in hand, however it couldn't be any more untrue. Only about 15% of Spaniards are in favor of them. Since there is little funding for the events, tourism being one of them, citizens are taxed to keep these events running. Provinces such as Catalunya have prohibited them, and others are trying to do so. However, I figured it was worth watching once to witness as one of my other professors puts it "the beauty and brutality of humans and animals".

In every bull fight there are 6 fights, 6 matadors. In this particular event there were a few very famous matadors, "Cordobes", y "El Fandi". They're celebrities like Angelina Jolie and are often found in sections of magazines such as People or whatever Spanish version of that we have here.
The first kill was the most shocking to watch. My stomach twisted into knots as I saw the bull die, blood pouring out of the mouth, people cheering, and the bull keel over. The object is to tire the bull out until it has no fight in it left, and kill it as swiftly as possible. There is a point at the back of their neck where both shoulder blades meet that has a gap between them underneath the skin. If the matador does it right, the sword enters here and goes directly down to its vital organs, killing it very quickly. If not, it bounces off or does not enter all the way and the matador needs to do it again. Two out of the six fights were absolutely awful. At the end of a fight once the bull is dead, the matador receives one ear, two ears, or both ears and the tail. If it was horrible he receives nothing, but if its good its one ear, both its really good, and all three is stupendous. We saw performances where they received nothing, one ear, and a few two ears. There is a judges table where they grade him on many things such as performance, how the crowd reacts, the kill, and many other things I don't know of.

One of the performances I thought didn't deserve an ear or anything at all, was very painful to watch. The bull ended up having to bleed to death because he stuck the sword in wrong. No one wants to see that, especially the matador. It's very shameful, embarrassing, and disgusting to watch. These matadors have been practicing since childhood, and as my professor puts it, "have a weird bond/connection with the bulls". They above all people don't want to see it die horribly, which is odd to think about since it's their profession. Typically after their fight they do a walk around the ring waving to the audience, but this matador simply just stood in place and twirled and left with his head hung low. I don't even think he grabbed his ear.
The last fight was the most incredible. The bull was beautiful, and never stopped fighting. Overall, I'd say he won this fight. The matador was less experienced, and decided to plop himself on his knees in front of the gate before the bull came out (see video below). This fight lasted a while, and at times it seemed the bull was bored of it. He would walk away, and the matador would slap him in the ass to get him to turn around. When the matador went for the first kill, we all knew it was too early. The bull was distracted by the crowd still, and still energized, and not tired out at all. The kill was awful because even after the third, fourth, and fifth time the matador tried, the bull was still on his legs. I think the matador was exhausted and misjudged the bull big time. He was the one matador that didn't receive anything. After the bull died, he was beyond ashamed. He was crying uncontrollably, and the other matador's offered their support, but he was in shambles.

The matador is fine in the end, he didn't get spiked by the bull, only prodded. Perhaps this is why the fight ended up being so bad. I can imagine the matador was quite shaken up after this!