Los Torros (The Bull Fights)

This past week has been the Festival de Quito, celebrating the foundation of Quito. The festival is celebrated through drinking, parades, and most famously, bull fighting. Today I went with friends to the bullfight, curious to see what the tradition is really all about. I was somewhat ambivalent about going to the fights in the first place. They were said to be quite violent, with the bulls essentially tortured before they died. Ecuadorians themselves are divided about bullfighting, with some Ecuadorians opposed to bullfighting and some who love it. In the end I decided that I wanted to see for myself what this tradition was all about, figuring this was a part of the Ecuadorian heritage that I needed to see before I left.

The fights take place in a small sized stadium in the north of Quito. The experience getting into the stadium itself was quite an experience. First there were the hat stands, all selling the straw hats that everyone apparently wears to the stadium. Then there were about 25 models dressed in ridiculous costumes, handing out all kinds of free items. After you passed through the models you got into an area where there were stages set up with people singing and dancing, a must at any Ecuadorian event. Finally, you pass through an incredibly small door, packed chalk full of Ecuadorians all trying to ignore the line which had formed.

The bullfight itself was just as violent and disturbing as I had heard. However, I had expected that it would be more of a fair fight between the matador and the bull. This was absolutely not the case. One of the first thing is done when the bull is released in the ring is that two men riding horses covered huge padding ride into the arena. The bull is directed by men towards the horse, where it then gets its horns stuck in the padding. The men hold huge spears with a small blade and a piece of metal preventing the spear from going in to far. The men then stab the bull repeatedly until the bull is sufficiently wounded. It is only after this that the matador begins to attack the bull. However, still whenever he is in danger he runs behind little forts constructed at the corners and the bull gets distracted by helpers. Finally, in a drawn out manner, the matador and his helpers wound the bull until it no longer can stand, at which point the bull is killed and dragged away and the process starts again for a new matador.

Probably the most disturbing part of the entire experience was the crowd. The tickets are not cheap, meaning that the crowd is the upper crust of Ecuadorian society. However, the entire experience is a connection to the barbaric past, a modern day equivalent of gladiators. The crowd cheers on the death of the bull with whistles and yells, the whole time yelling “Viva Quito”. They probably would be just as excited had the bull killed a man, they were just trying to satisfy a desire for death. The matador at least to some degree risks his life fighting with the bull, the crowd simply stares and cheers the process on.

Still, despite my regret at donating my money to continue bullfighting, it has made me do some serious thinking. I have always been disturbed by the Western World takeover of other cultures, wanting to allow cultures to keep their traditions and customs. However, should all elements of cultures really be kept? Or instead are there parts of culture that I don’t think should be kept, and that instead should be replaced with more humane values? Should we allow cultures to keep their traditional values, even if that means having them maintain a patriarchal, violent, and often closed-minded society? If not, how do we go about convincing people to change?