Saturday, August 18, 2007

Corrida del Toros

To Rowena, in response to your questions, here are the infos what I found about corrida. I don't know if we have this one in Philippies in the past years as we were colonized by the spaniards. We once had a debate at the school regading this topic against my spanish classmates as they love it very much, but as I said, I respect somebody's cultures, traditions and beliefs. I just don't have the guts or the courage to see this kind of program. Anyway, I found this infos on wikipedia.

Bullfighting or the so-called corrida is a tradition that was originally brought to Spain by the Visigoths. The tradition, as it is practiced today, involves professional performers that is called toreros in spanish term, who execute various formal moves with the goal of appearing graceful and confident, while masterful over the bull itself. Such manoeuvers are performed at close range, and conclude with the death of the bull by a well-placed sword thrust as the finale. Bullfighting was practiced by nobility as a substitute and preparation for war, in the manner of hunting.

How is it played

The modern corrida is highly ritualized, with three distinct parts, the start of each being announced by a trumpet sound. The participants first enter the arena in a parade to salute the presiding dignitary, accompanied by band music. Torero costumes are inspired by 18th century Andalusian clothing, and matadores are easily distinguished by their spectacular "suit of lights".

Next, the bull enters the ring to be tested for ferocity by the matador and banderilleros with the magenta and gold capote, or dress cape.

In the first stage, the tercio de varas ("the lancing third"), the matador first confronts the bull and observes his behavior in an initial section called suerte de capote. Next, two picadores enter the arena on horseback, each armed with a lance or varas. The picador stabs a mound of muscle on the bull's neck, which lowers its blood pressure, so that the enraged bull does not have a heart attack. The bull's charging and trying to lift the picador's horse with its neck muscles also weakens its massive neck and muscles.

In the next stage, the tercio de banderillas ("the third of flags"), the three banderilleros each attempt to plant two barbed sticks (called banderillas) on the bull's flanks, ideally as close as possible to the wound where the picador drew first blood. These further weaken the enormous ridges of neck and shoulder muscle through loss of blood, while also frequently spurring the bull into making more ferocious charges.

In the final stage, the tercio de muerte ("the third of death"), the matador re-enters the ring alone with a small red cape (muleta) and a sword. It's a common myth that the colour red is supposed to anger the bull, despite the fact that bulls are colour blind. He uses his cape to attract the bull in a series of passes, both demonstrating his control over it and risking his life by getting especially close to it. The faena ("work") is the entire performance with the muleta, which is usually broken down into a series of "tandas" or "series". The faena ends with a final series of passes in which the matador with a muleta attempts to manoeuvre the bull into a position to stab it between the shoulder blades and through the aorta or heart. The act of thrusting the sword is called an estocada.

Ouff, it's quite long ha but if you guys are interested, you can check this website http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullfighting. All the informations are in this page. Too bad my spanish classmates don't have a blog. I think it would be very interesting to ask them questions regarding this topic corrida.

2 comments:

Wenchie said...

Hi Francine, wow, you really took time to answer my questions huh. Thanks. Now I know why bullfight is a must see in Spain.

Francine Ann said...

youre welcome rowena.i learn something from doing this post ;-)