Our First Bullfight

Last weekend Megan and I went to what is billed as the largest festival in Mexico, the Feria de San Marcos in Aguascalientes. Aguascalientes is the capital of the state of the same name and is northeast of Jalisco (where Guadalajara is located). The fair runs for a month in April and May every year. The fair features many concerts, exhibits, carnival rides, lots of partying and two of the more cruel animal related sports around.
Cockfighting, while normally illegal in Mexico, is allowed at the Feria de San Marcos because of a tradition of cockfighting at past festivals. We didn't get to go to a cockfight while we were in Aguascalientes since they had finished a few days earlier.
We did however go to our first ever bullfight on Saturday evening. Megan and I both had mixed feelings about going to a bullfight. It is an inherently violent and cruel death for the bull, but it is also supposed to be one of the most beautiful and interesting cultural activities in Latin America.
[More after the jump and more photos to come later in the week]

We went to the arena about 6pm and took our seats in the top of the shady side of the arena. We were just in time for the first of 6 bulls. There were 3 matadors, so each were to fight 2 bulls each. Here is how each fight goes (more or less).
As the bull enters the arena there is the main matador and three assistants (banderilleros) test the bull to make sure it is up for a fight. They provoke the bull into charging them and then deftly dodge out of the way. After they are satisfied that the bull means to trample them and the crowd is satisfied they will get a good show, they move on to the next phase. If they or the crowd aren't happy with the bull, then the bull gets sent out of the arena to await another fight. This happened once during the fight we watched and subsequently a "reserve" bull was brought out to fight.
The next phase begins with the entry two horse-mounted picadores. The picadores each have a long spear and their horses are very well padded and protected. The banderilleros draw the bull towards one of the picadores at the outside of the ring. The picador then stabs the bull in the back with the spear. It seems like the picadores are not looked upon very favorably by the crowd. The crowd views them as a necessary evil, but if the picador is to enthusiastic about doing his job the crowd starts to boo and yell at him. This was nearly my least favorite part of the fight. It seems very cruel and weakens the bull to a very large degree. In a few of the fights we saw the bull was so hurt by the picador that it could barely fight or standup.
In the next phase the banderilleros or the matador try to stab the bull with 3 sets of 2 barbed sticks. This further weakens the bull and prepares it for the ultimate phase.
In the last phase, the matador faces the bull by himself. The matador again dodges the bull over and over. The bull is generally bleed very badly by this point and seems to understand that this is a fight for its life. After a lot of dodging and taunting the matador will get a sword from ring side. He faces off against the bull and while the bull charges he will try to stab the bull behind the head in spine. If successful, the bull will drop to the ground and die, but this is very rare, in the 8 fights we saw (there were two extra fights that night) only one of the matadors managed to do this. If they are unsuccessful, then the bull will walk around with a sword stuck in its back and the matador will try once or twice more. If the bull collapses, but does not die, then the fight is over and a assistant will stab the bull in the back with a long knife to insure it is dead. The bulls body is then dragged out of the arena by a team of bulls.
I left the arena after 8 bullfights with similarly mixed feeling about the sport. It is a beautiful event to watch, with the matadors and banderilleros more like very talented dancers than anything. The crowd participation is very interesting and important aspect of the entire event. At the same time, the killing of the bull was unnecessarily cruel and violent. Most of the fight seems to involve taunting the bull into charging the fighters, but I don't believe this is really the natural inclination of the bull. In the end, both Megan and I decided we would like to go to another bullfight here in Guadalajara, but I still think it will be difficult to watch.