Bullfighting Demonstration: Torture is Not Culture

While elected officials in Hawaii were trying to push cockfighting as a "cultural activity," the conservative regional government of Madrid, Spain, has been working to declare bullfighting part of the region's cultural heritage. Thousands of protesters took to the streets, calling on the government to outlaw the bloodsport instead.

The demonstration's slogan "Torture is Not Culture" was lost on Esperanza Aguirre, head of the regional government of Madrid, who flaunted a matador's cape at a press conference. She defended bullfighting as "an art that has been in our culture as long as we can remember." General Francisco Franco thought so, too, and promoted it as a unifying national spectacle during his dictatorship.

Its popularity has been waning. A spokeswoman for Spain's small anti-bullfighting political party said that over 70 percent of the population in Madrid considers bullfighting "a national shame."

While Madrid debates honoring the brutality, Catalonia (the region where Barcelona is located) is considering a ban after over 180,000 voters signed a petition against bullfighting. It has already been outlawed in a handful of other cities, and Catalonia hasn't allowed the construction of new bullrings since 2003.

However, in some circles, the life of the matador is still glorified. A new film (starring Adrian Brody and Penelope Cruz) about Manolete, a notorious matador in the 1940s, is being condemned by animal welfare organizations. The groups are encouraging their supporters to boycott the movie, saying "It is inadmissible to release a film in which the hero is a matador." The producers insist that the story is about love, not killing, but considering the political tension in Madrid and Catalonia, the film is just waving a red flag in front of the anti-bullfighting movement.

Photo credit:edans