Tag Archives: toro bravo

Bulls*#&t

Da bulls

My friend Gloria lives near the Plaza de Toros in Madrid. In fact, that’s the metro stop to get to her house, right in front.

Ya gotta love the Moorish influence in the architecture. This baby seats 25,000!

I know, I know, bullfighting is atrocious, but, hey, I didn’t choose the country’s sport. Is it worse to kill bulls than killing spectators of the country’s other favorite sport? Futbol or soccer to us ‘mericans.

Anyway, it turns out, there are special breeds of bulls for the fights, one of which is called the Toro Bravo. In fact, Gloria took me on a drive into the Madrid countryside and pointed out the farm where these Toros Bravos are raised. In Spanish, bravo means angry, which made sense to me. These are mean bulls who want to gore everything in sight…perfect for a bullfight!

So I got to thinking, what makes these bulls angry? I figured they must torture them somehow during their lives to REALLY piss them off. So I decided, they must deprive the bulls of nice shady trees and having access to ready-to-mate cows. Maybe they prod them with pointy sticks constantly?

Wrong! These bulls live the cushy life, before being herded into the ring. And, in shops and restaurants around the Plaza de Toros, you can buy the bull meat to eat.

Ever seem a bullfight? This is a video shot by either my grandfather or my father in 1949 here in Spain and posted by my brother Jose Rodriguez to Youtube. Enjoy (or not!)

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