Ivan Fandino picando

(photo by Roland Costedoat)

November 20th, 2016 in Rion des Landes, France.

Plaza de toros en Rion des Landes, Francia

(photo by Roland Costedoat)

November 20th, 2016

Torera !

artwork by David Lozeau

www.davidlozeau.com

Juan Jose Padilla en Zaragoza

Spanish Court Overturns a Ban Against Bullfighting in Catalonia

(by Raphael Minder nytimes.com 10-20-16)

The Constitutional Court of Spain overturned a ban against bullfighting on Thursday that had been approved by lawmakers in Catalonia six years ago, a decision that simultaneously outraged separatists in the region and animal activists.

The court voted 8 to 3 against the Catalan ban, finding that lawmakers from the region could not prohibit a practice that the justices said was enshrined in the cultural patrimony of the Spanish state.
 

In its ruling, the court said that regional politicians in Catalonia and elsewhere could regulate bullfighting and introduce specific measures, but that they could not ban it outright. The decision is not necessarily the final word, but any appeal against the constitutional court’s decision would also most likely have to be made before European courts.

 

Catalan politicians vowed on Thursday to never allow bullfights to return to Catalonia, without even mentioning a possible appeal.

 

The Catalan regional Parliament voted in 2010 to ban bullfighting, on the grounds that it represented unjustified cruelty to animals.

 

The ban was welcomed by animal rights activists as their most significant victory in Spain, and they were outraged by the reversal on Thursday.

 

“Taunting and killing bulls for entertainment is a brutal anachronism that the Catalan Parliament quite rightly voted to ban six years ago,” Joanna Swabe, the Humane Society International executive director for Europe, said in a statement, adding that overturning the ban was “morally retrograde.”

 

At the time the ban was approved, however, the issue had become wrapped up in the broader debate over Catalan independence, and bullfighting aficionados condemned it as politically motivated.
 

The vote in the Catalan Parliament came only one month after the Constitutional Court struck down

part of a Catalan autonomy statute that had been approved by the region’s 5.5 million voters, as well as the Spanish Parliament.

 

Since then, the tensions between the politicians in Madrid and Barcelona have grown significantly. Catalonia’s regional leader, Carles Puigdemont, recently pledged to hold an independence referendum by next September, even as some other leading Catalan politicians are facing criminal lawsuits for earlier efforts to hold secessionist votes that had been declared illegal by the Spanish judiciary.

 

“It’s obvious the Constitutional Court never loses an opportunity to attack the legitimacy of the Parliament” of Catalonia, Lluís Salvadó, an official in the Catalan regional government, told reporters Thursday morning.

 

After Catalonia’s ban, Spain’s main conservative Popular Party, with the backing of the bullfighting sector, started legal action to overturn the ban. The conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, which held a parliamentary majority until last December, also then introduced new legislation to more clearly define bullfighting as part of Spain’s cultural heritage.
 

The Catalan ban added to a series of problems for the bullfighting industry, which was already struggling to cope with mounting debts, cuts in public subsidies and a sharp drop in the number of bullfighting events in Spain.

 

Still, the main bullfighting association acknowledged at the time that its biggest concern was not the loss of income, but whether it would set a precedent for other regions in Spain.

 

A century ago, Catalonia had some of Spain’s most prestigious bullfighting societies and one of the country’s most fanatic public.

 

After the Plaza Monumental bullring was inaugurated in 1914, Barcelona became unique among Spanish cities and towns in operating three significant bullrings. By the time the ban was approved in 2010, however, the Monumental was the only ring left in the city, and the ban forced it to shut down in 2011.

 

There were as few as 400 season ticket holders, compared with 19,000 in Las Ventas, the bullring in Madrid, and most of the seats in the Barcelona ring were purchased by foreign tourists.

The lawsuit against the Catalan ban claimed that it breached basic rights — both to work and to be entertained — enshrined in the Spanish Constitution.

 

The practical consequences of the ruling are unclear, given that one of the Barcelona bullrings has already been converted into a shopping mall and the owners of the larger Monumental ring have similar reconversion plans.

 

Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, also pledged to keep her city free of bullfighting, “whatever the Constitutional Court says.” She told reporters that “we will work to ensure the ruling has no effects; we will do everything possible.”

 

Spain’s best cape-waving bullfighters in sequined suits have enjoyed a popularity in the country that has rivaled that of star soccer players. But they have also recently faced much more virulent criticism from animal rights activists, who argue that bullfighting is unworthy of a modern society.

 

At the same time, some animal rights activists have denounced the Catalan stance as hypocritical because regional lawmakers banned bullfighting in 2010 but made an exception for the “correbous” summer festivities held in some Catalan towns — during which bulls are also mistreated, according to animal activists, even if they are not fought to the death.

 

In some correbous, flares are attached to the bull’s horns, as it runs around the ring taunted by locals.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/21/world/europe/spain-bullfighting-ban-catalan.html?_r=1

Sheriff makes his point on bullfights



(by Jeff Jardine mercedsunstar.com 5-30-16)

Merced County Sheriff Vern Warnke used to rodeo, so he knows all about bulls and horns, and how you can get the latter by messing with the former.

Thus, those who challenge these large, angry snot-spewing animals assume the risk of injury. The animals themselves should be exempt from the pain. Which is why he began investigating the Portuguese bloodless bullfights in Stevinson and elsewhere in his county.

Warnke recently received an email from San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore, who passed along a tip that some folks involved in bullfighting in Merced County were breaking the law by altering their gear to puncture the animals’ hides. That is illegal, but has been happening for years in Stevinson, Moore told him. Unlike in Mexico and Spain, where many of the bulls are killed in bullfights, the Portuguese bullfights here are legal only because they aren’t supposed to hurt the animals. Velcro or similar material is attached to the ends of the spears called bandeiras, which the bullfighters stick to fuzzy pads on the bulls as they pass by. The point is not to harm the animal, and not to draw blood. Except that some do, Warnke said. Acting on the tip from Moore, sheriff’s investigators confiscated bullfighting implements that had spikes and nails hidden by the Velcro material.

These bullfights are a big and important part of the Portuguese culture and heritage here in the Valley. The events test the bullfighters’ courage and skills, whether fighting the bull from the ground or on horseback, and these events are a major part of festa celebrations. Both sheriffs said they appreciate and support the culture and its traditions.

“Bloodless bullfighting is a Portuguese tradition,” Moore said. “They are very good people – the salt of the earth.”

The lawmen said their intent isn’t to shut down the bullfights – only to make sure they are done legally.

But it appears some bullfighters are no different than athletes in some other sports. They try to gain an advantage by whatever stealth means possible. Some baseball players cork bats, doctor baseballs with spit and other substances, nail files – you name it. In the NFL, New England’s Tom Brady is facing a suspension for deflating footballs to get a better grip in the cold weather.

I can think of two cases of boxers either altering the padding of their gloves or their hand wraps, and one fighter – Luis Resto – went to prison for doing both in the 1980s.

No doubt, bullfighting is a dangerous sport. Bullfighters risk getting floored, trampled, hooked and gored. Advantages are advantages. In the bloodless bullfighting, the spikes or nails in the bandeiras are intended to penetrate the exterior padding, go through the hide and into the shoulder muscles, weakening the bull. Warnke said investigators found holes in some of the pads.

“But we didn’t find blood on the pads,” he said.

Moore, who first encountered this problem at the bullfights in Thornton, north of Stockton, several years ago, said that is because the puncture wounds are more likely to bleed beneath the hide, not so much on the surface. “We’d had complaints about it from an animal welfare group,” Moore said.
Which, surprisingly, Warnke has not received since announcing his investigation.


“Not a word,” he said. He did hear from people on both sides of the issue.

“There’s nobody in the middle on this thing,” he said. “They have strong opinions one way or the other. I’m either the hero or the S.O.B. But I didn’t get elected to not enforce the law.”

Warnke said he met Thursday night with about 30 people that included members of area Portuguese Pentecost associations, which stage the fights, along with bull owners and others.

“It went well,” he said. “Some came clean with what they were doing. The nails cause injury. We can’t have that.”

They promised, he said, to stop using the nails and altered bandeiras, and hurting the bulls. And to ensure compliance, he plans to do what Moore implemented several years ago after learning about the animals at the bullfights in Thornton.

“We reacted to the public early on,” Moore said. “We found a couple (of spiked sticks), but they were confiscated and hadn’t been used.” Moore began treating the events similar to the way professional boxing is regulated. Fight cards can’t go on unless there is a ringside physician in attendance and either the referee or athletic commission official inspect the hand wraps and gloves before a fight.

“We have a veterinarian on scene and an animal service officer who conducts inspections (of the bullfighters’ equipment),” Moore said.

Warnke said he will institute the same in Merced County, and will be there in person Monday during the bullfights in Stevinson.

“There will be a veterinarian of my choosing to prevent any kind of influence,” he said. “We’ll keep that out of the mix.”

Because his office oversees the county’s animal control division, he’ll assign officers to monitor the bandeiras and other gear as well.

Thus, the bloodless bullfights will go on as usual in Merced County, no sharp or pointy objects allowed.

----------------------

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article80772812.html

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article80772812.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article80772812.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article80772812.html#storylink=cpy

Read But it appears some bullfighters are no different than athletes in some other sports. They try to gain an advantage by whatever stealth means possible. Some baseball players cork bats, doctor baseballs with spit and other substances, nail files – you name it. In the NFL, New England’s Tom Brady is facing a suspension for deflating footballs to get a better grip in the cold weather.
I can think of two cases of boxers either altering the padding of their gloves or their hand wraps, and one fighter – Luis Resto – went to prison for doing both in the 1980s.
No doubt, bullfighting is a dangerous sport. Bullfighters risk getting floored, trampled, hooked and gored. Advantages are advantages. In the bloodless bullfighting, the spikes or nails in the bandeiras are intended to penetrate the exterior padding, go through the hide and into the shoulder muscles, weakening the bull. Warnke said investigators found holes in some of the pads.

“But we didn’t find blood on the pads,” he said.
Moore, who first encountered this problem at the bullfights in Thornton, north of Stockton, several years ago, said that is because the puncture wounds are more likely to bleed beneath the hide, not so much on the surface.
“We’d had complaints about it from an animal welfare group,” But it appears some bullfighters are no different than athletes in some other sports. They try to gain an advantage by whatever stealth means possible. Some baseball players cork bats, doctor baseballs with spit and other substances, nail files – you name it. In the NFL, New England’s Tom Brady is facing a suspension for deflating footballs to get a better grip in the cold weather.
I can think of two cases of boxers either altering the padding of their gloves or their hand wraps, and one fighter – Luis Resto – went to prison for doing both in the 1980s.
No doubt, bullfighting is a dangerous sport. Bullfighters risk getting floored, trampled, hooked and gored. Advantages are advantages. In the bloodless bullfighting, the spikes or nails in the bandeiras are intended to penetrate the exterior padding, go through the hide and into the shoulder muscles, weakening the bull. Warnke said investigators found holes in some of the pads.

“But we didn’t find blood on the pads,” he said.
Moore, who first encountered this problem at the bullfights in Thornton, north of Stockton, several years ago, said that is because the puncture wounds are more likely to bleed beneath the hide, not so much on the surface.
“We’d had complaints about it from an animal welfare group,” Moore But it appears some bullfighters are no different than athletes in some other sports. They try to gain an advantage by whatever stealth means possible. Some baseball players cork bats, doctor baseballs with spit and other substances, nail files – you name it. In the NFL, New England’s Tom Brady is facing a suspension for deflating footballs to get a better grip in the cold weather.
I can think of two cases of boxers either altering the padding of their gloves or their hand wraps, and one fighter – Luis Resto – went to prison for doing both in the 1980s.
No doubt, bullfighting is a dangerous sport. Bullfighters risk getting floored, trampled, hooked and gored. Advantages are advantages. In the bloodless bullfighting, the spikes or nails in the bandeiras are intended to penetrate the exterior padding, go through the hide and into the shoulder muscles, weakening the bull. Warnke said investigators found holes in some of the pads.

“But we didn’t find blood on the pads,” he said.
Moore, who first encountered this problem at the bullfights in Thornton, north of Stockton, several years ago, said that is because the puncture wounds are more likely to bleed beneath the hide, not so much on the surface.
“We’d had complaints about it from an animal welfare group,” Moore said.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article80772812.html#storylink=cpy

said.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article80772812.html#storylink=cpy

Moore said.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article80772812.html#storylink=cpy

more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-Unlike in Mexico and Spain, where many of the bulls are killed in bullfights, the Portuguese bullfights here are legal only because they aren’t supposed to hurt the animals. Velcro or similar material is attached to the ends of the spears called bandeiras, which the bullfighters stick to fuzzy pads on the bulls as they pass by. The point is not to harm the animal, and not to draw blood. Except that some do, Warnke said. Acting on the tip from Moore, sheriff’s investigators confiscated bullfighting implements that had spikes and nails hidden by the Velcro material.
These bullfights are a big and important part of the Portuguese culture and heritage here in the Valley. The events test the bullfighters’ courage and skills, whether fighting the bull from the ground or on horseback, and these events are a major part of festa celebrations. Both sheriffs said they appreciate and support the culture and its traditions.

“Bloodless bullfighting is a Portuguese tradition,” Moore said. “They are very good people – the salt of the earth.”
The lawmen said their intent isn’t to shut down the bullfights – only to make sure they are done legally.

Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/article80772812.html#storylink=cpy

columns-blogs/article80772812.html#storylink=cpy

Morante de la Puebla estara en Zaragoza

An old style look to this year's El Pilar in Zaragoza.

Pablo Hermoso de Mendoza in Madrid, May 23rd, 2009

The horse actually made a full recovery after this goring

A difficult bull from the Fermin Bohorquez ranch

A difficult kill as well

Legend

(photo by Maurice Berho)

Jose Tomas in Valladolid, September 9th, 2016

Spikes seized, investigation launched into ‘bloodless’ bullfights in Stevinson

 

 (mercedsunstar.com 5-24-16)

 



Sheriff Vern Warnke on Tuesday announced an investigation into several Pentecost associations he said have been using spikes and nails to prod bulls during cultural and religious bullfights that have been advertised as “bloodless.”

At a news conference Tuesday in Merced, Warnke held up a flag that read “California Portuguese Bloodless Bullfighting Org.” At the bottom of the short flag pole, Warnke pointed out a sharp nail, more than 2 inches long.

“I’m all for religious freedom and celebrating culture, but we’re not going to put up with this,” Warnke told reporters. Warnke said he received an email late Monday from San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore relating a tip that such instruments had been used on the bulls at the Stevinson Pentecost Bullfights on Lander Avenue “for years.”

An event put on Tuesday by the Turlock Pentecost Association attracted more than 5,000 spectators. Deputies, who already were scheduled to conduct security for the event, launched an investigation and discovered numerous spikes, concealed by hook-pile tape at the end of each pole.

Deputies confiscated the poles and the animals were not believed to have been hurt Tuesday. “Had deputies not intervened, many animals probably would’ve fallen victim to these brutal acts of animal violence,” officials said in a news release.

He said deputies are looking to examine each bull used in Tuesday’s event, but said investigators have been told the bulls were “not available.”

“Mysteriously the animals were sold from last night to today,” Warnke said, adding that investigators are continuing their efforts to examine the animals.

No arrests were made Tuesday. Warnke said the investigation still was in its early stages.

“To help ensure this type of behavior doesn’t happen in the future, Sheriff Warnke will be revisiting rules and regulations pertaining to these types of events and any permits issued by the Sheriff’s Office,” officials said in the statement. “The sheriff is looking into forcing the hand of the event coordinators to have a licensed veterinarian on site each time an event transpires to inspect the well being of all animals.”

Warnke said he believes owners of the bulls knew the animals were being injured and “were doing nothing about it.” He said he did not believe any of the animals were killed.

The Sheriff’s Office has provided security at dozens of similar bullfights in Stevinson and Gustine in recent years. Warnke acknowledged many of the groups appear to “have pulled the wool over our eyes.”

--------------------

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/crime/article79681197.html

No arrests were made Tuesday. Warnke said the investigation still was in its early stages.
“To help ensure this type of behavior doesn’t happen in the future, Sheriff Warnke will be revisiting rules and regulations pertaining to these types of events and any permits issued by the Sheriff’s Office,” officials
Read more here: http://www.mercedsunstar.com/news/local/crime/article79681197.html#storylink=cpy

Curro Diaz in Bayona, September 3rd, 2016

(photo by Roland Bastedoat)

Impressive photo of an impressive bull from the Pedres ranch.

Ivan Fandino in Bayona, September 3rd, 2016

(photo by Roland Castedoat)

Such a great photo. Look at Ivan Fanino's stance, feet togother, arms down, head down, back straight.

Massive bull too, charging hard, the sand is packed, a little bit flung up by the bull's hoof.

The barrera is painted a deep red, flowers hanging on the wall just below the feet of the fans.

Awesome photo.

Las caras

(photo by Manu de Alba)

Check out the facial expressions in the crowd as this Alcurrucen bull tries to jump the wall in Bilbao.

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Here is another one, this time in Madrid.

Impressive bull from the Alcurrucen ranch

(photos by Manu de Alba)

This impressive bull from the Alcurrucen ranch was fought by Diego Urdiales in Bilbao on August 24th, 2016 from which Diego cut two ears and left the plaza through la puerta grande.

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Miquel Barceló pinta el cartel homenaje a Víctor Barrio en Valladolid

El artista mallorquín muestra su solidaridad taurina y apoya la corrida en la que actúa una de sus figuras más admiradas, José Tomás, junto a otras como Morante, El Juli y Manzanares

La corrida homenaje a Víctor Barrio el próximo 4 de septiembre en Valladolid no solo contará con un lujoso plantel de figuras, sino que además el cartel anunciador llevará la firma de un gran artista, Miquel Barceló.

Una vez más, el pintor mallorquín muestra su solidaridad y su apoyo a la Fiesta de los toros al encargarse del diseño del cartel taurino -el inmenso ruedo de una plaza de toros con un toro en los medios-, como ya hiciera cuando pintó el de la última corrida en la Monumental de Barcelona en 2011.

Si en aquel festejo antes de la prohibición actuaban Juan Mora, Serafín Marín y José Tomás -torero al que admira y sigue-, ahora en Valladolid lo hacen la propia figura de Galapagar, Juan José Padilla, Morante de la Puebla, El Juli, José María Manzanares y Alejandro Talavante, con toros de distintas ganaderías. Todo para rendir tributo al compañero muerto en la arena, para dar gloria y honores a Víctor Barrio. Los beneficios irán destinados tanto para erigir un monumento al torero como para el fomento y la defensa de la Fiesta a través de la Fundación del Toro de Lidia.

Aquella vez en Barcelona fue Barceló quien se puso en contacto con José Tomás y se ofreció a realizar la obra. Ahora de nuevo vuelven a unirse los nombres de ambos en una corrida tremendamente especial, con mucha carga de emotividad.

Miquel Barceló, ganador este año del premio taurino Ciudad de Sevilla, acudió este fin de semana al «combate» del verano en San Sebastián: José Tomás-El Juli, en una tarde con altas cotas de toreo y en la que el de Galapagar cortó una oreja y el de Velilla, dos.

La corrida del próximo 4 de septiembre, en la que se prevé un lleno hasta la bandera, forma parte del abono de una gran feria taurina en Valladolid, una ciudad a la que su ayuntamiento quitó el título de taurina.

En una entrevista del pasado año en ABC, Barceló, gran aficionado a los toros, habló así de la guerra declarada por algunos políticos a la Fiesta: «Es una estupidez... por abreviar muchísimo. Nunca he conseguido explicar los toros a alguien que es contrario a ellos. Pero esta serie [una exposición en Calcografía Nacional] no tiene nada que ver con la apología taurina. Al contrario. Muchos de los grabados parecen antitaurinos. Cuando hice el cartel para la Feria de Sevilla los antitaurinos lo usaron como emblema. Mejor que no me ponga a defender los toros porque acabaré hundiéndolos. Tengo toros coloraos mallorquines en casa, pero no los mato con un estoque. No son para torearlos. Son para pintarlos, sobre todo, y para comer. Era una raza que en los años 80 estaba casi en peligro de extinción. Recuperé asnos y toros. Pero no soy un ganadero».

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http://www.abc.es/cultura/toros/abci-miquel-barcelo-pinta-cartel-homenaje-victor-barrio-valladolid-201608161912_noticia.html

"Torero! Torero!": Matador killed by bull in ring on live TV buried in Spain

 

 (cbsnews.com 7-11-16)

 



Hundreds of people joined family, friends and members of Spain's bullfighting world for a funeral Mass on Monday for bullfighter Victor Barrio who was fatally gored in a bullring this past weekend.

People applauded and shouted "Torero! Torero!" as the coffin was carried from a hearse to a packed San Bartolome church in the central town of Sepulveda where Barrio lived.

The 29-year-old matador died after being gored in the thigh and chest in the central city of Teruel on Saturday. Barrio was first gored in the thigh by the 1,166-pound bull's left horn and his body was flipped over. He was gored a second time in the chest and the blow penetrated a lung and his aorta as the matador was on the ground.

The goring was broadcast live on television and news of his death stirred widespread reaction across Spain. King Felipe VI and acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy expressed condolences.

Medics were at Barrio's side almost immediately but he died later in the bullring's infirmary.

He was the first professional matador to die during a bullfight in Spain since 21-year-old Frenchman Jose Cubero Yiyo was fatally gored in 1985 in Madrid. Before Barrio's death, Manolo Montoliu, then 38, and Ramon Soto Vargas, 39, were also fatally gored in 1992 in Seville while serving as "banderilleros," matador's assistants.

His wife, Raquel Sanz, was at the ring when the goring happened.

In messages on her official Twitter account Sunday, Sanz thanked those who had expressed condolences and said, "My life has gone, I have no strength.'"

Prominent members of the bullfighting world were among those attending the Mass.

"Today you can see it, everybody is here, all the bullfighting world - to put our arms around a destroyed family, and to acknowledge the valor, the commitment and all the values that Victor Barrio had as a person and as a bullfighter," matador Enrique Ponce told reporters.

Fellow bullfighter and a friend of Barrio's, Esau Fernandez, said, "The words don't come out. He was a good friend, he was a colleague, we grew up together."

Festivities in Teruel were immediately suspended following Barrio's death, and Las Ventas, the Madrid bullring were he debuted in 2010, posted a heartfelt remembrance of the young bullfighter.

Participants at the famed running of the bulls at the San Fermin festivities in Pamplona wore improvised black armbands in honor of the fallen matador while dashing along the streets on the way to the bullring on Sunday morning.

Reuters reports there were other bull-related casualties on the same day in Spain. Reuters write: "A Japanese man was gored in the chest and a Spanish man in the arm during the third bull-run at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona. A 28-year-old Spanish man who was gored in another similar event near Valencia on Saturday died from his injuries."

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http://www.cbsnews.com/news/victor-barrio-bullfighter-matador-killed-gored-funeral-spain/

A classic photo of a young El Juli

Miura bull in Beziers France, August 15th, 2016

Miura bulls are notoriously large and aggressive, and here is the photo to prove it.

That bull is almost as big if not as big as that massive horse.

Classic

 

A couple of nice photos of the Plaza de Toros de Ronda

(photos from thewanderblogger.com)

https://www.thewanderblogger.com/plaza-de-toros-de-ronda/

Toasting Dead Friends: A Farewell to Hemingway's Pamplona

A group of bull-running veterans gathers to toast their fathers and lament the festival’s descent into tourist hell.

(by Kimberly Dozier thedailybeast.com 7-16-16)

They came to toast the dead, who would run no more.

A small group of Americans gathered in the gutter outside Ernest Hemingway’s now-shuttered drinking hangout, Casa Marceliano. They were toasting three compatriots who would not be returning to Pamplona, Spain, to run with the bulls—or drink afterwards.

They’d been drawn to the city for the festival of San Fermin, a two-week celebration of bullfights, parades, music and a lot of drinking, immortalized in Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises. His 1926 novel brought the world to Pamplona’s doorstep and transformed a sleepy local fiesta into an international bucket-list destination

Hemingway first visited the town in 1923, but left it behind in 1959, lamenting the way it had changed because of the crowds his book had brought.

The American who organized the morning toast, war photographer Jim Hollander, felt somewhat the same about the evolution of the festival over the 48 years he’s attended—but he has only himself to blame.

Hollander’s groundbreaking pictures of the bull run in the 1970s drew other international news outlets—as did his book, Run To The Sun—Pamplona's Fiesta de San Fermin, chronicling his photos of the fiesta from 1977 to 2002.

Hollander, 66, said his photos of a 1978 Basque riot at the fiesta landed him a job at wire services UPI and then Reuters, and he kept photographing Pamplona in between global conflicts. Other outlets started taking notice.

“They said, Hollander is covering San Fermin like a Super Bowl, like a story? Why are we letting just Reuters cover it?” he said, remembering how he went from being the only foreign photographer to one of dozens who descend on the annual event. He now photographs it for the European PressPhoto Agency.

The city of Pamplona declared Hollander “foreigner of the year” this year, honoring him at a lavish cocktail party and lunch at the Hotel Europa for the fame he’d brought them with his decades spent photographing the encierro—as the running of the bulls is called.

His work and the resulting international news coverage by other outlets arguably drew even more attention than Hemingway’s book had. While it attracted a great new crop of runners, and money for the city of Pamplona, it also created a bit of a monster.

Tens of thousands of tourists now seek to run with the bulls, changing the event from a sort of local fair to more of a rave, with sexual assaults against drunken revelers a growing problem, and the city’s cobblestone streets turned grimy with a sickening muck of spilled alcohol and worse that takes an army of garbage men to power wash away each morning.

The daily run itself has grown from a few hundred runners to up to 4,000 on the half-kilometer-long course. It was once a balletic test of speed, with local Basque runners and a few brave foreigners guiding the bulls from the paddock to the bullring through the narrow streets, using their bodies like human capes.

Now, especially on the weekend during the eight days of runs, it’s turned into a seething stampede of panicked humanity that ends up injuring a lot more runners than the bulls actually do. Spilled blood on the running route gets covered by sawdust and eventually ground underfoot.

Only 16 runners have been killed since the encierro’s start in the 500-year-old-plus event since they started counting in the early 1900s, but every year, dozens are injured and only the more severe injuries get recorded. (The city provides medical services free for Europeans, but charges foreigners, who often skip the hospital and town without paying the bills.)

So it was fitting for this small band of Americans to kick off San Fermines 2016 as the locals do, with a mass for three longtime attendees who’d died in the past year, claimed not by bull’s horns but by age—the starkest reminder of changing times.

The priest eulogized the last of the runners from Hemingway’s era—Noel Chandler, David Pierce and Hollander’s artist father, Gino, who had brought his son Jim to the festival as a teenager.

“We used to be the young guns,” Hollander said of his surviving compadres. “Now we are the old farts.”

The three fallen revelers probably would have gotten a kick out of the fact that a recently deceased nun was also being remembered at the mass, for entirely different services to the community.

Noel Chandler had been famous for his generous hosting skills, especially his annual champagne party at his apartment overlooking the run course to kick off the festival—open to all who walked through his door.

David Pierce was known to everyone in Pamplona as “Big Dave,” a 6-foot-plus Jewish Canadian who lived in Paris after World War II and called himself a “celebrated author,” for his LA-based detective novels. An infamous jokester, he would get dressed up in a matador outfit and floppy shoes, and walk up to tourists saying, “Donde esta la Plaza del Toros?” aka “Where is the bullring?”

“Everybody knew him,” Hollander said.

Hollander’s father, Gino, was famous for his charity, giving his paintings away even to those who couldn’t afford them.

“He thought anyone should be able to enjoy his art,” his son said.

The padre might as well have been eulogizing the loss of the simpler, less crazed celebration that still focused more on the saint, San Fermin, and a gathering of good friends over fine adult beverages, rather than on the chugging of the ubiquitous plastic bottles of pre-mixed sangria with a crush of strangers.

The morning after the mass, a couple dozen mostly Americans gathered for an homenaje or homage to Gino Hollander and absent friends. The crew raised a glass in the gutter of the street outside Casa Marceliano, moving the party to the sidewalk when the occasional police car or trash truck drove by at a respectfully slow pace.

“My dad, Gino Hollander, was a very incredible person, a wonderful artist, a lover of Spain, a lover of Pamplona, who brought me here when I was 13,” said his son, choking up at the memory during this, his 48^th own fiesta.

“His motto in life was ‘Go out and get it,’” he said. “And 100 percent of the people in this street live their life that way.”

It was an eclectic gathering of old-timers and a new generation of Americans, and a few other international interlopers, all clad in the traditional white clothes with red sash and red neckerchief. The older members of the group had actually lived in the upper rooms of Casa Marceliano until the city took over the building and turned it into offices.

Making drinks was 30-year-old Ivy Mix, cocktail maestra of Leyenda Brooklyn Cocteleria and 2015 American bartender of the year. She’s been attending the fiesta since 2008. At Hollander’s request, she had created their traditional drink, “Yellow Shit,” in this case, comprised of orange juice, gin, turmeric and other more secret ingredients.

“I figured we needed the turmeric for cleansing,” for the days of drinking to come, she said of the concoction.

Standing next to Hollander was American Deirdre Carney, who raised a toast of “Yellow Shit” to the three men, all compatriots of her father, Matt, who passed away in 1988. Her father was a World War II Marine who lived in Paris after the war. He’d met Hemingway in Pamplona in the 1950s.

According to novelist and Pamplona regular James Michener, in his book Iberia, the two men promptly got into as a fistfight. His daughter says it was simply an “altercation.”

On Carney’s deathbed in Ireland, he wrote a letter to Pamplona, thanking the city for its kindness and beauty.

Daughter Deidre still comes to the festival every year, one of the few women who runs with the bulls. Her brother Allen also makes the occasional appearance to run. Deirdre Carney is representative of the new generation of American festival-goers in her bohemian uniqueness—a sometime schoolteacher and aspiring writer who hopes to spend the coming year bartending in Antarctica.

The homenaje ended with a toast of the obnoxiously named yellow brew to Gino Hollander, by his son Jim. That final toast just might have included sprinkling the elder Hollander’s ashes out of an Italian coffee can at the base of a tree across from Casa Marceliano.

That may or may not be illegal, but nearby police did not intervene. In Pamplona, this sort of act tends to be embraced by locals, who appreciate the foreigners who love their city as much as they do.

Then it was on to the siesta—the nap that becomes a matter of survival a few days in to the fiesta—to rest before that night’s bullfight, followed by a drink at 9 pm outside Mafia’s near the ring, then an evening’s repast at 10pm, then to bed by approximately 1am and a brief nap before waking for next day’s race.

At 4 am, workers install heavy wooden fences all along the route, some covered in heavy steel to take the impact of skidding bulls and scrambling crowds at sharp corners. Watchers of the event  have to stake out the few spaces where it’s possible to see the bulls pass at least three hours before the race, when the streets are still dark.

The runners have to get onto the course before the police shut it off at 7:30 am for the 8 am start. They spread themselves throughout the course depending on their skill level. Anyone visibly drunk or carrying a bag or a cellphone is kicked out.

The runners sing three times to the saint, San Fermin, represented by a statue tucked in the alcove of a stone wall near the start of the race.

They ask to survive what’s coming.

When the bulls are released at 8 am sharp, the runners take off ahead of them, trying to pick up speed to match the bulls’ average of 15 miles per hour.

The experienced runners know which way the bulls are coming from, and when to dive for cover when the bulls get too close. The beginners? Not so much.

“As I’ve gotten more experienced at running, I’ve noticed more and more how unexperienced and mad all the tourists are,” said Briton Alexander Fiske-Harrison, a relative newcomer to the festival, first partaking in 2009. He quickly won the respect and a place in the American group, because he’d trained as a bullfighter and written the well-received book Into The Arena: The World of the Spanish Bullfight.

“He’s actually killed a bull,” Hollander said, with a rare touch of awe for a photographer who has spent decades in combat zones.

The Oxford-educated Brit also won their respect by taking their advice and starting small, first practicing in other runs in smaller Spanish towns. He now runs the Pamplona race in his tattered red-and-white Eton College jacket, when he can overcome the unease that grows with each passing year over the number of tourists now clogging the course.

“The people who stand there and say ‘Which direction do the bulls come from?’ Things like that now scare me,” Fiske-Harrison explained, over the customary post-run breakfast of fried eggs, Iberian ham and rosé wine, served on a long picnic table on the freshly washed cobblestone streets. “I physically feel fear for them, so I have to move away from them,” he said, taking a swig of wine for comfort.

Hemingway’s own grandson, writer John Patrick Hemingway agreed, as we chatted after another morning run outside another Hemingway hangout, Bar Txoko in the Plaza del Castillo.

“There are tons more people now,” the younger Hemingway said, while sipping the de rigueur post-encierro drink of “Kaiku and cognac.” Kaiku is a Yoohoo-like milk drink that comes in vanilla or chocolate flavor. 

“Sometimes there are 2,000 people on the course in one day,” Hemingway said. “So you have more danger of getting knocked down by someone else than you do of the bulls.”

The official Pamplona guide to the encierro states there are 2,000 people mid-week and sometimes 4,000 or more during the weekend runs.

There are few figures available from Hemingway’s era. Little known fact: Hemingway never actually ran with the bulls, according to his grandson.

The younger Hemingway, Fiske-Harrison, Hollander and the other Americans wrote an e-book of their own experiences called Fiesta: How to Survive the Bulls of Pamplona, giving advice to would-be runners. Hollander’s photos line its pages.

One of the longest-serving runners and one of the Fiesta manual’s co-authors, Joe Distler, hands out beermats advertising the e-book. They are emblazoned with a Hollander photo of a charging bull and the words, “This beermat could save your life.”

Distler is over 70 but refuses to give his exact age. Over a full-bodied Rioja at a steakhouse that he wants to keep nameless to hide it from tourists, the native New Yorker said when he started running in 1968, the streets were nearly empty and the bulls visible charging toward him from 40 yards away.

“I used to run in the center of the street very casually and wait for the bulls to come up the street,” said Distler, who is so famous for running the course that even Basques stop him and ask him for selfies.

“You attract its attention and try to pull it along with you as you are running,” Distler said, describing how experienced runners run “on the horns” of the bull, just in front of it and never touching it.

“Now there are so many people, I can’t even see the bulls some mornings,” he griped.

He blames getting gored four times on the crowds, not the bulls.

“With the bulls, I've always felt like part of the herd. Once I run with them, they don’t bother me,” he said. “What distracts the bulls are when people hit them and push you.”

Outside Bar Txoko, another of the American tribe Chicago native Bill Hillman, 34, was sporting abrasions on arms and legs and a massive purpling bruise swelling on the back of one calf. He was rubbing a spot on his skull where he thinks a bull or human kicked him in the head.

He’s been seriously gored twice, in the thigh and the knee, but said it was the crowd’s panicked behavior that drove him to scramble for safety mid-run.

“This year is the first year I’ve ever gotten off the course since I was a beginner because I felt afraid,” said Hillman, who authored Mozos: A Decade Running with the Bulls of Spain.

“It wasn’t because of the bull. I would have loved to have run with that bull,” he said, describing how he sees the run as a way of helping guide the animal up the street. “But the people around me…were acting very erratic, and I couldn’t anticipate their next moves and I started feeling claustrophobic.”

“I can imagine a day when it’s just a massacre and the bull smashes through standing crowds of people,” he said.

One of the course’s most famous runners, Basque Julen Madina, is worried the growing crowds will eventually destroy the event.

“I’m very worried that the encierro is suffering,” he said over champagne at the Europa Hotel, ironically to toast Jim Hollander for his world-famous photographs bringing all those crowds. “I think we need to find a way to control who joins the race,” Madina added with a shake of his head.

Distler said the town had tried. He’d been the only foreigner invited to take part in a Pamplona city conference five years ago, to try to figure out how to limit the numbers on the course—but a lottery might mean longtime runners like him don’t get a spot; a fee to run might drive out poorer Spanish runners; and changing the start time from 8am to earlier in the morning would make it too dark for television to cover. The run, like the bullfights in the evening, are covered wall-to-wall with commentary, slo-mo replays and close-ups just like soccer or baseball.

No one could decide what to do, so the clueless still come in droves.

Fiske-Harrison offered his 30-second advice to tourist greenhorns considering a bucket-list-fulfilling once-in-a-lifetime run.

“Don’t. But if you insist on doing it, learn about it first,” he said emphatically. “Look it up. Read anything. Watch it on YouTube. Understand the chaos you are dealing with.”

And on the day of your run, two more key tips: “If you get hit, stay down,” he said. “And never run all-out. Because if it changes, you need gas in the tank. If a bull turns and you’ve run yourself out, what are you going to do?”

Afterwards, if you’ve avoided being carted off by one of the medical teams that lines the route for bandaging or surgery, go to Bar Txoko. Order a Kaiku and cognac, toast Ernest Hemingway, Jim and Gino Hollander, and absent friends—and start drinking.

Update 9:04 am 7/17: This story has been updated to reflect the bulls run 15 miles per hour, not 24, and the encierro has been run for 500 years, but records of those killed only started to be recorded in the 1900s.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/07/17/toasting-dead-friends-a-farewell-to-hemingway-s-pamplona.html

Juan Jose Padilla en Portugal hoy

(photos by Emilio de Jesus)

Hoy en Pamplona

 

(photo by Emilio Mendez)

Matadors today were Miguel Angel Perera, Andres Roca Rey, and Sebastian Castella.

Un toro de Fuente Ymbro

(photo by Maurice Berho)

Pamplona, July 8th, 2016

We’re Finally Waking Up To The Horrific Ways We Treat The Animals We Eat

When it comes to animal suffering in the United States, farm animals are in a category of their own.
True, hundreds of thousands of dogs and cats are euthanized each year in shelters. Plenty of other animals are killed to produce clothing or are used in lab tests, circuses or theme parks.

But all of them combined don’t add up to even a half percent of the animals killed for food each year.
This vast disparity is not reflected in how Americans spend their charity dollars. Quite the opposite.

Americans give well over $1 billion to animal welfare groups each year. Only a tiny sliver of that money, about four-fifths of 1 percent, goes to nonprofits devoted to protecting factory-farmed animals.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/farm-animal-rights-revolution_us_577304f6e4b0352fed3e5b16?section=

Bullfighting in a dinner jacket and bow tie?

(photos by Elsa Vielzeuf)

I've seen photos before of bullfighters performing in clothes other than the traditional suit of lights. But this is the first time I've seen someone in a black suit and tie worthy of the Oscars.

Enrique ponce performed this way in Istres, France just the other day, June 19th, 2016.

He even pardoned a bull from the Nunez del Cuvillo ranch. It must have been some night.

Bull and picador

(photo by Maurice Berho)

Sevilla, April 11th, 2016

Unique shape of the Plaza de Toros Sevilla

 

A screenshot showing the unique shape of the plaza de toros in Sevilla.

Juan Del Alamo in Madrid, May 17th, 2016

(photo by Julian Lopez)

639 kilos !

(photo by Maurice Berho)

A Miura bull tipped the scales at 639 kilos this year in Sevilla.

There must be another story to this photo with some of the crowd smiling, laughing, at applauding for the two trumpet players. What the story is though I don't know.

So many little things about the bullfight I don't know and probably will never know unless I live a few seasons in Spain.

Wind, a bullfighter's worst enemy

(photos by Maurice Berho)

Wind is a matador's worst enemy. It can be rather difficult to fight a bull with the wind blowing the muleta all over the place.

One thing to notice at a bullfight will be all the little pieces of torn up newspaper on the ground close to the wooden barreras. These pieces of newspaper are thrown in by one of the matador's team members in an attempt to give the bullfighter an idea where the wind is blowing and if there is an area of the plaza where the wind might be more calm. If there is then the matador might choose to take the bull there for the performance.

You'll also notice on a windy day a team member pouring water on the bottom portion of the muleta. This is to make the muleta heavier on the bottom so that the wind might not blow it around as much.

A mark in the sand

(photo taken earlier this year in Valencia)

Occasionally you will see a bullfighter enter the plaza and make a mark in the sand with his foot.

Usually they are making the sign of the cross.

A la plaza

Morante de la Puebla, on his way to the plaza with time to ponder and reflect.

The next generation

Guillermo Hermoso de Mendoza training in Mexico. Looks like the torch will be passed.

Concurso goyesco de recortes, Madrid, May 2nd, 2016

(photo by Ana Escribano)

El pasado 2 de mayo, a las 12 de la mañana, la plaza de toros de Las Ventas acogió una competición de toreo a cuerpo limpio, en la modalidad  goyesca, para conmemorar el día de la comunidad de Madrid.

El espectáculo ha reunido a 16 de los mejores especialistas que se han enfrentado en grupos de cuatro, a cuatro reses de la ganadería El Sierro, clasificándose los cuatro mejores para la gran final, que se disputó con otro toro del mismo hierro. José Antonio Pérez “Josele” fue quien se alzó con el primer puesto del concurso, con una gran actuación a lo largo del mismo.

 

Al término del concurso, las hermanos Coral y Sara Mota, junto a Rocío Pulido, se enfrentaron en una exhibición a un novillo de Sepúlveda de Yeltes al que realizaron recortes de mucho mérito. Al final de la lidia, Sara Mota fue volteada por el animal sin graves consecuencias.

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http://www.las-ventas.com/noticia.asp?codigo=4499

 

 

Tijuana postcard

Que toro !

(photo by Maurice Berho)

A bull from the Fuente Ymbro ranch fought by Juan Jose Padilla in Seville, April 17th, 2016.

Diego Ventura in Sevilla, April 10th, 2016

(photos by Maurice Berho)

Diego Ventura, torero desde nino