An Open Letter to the (new) Mayor of Pamplona

Written by Chapu Apaolaza

Translated into English by Alexander Fiske-Harrison

www.thelastarena.wordpress.com July 4th, 2018

https://thelastarena.wordpress.com/2018/07/04/an-open-letter-to-the-new-mayor-of-pamplona/

Dear Mayor of Pamplona,

We have been surprised, we the people of Pamplona, the celebrants of San Fermín, the lovers of the bulls and half the world in general, with some of your statements in which you affirm that although you cannot see a Fiesta of San Fermín without bulls, “but without corridas – ‘bullfights’ – yes.”

Mr Mayor, allow me to make a point. There already exists a San Fermín without bullfights, precisely the San Fermín of all those who decide not to go to the bullring, for whatever reason, in an exercise of free will, and who do not participate in the part of the program of festivities that has to do with bulls. The people of Pamplona and its visitors can choose the option of participating in any of these events, including bull-related ones, on equal terms and without having to feel less than anyone else.

There is no need to explain that the bull in the bullring and the encierros – ‘bull-runs’ – are in the historical DNA of the fiestas of the capital of Navarre, at the least since the fourteenth century. The toro bravo, ‘brave bull’, both in the bull-run and in the bullfight has been a fundamental linchpin for the celebrants of San Fermín, within the Fiesta itself and in the dimension of it that faces towards the world outside. For us, the bull represents both a totem and a fundamental figure from July 6th to 14th, of which we are proud and in which lies a great part of this phenomenal celebration of life that are the Fiestas of Navarre. We also understand that the bull-run is because there is a bullfight. [The one leads – historically, metaphorically and literally – to the other – AFH]

All in all, the Fiesta of San Fermín is many things. We attend a great cultural tradition that each person lives in their own particular way. For some, the essence is the bull-runs, for others the Procession and the religious events, the Procession of the Giants, the family meals, the rural sports, the bulls in the ring, the fairground or reunions with friends.

There is not one ‘single’ San Fermín, we do not want there to be only one single San Fermín, we do not understand it that way, but we warn that within this diverse and universally welcoming Pamplona, the bullfights are important to many. The reason is that bullfighting in Pamplona is very much ours, perhaps it is one of the most defining cultural elements of who we are. Because our bullfights not only share almost everything with the universal cultural legacy that is ‘bullfighting’ in the wider world, but our bullfights are also special, and different from those held in Lima in Peru, in Nîmes in France, in Seville in the south, in Aguascalientes in Mexico, in Azpeitia in the Basque Country, in Lisbon over the border, in Madrid, in Mexico City, in Bogota in Columbia or in our sister city Bayonne in France.

Pamplona has ‘the bull of Pamplona’, ‘the bullfighters of Pamplona’, and the famous sunny side of the bull-ring of Pamplona, the sound of Pamplona and especially the exemplary generosity and charity, embodied by – as is often pointed out by outsiders as example – the Casa de Misericordia, ‘House of Mercy’. [For over three centuries the bullfights in Pamplona have been arranged by, and held for the benefit of, this charitable institution for the poor, sick and elderly – AFH]
Bullfights make up our identity – among other things – and they are a fundamental part of the expression of own culture.

You, the esteemed mayor of all the people of Pamplona, wonder if a city is possible in which the identity of a part of it disappears? San Fermín without bullfights, without that which sustains a section – more, less, it does not matter – of its citizenry and its visitors? A debate that wonders – at the behest of terrorist violence and the threat of animal liberation movements – whether cultural censorship should be exercised upon this culture, exercised on a section of the people that you also represent and protect, and which would be an attempt to steal  one of its fundamental expressions?

It is not a matter of whether there can be many San Fermíns, but if we are going to allow there to be only one. It is not necessary for you to talk about the need for a plural fiesta in a plural city. The tolerance that on many occasions has been legitimately claimed for other sensitivities is what we now demand for the bullfights and the bull-runs from July 6 to 14 in the name not only of what we feel, but also that of freedom and diversity. There is not only one Fiesta; we do not allow this. In recent years, Pamplona has fought to become the capital of coexistence and respect, and has become a symbol and a place where men and especially women can feel comfortable and respected. We are convinced that this respect must be maintained towards all the types of tradition and culture of the inhabitants of the city and the members of the universal brotherhood of San Fermín.

Maybe there is the temptation to rebut me by saying that “bullfighting is not culture.” But that is something that neither you nor I can decide. Only the city, the one that crowds the Monumental bullring of Pamplona every afternoon, can decide if the bulls are an expression of their popular culture or not. This is something that UNESCO reminds us in all its international treaties on cultural diversity, subscribed to precisely so as to avoid ‘the few’ being tempted to decide what is culture and what is not. Aside from bullfighting, can you imagine a Fiesta in which a part of the population believed that they had the right to prohibit the entertainment of others?

That is not the fiesta that I envisage, Mr. Mayor. Would a Pamplona without bullfighting be possible, you ask? I guess so. As it would be possible a Pamplona without its universities, without its religious expressions, without its Castilian or its Basque language, without Sarasate or Barricada, without its jotas and its dantzaris.

[Pablo de Sarasate was a famous late 19th century violinist and composer from Pamplona. Barricada is a Navarrese hard rock band from Pamplona. A jota is a genre of music and dance of which the indigenous Navarrese variant is strikingly beautiful. Dantzaris are a group folk dance from Pamplona – AFH]

Of course it would be possible. But it would not be Pamplona anymore.

Chapu Apaolaza
Portavoz de la Fundación del Toro de Lidia

‘Spokesman of the Foundation of the Fighting Bull’