Sevilla: Archives and bullfighting

When last we were writing about Sevilla, we had finished the cathedral and the Alcázar. Located right in between the two is the Archivo General de Indias, which is basically the document archives of all of Spain's conquests in the Americas. When you think about all of the exploring and conquering that they had done in what is now the western US, Latin America, and South America, and think about all the maps, charts, letters, correspondence, permits, drawings, translations, inventories, and such that they had accumulated over 300 years, it's not surprising that they have dedicated a museum to it.

At first glance, I'm not sure if the building full of shelves of untouchable tomes would be interesting in itself (amazing architecture aside), but they seem to do regular exhibits where they pull out a featured set of items and build a nice big display. The current one happened to be about the US in particular -- the missions, forts, natives, plunders, wars, and treaties which involved Spain in the affairs of the US. Between Matt hailing from Texas and the Nate, Michelle, and I having travelled the Southwest pretty extensively, it made for a really interesting time, plus a challenge to our Spanish skills figuring out the displays.

Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures inside save the one to the right and a few others, but we saw many artifacts handled by folks such as Cortez, Coronado, de Soto, and George Washington. I definitely wish that I lived closer so I could see what kinds of other things they rotate on display.

The other thing that we did that day was head to the Plaza de Toros -- every town has one in southern Spain -- which is the bullfighting ring. We had heard in particular that Sevilla's was rather old (18th century) and contained a museum. The tickets were pretty inexpensive and we first got a tour of the plaza itself. This part was mostly about the basics of the building, the organizational structure of who runs the arena, and what the numbers look like (usually six bulls to a fight, every weekend, and during the annual fair week, twelve bulls every night). We found out that you pay for seats based on how close they are to the ring, but also based on whether they are in the sun, in the shade, or start in the sun and later become shade as the fight progresses.

The best quote during this time was when our guide, after she got to the English version of that section of the tour, pointed to a gate and explained that "this is where the matador leaves victorious, and this (pointing to another gate) leads to the hospital," with no trace of humor in her voice. We had to stifle surprised chuckles at her matter-of-factness, actually.

After that, we went inside and got an overview of bullfighting attire, ceremony, and heroic figures of the past 300 years and learned the basics of how a fight progresses.

Now at this point, you're probably wondering what our feeling on bullfights is. Did we attend one? And what exactly happens? A couple guidebooks that we read said that in order to truly understand the Spanish, you have to attend a bullfight. Between that advice and the enthusiasm of our guide, I have to admit that we were pretty into it.

When you look at it objectively, bullfighting is basically getting a bull to run around, taunting it a bit, with many people involved to keep the bull distracted. Gradually, the bull is bloodied up a bit and finally, a sword is driven between its shoulders, into its heart (if done properly), the bull stands and stares for a moment, then usually falls to his knees, and then dies within a minute. Also, a few other details: the bull's neck and back are weakened during the fight so that he has more and more difficulty raising his head, and after the sword, a sort of cleanup crew comes in, quickly severs the spinal cord at the neck with a small dagger, and, while attention is focused on the matador, the bull is dragged a way by a team of mules. Depending on how well the bullfighter did (as judged by the president of the ring draping his handkerchief appropriately), he will receive no prize, one ear, both ears, or both ears and the tail, which are usually tossed to people, often children, in the crowd.

Still with me?

So it's not what you would call a really humane thing to watch by any stretch. What's interesting, though, is the aspect of honor that is brought into it. A bull must fight honorably and the matador (or picador) must fight honorably. A bull that dies in a bullfight has served a noble purpose and has died honorably and will be remembered as such. A bull that tries to run away or jumps the fence has lost his honor. A man who does not fight courageously is without honor. When a bull kills a man, even the bull's mother is killed in retribution (believe it -- we saw one on the wall). Did I mention that honor is involved?

I'm not sure I can compare this to anything that we have in the US. Maybe you can enlighten me in the comments, but I can't think of anything that really comes close.

When you think about all of the beef that we consume, particularly in the US, and that we generally don't know where it comes from, combined with the horror stories that come out of mass slaughterhouses and the obvious abuses of the system that must go on, there is something refreshing about the Spanish view of the bull. Although, just because it's the lesser of two evils...

After the weekend that we saw this museum, and after Nate had left, Matt, Michelle, and I discussed it. We agreed that we all pretty much felt the same way -- we all had somewhat morbid, but culturally-directed, curiosity about attending a bullfight and watching the Spanish people enjoy one. Unfortunately, though, the bullfights in Marbella were priced at no less than sixty Euros a seat! From the tour in Sevilla, we were led to believe that we could get cheap seats for maybe fifteen Euros. But that was Sevilla, and Marbella is a touristy place, so maybe that was a factor. In the end, we did not attend a bullfight, though after Matt had left, Michelle and I watched an entire three hour bullfighting event live on local TV. After this, and because Matt had left, our interest kind of tapered off.

I wish that I could say that I have no interest in seeing a bullfight, but on the other hand, I don't really have any regrets about missing the chance while we were there. It's hard to explain. I'm generally pretty open-minded about other cultures and generally try things (or intend to try things) that might scare off most people, especially in the realm of food, but this was a rare chance to come close to doing something that a lot of the rest of the world either knows very little about or considers barbaric (or both). Bullfighting was something that had my interest for a while, but really, it came down to cost as to why we didn't take part and experience this quintessential Spanish tradition.

Again, hard to explain. But very Spanish.

Next time, a bit more about Sevilla as we wrapped up our eventful weekend there.

• Our Archive photos
• Our bullfighting museum photos
• Wikipedia page on bullfighting