Objections to the bull of Madrid
José Carlos Arévalo
The bull of Madrid is very, very, very big. And its head is very, very wide. And its horns are very, very long. And it has very, very large hindquarters. But trapío is something different. Trapío is a human sensation provoked by the respect transmitted by the threatening presence of a serious, well-formed, complete bull - big, if it belongs to an encaste that produces large bulls; or of a medium size if it belongs to a lineage that produces medium-sized bulls; or small if it comes from a lineage of small bulls.
And since, in effect, trapío is a strictly human perception arising in the spectator from the sensation that the bull’s appearance transmits, there is another trapío, which I call interior trapío, and which is produced by the bull’s behaviour. If its bravery is very aggressive (encastada), its trapío increases. For example, the mythical Bastonito, of Baltasar Ibán and fought by César Rincón, was protested during the first two tercios by the elementary torista; increased in its trapío in the muleta work due to its enormous aggressiveness; and was applauded en arrastre. By the way, it was more aggressive than brave. On the third linked muletazo, it did not want to be harassed and defended itself.
Confusing trapío with volume is a form of shortsightedness by the elementary torista. And if this visual defect is not cured over time by watching the lidia of many bulls, the beginner torista ceases to be such and turns into an incompetent spectator. The bad thing about this childhood sickness of the aficionado is that it seems to be chronic and contagious. It has contaminated a minority group in Las Ventas on the basis that he who does not cry does not breastfeed. Of course, these aficionados don't cry, but they protest a lot. And if they don't suckle either, at least they’ve managed to make a bull close to 500 kilos in weight, one that was considered large 30 or 40 years ago, into a bull which today, judging by the last San Isidro, is regarded as unsuitable for the Madrid bullring, while a bull whose weight is close to 550 kilos can pass by the skin of its teeth, and a bull of more than 600 kilos has become the norm.
This drift from the natural bull – in its species, the fighting bull is characterized as being a medium/small bovine – to the unnatural bull, achieved by the breeder thanks to a rigorous genetic selection, a more expensive and sophisticated nutritional regime, and the scrupulous sanitation of the bull’s herd, is very negative for the health of the corrida. For the following reasons:
In the stock of a large cattle ranch of 50 or 60 four-year-olds, reinforced by some five-year-olds, there are usually, come the winter, no more than a dozen bulls suitable for Madrid, from which must be subtracted the following May, due to casualties, four or five or more. Obviously, such a short list of possibilities prevents a bullfight for Madrid from being reviewed by shape, noteworthiness and reata, which significantly restricts the foreseeable good performance of the selected batch.
If you add to all this that the horns must feature an oversized rigging, the circle narrows even more. Of the numerous variety of horns of the fighting bull, in the Madrid bullring today only one is recognized - the disproportionate one. All aficionados have seen a photo of Guerrita shaping up to kill a bull with huge horns, which, in those times, were very uncommon. In the latest San Isidro, 40 or 50 such bulls were fought.
Due to its rampant volume, the so-called "bull of Madrid" aggravates the inconveniences posed to the lidia in the suerte de varas that’s demanded by the elementary torista:
Placing a bull of more than 500 kilos at a long distance from the picador is not fulfilling a canon of the suerte: it’s an absurdity. Any aficionado knows that, beyond its bravery, each bull has its distance from the cite, the picador or the capotero. And the matador measures it, perfectly, in the lances and the receiving brega. And he knows which distance is adequate for the first puyazo. In addition, this placement makes it easier for the puya to have a better chance of landing in a good place, thereby running less risk of worsening the performance of the bull.
In the past, the bull was placed at a medium or short distance for the first puyazo, reducing the force of the impact it would suffer in that first encounter […] In the second, if the conditions of the bull so advise, it can be placed further away, as its gallop is more tempered and the shock less traumatic. In the 1960s, the bull, goaded more and less well fed and managed, took three puyazos because the matadors, instead of acceding to the protests of four indocumentados, fought according to each bull, and, although the puya was larger, it was less harmful, as the horse weighed around 500 kilos and the work of the picador consisted as much in defending himself as in picing.
The lidia in the bullring is at the service of bullfighting, just as the tentadero is at the service of bravery. That's how it’s always been; that's how the great bullfighters who invented the fight on foot ordered it. Then came Alfonso Navalón, a very influential critic who portrayed himself as a campero, and whose outbursts created a mudbath for today’s lidia. It's very good to have a contraquerencia in piccing, a pure tentadero. Previously, in the Plaza de Las Ventas, the picador on duty was placed before Tendido 1. Yes, I know, a transgression of the new canon. But by Tendido 1, the querencia was nearer, and the temptation of the bravucón, the mentiroso and the manso was much greater. Today, they would crucify Antonio Bienvenida, Julio Aparicio or Antonio Ordóñez, who changed the placing of the horse according to their bulls’ conditions. In doing this, they saved the bull the thousand unnecessary capotazos that it suffers today.
With respect to the outrageous horns that the recent San Isidro has seen paraded through the plaza of Las Ventas, two observations are worth making:
Although, in general, the matadors in San Isidro have killed honestly, the width and length of the horns have made it too difficult for the bullfighter to cross in front of the bull's face. The straight line of the manoletista and caminista volapié has been transgressed and replaced by a jump or a vertiginous dodge. Although the muleta dealt with the bull’s charge while the sword entered its hide, the inside horn continued in the direction of the matador's body. As a result, many honestly-executed swordthrusts were skewed, piercing the bull's right side - a scandal for those who only see the placement, but not its execution.
The same has happened in the suerte de banderillas. Squaring up to bulls with such rigging face-on is already difficult, but when the exit from a pair is blocked, which always, or almost always, happens with badly picced bulls, as has been the case in the recent San Isidro, it results in an avalanche of pairs placed too far back or falling out, the bull having gone past the banderillero. Some of these factors have disastrous consequences for the physical condition of the bull in the faena de muleta.
[This is a translation of the bulk of an article first published as ‘Objeciones al toro de Madrid’ on www.burladero.tv – TW]