Mexico City: Bullfighting Ban Extended Indefinitely

Bullfighting is said to be a romantic Spanish tradition, described as a tragic ballet between man and bull.

However deeply rooted this practice may be in the traditions and history of Spain, and by extension Mexico, the fact remains that for the bulls, who almost always lose the «fight», it is nothing but a tragedy — utterly devoid of romance.

For this reason, a majority of Mexican citizens surveyed in a recent poll expressed support for a complete moratorium on bullfighting in Mexico, given that the animals are mistreated and subjected to cruel treatment that leads to their death, according to the animal welfare committee of the Mexican Assembly.

Bullfighting organisations have announced they will appeal and challenge the ban in Mexico City, but a higher court has already upheld a prohibition against such an appeal. Four states have already banned bullfighting entirely — a practice that historians believe may have passed the half-millennium mark last year.

A judge originally issued a temporary ban in May, on the grounds that bullfighting violated residents' right to a healthy and violence-free environment. A decision is now to be made on whether the ban should be made permanent.

The ruling threatens to mark the end of nearly 500 years of bullfighting in Mexico.

Currently, La Plaza Mexico in the capital is the largest bullfighting arena in the world, where matadors, toreros, and picadors attempt to evade the bull's fury by repeatedly piercing it with lightly chemically treated lances to gradually weaken the animal, before the torero can deliver the fatal blow with a thrust of the sword.

Since 2013, four Mexican states have already banned bullfighting, and polls show that a ban is widely supported.

Throughout history, the peoples of the Mediterranean and Mesopotamia have been fascinated by the combating of uncastrated male cattle. In ancient Mycenae, this tradition is dated back at least 3’400 years by the fresco of the «Bull-Leaper». Along with the running of the bulls in Pamplona, the Spanish have practiced bullfighting since at least 1’128 AD, when the commander El Cid is said to have been a singular figure.

Bullfighting as we know it today — on foot and with a red cloth — was first staged around the turn of the century by Francisco Romero in Ronda, Spain.

Proponents of bullfighting say that it is a form of shared or intangible world heritage.

In the documentary «Gored» about one of the most famous matadors of recent times, supporters argue that the tragedy of the «ballet» between the bull and the matador, which ends with a sword thrust, lies in the fact that the matador loves the animal and must love the bull with all his heart for the performance, which borders on ritual, to be carried out perfectly. When it is over, it is therefore the bull above all that he mourns.

Perhaps it is fitting, then, that the bloody tradition itself, like the bull and the ballet, should finally come to an end.