Last Friday, after a brief prohibition, bullfighting returned to Mallorca. The bullfight was well attended and it was met with a demonstration by a large group of animal rights protesters. To drown out the demonstrators, Cara al Sol (Facing the Sun) – the anthem of the Spanish fascist party, the Falange – was played over the loudspeakers. What exactly is going on here?
The cult of the bull on the Iberian peninsula goes back millennia, but bullfights are a more recent phenomenon. They date to the 18th century when Felipe V, the first of the Bourbon kings, banned and disparaged bullfighting by the aristocracy. Old-style bullfighting – nobles on horseback fighting bulls with lances – died out, giving rise to a new type of bullfighting, on foot and practised by the common people.
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