Almost 700 years of tradition came to an end on Sunday as the last bullfight in Cataluña was staged at the Plaza Monumental arena in Barcelona.
The 18,000 seats for the region’s last ever bullfight sold out within hours, tickets traded on the blackmarket for as much as 3,000 euros each and posters for the event, limited edition prints by the Spanish artist Miquel Barcelo, were highly prized as souvenirs.
In 2010, the Catalan government voted to end bullfighting in the region as from January 1st 2012 following a petition by the animal rights’ group Prou! (‘Enough’) which collected 180,000 signatures. There are, however, many who believe the move was more of a political move than one concerned with cruelty to animals.
Bullfighting is seen as a ‘Spanish tradition’ by a region seeking independence from Madrid and a ban on bullfighting could be viewed as severing a link to Castillian Spain. Bullfighting is not banned in any other region in Spain.
The argument that a ban on bullfighting is purely an issue relating to cruelty to animals falls a little flat when one considers that other events in Cataluña featuring bulls, such as fiestas where the horns of a bull are set on fire and the animal is mercilessly taunted and tortured, are not banned and will continue.
Bullfighting is a barbaric ‘sport’ and has been declining in popularity in Cataluña for decades. La Monumental, the last of the three major arenas to close, was barely ever one-third full and had difficulty making a profit, leading some to believe that bullfighting would have eventually died a natural death in the region without political intervention.
As soon as politicians become involved one has to question their motives, such is the nature of the ‘game’.
Back to Sunday at La Monumental and the star of the final show was José Tomas, considered Spain’s finest bullfighter, although the final ‘kill’ was at the hands of Serafin Marin, a native of Barcelona.