The Real Maestranza of Seville presents a book about the confrontations between bullfighting and anti-bullfighting

The president of the Bullfighting Studies Foundation began the event, Fatima Halcónwhich following the book ‘Bullfighting and anti-bullfighting. History of a crossroads’ has said that “We are at a critical moment in the bullfighting world”. Likewise, he has highlighted the existence of people who have been against the Festival “always.” This essay by Professor Marchena Domínguez is number 26 of ‘Tauromaquias’, a collection coordinated Rogelio Reyes Cano. Regarding the ‘Journal of bullfighting studies’, he indicated that “we have published a double number given the number of articles we have received.” As a novelty, color illustrations are included for the first time, something that will be maintained in future publications. «Both the books we publish and the magazine They are a reference in the bullfighting world. The magazine is posted on the University of Seville website and has grown by 15 percent this year, rising to 100,000 consultations.

He then intervened Alejandro del Río Herrmannwho has pointed out that this work is defined by the terms “difficulty and beauty”, highlighting that the difficulty is based on the fact that the book brings together “praise and condemnation.” Furthermore, he has cited José María de Cossíowho said about this confrontational posture that bullfighting generates that “this fight will last as long as the Festival lasts.” He has also pointed out that Professor Marchena “has painted with the hand of a historian the controversy between bullfighting and anti-bullfighting.”

The book has a prologue by Alberto González Troyano and in the introduction Marchena establishes the idea that there must be a dialogue between “the judgments for and against the Festival.” To this Del Río Herrmann has added that “the crossroads is not only revealed as a space of confrontation, but as a crossing or exchange. Marchena deals with both extremes, as he serves people from both sides. “He does not lose sight of the opposing positions and shapes them, at the same time that they affect him.”

From there, this professor from the Madrid School of Philosophy has said that the first anti-bullfighting demonstrations emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries, even condemning bullfighting within the Church due to the danger to human life.. Not in vain, Pope Pius V promulgated the Bull ‘De salutis gregis dominici’ in 1567, through which he prohibited this art. In the Enlightenment comes the contemporary debate with modern bullfighting on foot. The policy shows a rejection of the tradition of the Festival. «There were great swords of Letters who were anti-bullfighting like José Cadalso. Moratín does defend the Fiesta. The character, destiny and the Spanish nation are introduced in the 19th century. There will also be those who defend animal life, as was published in an article in the Correo de Andalucía in 1903,” says Alejandro del Río Herrmann.

This professor has also stressed that until the arrival of the protective movement around 1870 “there has not been such a strong defense against bullfighting. The protectionists responded with solid arguments. In this way, in the last third of the 19th century, bullfighting journalism was strengthened, with anti-bullfighting press also being present. That century closed with critical positions such as that of Angel Ganivet. Also Eugenio Noel was anti-flamenco and anti-bullfighting. Animal shelters emerge and in cities like Paris there are bullfighting and bullfighting people. These clashes continued into the 20th century.

For his part, Antonio José Pradel Rico has presented the double issue of the ‘Magazine of bullfighting studies’. He mentioned the recently inaugurated exhibition ‘In the moved air…’ on Lorca’s duende theory. «In an exhibition about the duende there is only one bullfighting work. It’s a drawing, ‘Sevillian bullfighter’that lorca made in 1927. Perhaps he was inspired by the figure of Ignacio Sánchez Mejíaswhom Lorca met in 1927.

He has also pointed out that the artist Jorge Oteiza tried to capture in a sculpture the «task of the immobile» by Manolete. «If Lorca captured his self-portrait in a certain way in ‘Torero Sevillano’, so does Oteiza, who leaves his concept of bullfighting defined. The poet and the artist learn some key behaviors from bullfighting. Both Lorca and Oteiza capture the fragile nature of bullfighting,” said Pradel.