SON LOS TOREROS: TAKING THE BULL BY THE HORNS

on monday, in a decision that has exploded comments sections across the left liberal blogosphere, the spanish government declared bullfighting "an artistic discipline and cultural product" and transferred its administration from the ministry of the interior to the ministry of culture, which will henceforth be responsible for the "development and protection" of bullfighting across mainland spain -- except, that is, in catalonia, where a bullfighting ban passed last year will take effect in january 2012. (bullfighting has been illegal in the canary islands since 1991.)

for a stirring, informative and (in most cases) intelligent discussion of the ethical implications of the designation of bullfighting as an art, visit the comments at mary elizabeth william's article on the spanish government's announcement at salon.com. william's piece is decidedly more opinion than reportage, but it isn't nearly so one-sided and dubiously researched as a similar article at care2 (which seems to imply that bulls are jumping into stands and injuring spectators during most every fight).

but let's leave it to those comments sections to decide whether the bullfight is art or simple cruelty. after all, vitriolic, hypothetical arguments with other guests of the ethical vacuum of cyberspace are an important american cultural product, and one that deserves to be protected. hey! teetering socialist government of spain: that's what we call the first amendment. listen up...or something.

it's speculated that the decision to ban the bullfight in catalonia was more an attempt to distance the catalonian autonomous community from madrid and "spanish" culture than a stance on the fight itself. similarly, it's not inconceivable that madrid's decision to enshrine bullfighting as an essential part of spanish heritage and national identity was a conscious attempt by the incumbent socialist prime minister to ingratiate himself with those spaniards who appear to be leaning right ahead of the general elections scheduled for november 20, elections in which the conservative popular party is expected to take control of the government. in other words, the toro bravos might have now become victims of cultural manipulation on multiple levels. still, it's sad to think that the bullring in barcelona will never see another fight after the end of the current season in september.

that sadness should be tempered, however, for the fact that jose maria manzanares will be closing the season in a fight at the real maestranza de caballería in seville on september 25, and the knowledge that bullfighting won't soon exit the cultural stage in the autonomous community of andalusia. a distaste for hemmingway is only part of why death in the afternoon won't make it into this year's summer reading pile (although into the arena might), but at least there will still be opportunities to see jose maria looking damn fine in the pants of his traje de luces -- and maybe even an opportunity for a touch if he can grab a couple of trofeos and win the honor of being carried out of the maestranza.

that the spanish bullfight is a holdover from the bull sacrifices of greco-roman mithraism, and that mithraism has been termed a dress rehearsal for christianity seem particularly applicable to the heritage and national identity of spain, at least as far as the light of richard wright's pagan spain is cast -- or at least as far as can be inferred from the publisher's synopsis of that book and the excerpt from it available in richard wright reader, which is the one of the two books available from the multnomah county library.

that association with the pagan inclinations of roman catholicism might be what attracted madonna to the bullfight, although it might have just been the matadors and their trajes -- or maybe just emilio muñoz, the one particular matador that figures as the center of the motif for the video of her 1994 song "take a bow." throwing madonna into the mix will no doubt raise other, even more polarizing arguments over the designation of certain cultural products as art, but the goal of introducing her to the discussion is to indicate that madonna started it. she was into matadors when jose maria manzanares was just twelve (the age, incidentally, at which he fought and killed his first bull). madonna did everything before anyone else did it. it can't be long before lady gaga does the bullfighter thing too, and bruce weber can probably introduce her to jose maria.

the other week at the albina press, the ownership and management of toro bravo and tasty n' sons were arguing not so discreetly over a request for a raise made by one of the men present. profits are, apparently, flat, but the chef or manager or whoever he was stood his ground. he left, not in a huff, but with an obvious, stylistic fury and with his one supporter in the argument humbly in tow. that's the art of the bullfight. the name of the first of those restaurants just happens to work well as a metaphor -- needless to say that the menu makers and management there would probably pay top dollar if they could get their hands on the post-fight meat of a real toro bravo. let's hope they've switched out the number for the spanish ministry of the interior with the one for the ministry of culture in the office rolodex.