The Middle Ages Never Ended
Tordesillas is well-known in history. It is where a treaty was signed between Spain and Portugal in 1494 dividing up the globe for colonization purposes. After that Portugal was essentially vetted from South America and could only keep Brazil. From there it went to Africa and the East Indies to establish colonies. Tordesillas is also known as the town where Juana la Loca (Joanna the Insane) was locked up for more than fifty years in the convent of Santa Clara. There, the daughter of the Catholic Monarchs, wife of Phillip Habsburg the Handsome, mother of Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, and Queen of Castile upon her mother's death, was locked up because she became a political inconvenience, really, rather than for her insanity. Tordesillas is situated on the river Duero, and on the highway that leads to the northwest, as well as the railway. Its industry is mainly tourism and wheat farming.
Aside from being a Castilian town of historical importance to Spain and to the world, it is also well-known for a barbarous ritual that is celebrated every September. Every year, as the date approaches, campaigns are renewed to have the medieval celebration condemned and prohibited. And every year it is allowed to occur. The event is the Torneo del Toro de la Vega. It dates from at least the fourteenth century, and is as barbarous as a recreational event from medieval times can be. The tourney begins when the bull is led through the streets out of town, down to the river to fields of beaten earth. The area for the tourney is limited and if the bull manages to escape from it, it is pardoned and allowed to live (for a short time - one bull that managed it over twenty years ago later died of injuries, the other was shot by the Civil Guard). Only people on foot and horseback are allowed to participate. The people who follow the bull out on the field carry lances with which they strike at the animal, wounding it and weakening it. Sometimes the bull rushes at the participants and gores one or two. Eventually, the bull, suffering and bleeding from numerous wounds, falls and is lanced to death by one. The person who kills it gets its testicles as a trophy, which he then sticks on the end of the lance and carries into town. If a regular bull fight is bloody enough, this is worse. The animal is harried from one end of the field to the other by numerous participants and doesn't stand a fighting chance against the lances that are wielded against it.
During the dictatorship animal rights activists mounted an enormous protest, and from 1966 to 1970 it was prohibited. Then, because it was a "tradition" and part of the local "folklore", it was reinstated. And no matter how hard associations both national and international now fight to stop it, during this democracy there seems to be no way to do so. Every year activists gather and try to impose themselves between the lancers and the bull. Last year thiry people were injured in confrontations. But the Civil Guard steps in to let the tourney continue to its barabaric end.
I understand that a tradition that has lasted hundreds of years has a certain weight in a community. But I also understand that there are traditions that I am glad no longer exist, no matter how important they were once upon a time. Bear-baiting is one of them. It was also common in the middle ages, and people loved to see the spectacle of dogs attacking a tied-up bear. But it is now considered horrific. Yet, substitute people for dogs and a bull for the bear, and we have the same situation in twenty-first century Tordesillas. There is no difference. I don't believe in taking animal rights to extremes. If that were to be done we wouldn't even have pets, because having them means we impose our will on them. But, unsolicited cruelty of this kind should be put behind us. There is no need for it now. Bull baiting is not a "sport". A sport is a match of wills or brawn between humans. Not the cruel lancing and corralling of an animal just to watch it bleed and die and then parading its testicles on a lance.
Tomorrow is the Toro de la Vega. Unfortunately, though we consider ourselves civilized, it will take place. There is no willpower from above to put a halt to it. It's sorry to say that during a dictatorship such an event was stopped, and yet during a democracy there's no way to stop it because it's considered a "freedom" to be able to celebrate such "traditions".
Aside from being a Castilian town of historical importance to Spain and to the world, it is also well-known for a barbarous ritual that is celebrated every September. Every year, as the date approaches, campaigns are renewed to have the medieval celebration condemned and prohibited. And every year it is allowed to occur. The event is the Torneo del Toro de la Vega. It dates from at least the fourteenth century, and is as barbarous as a recreational event from medieval times can be. The tourney begins when the bull is led through the streets out of town, down to the river to fields of beaten earth. The area for the tourney is limited and if the bull manages to escape from it, it is pardoned and allowed to live (for a short time - one bull that managed it over twenty years ago later died of injuries, the other was shot by the Civil Guard). Only people on foot and horseback are allowed to participate. The people who follow the bull out on the field carry lances with which they strike at the animal, wounding it and weakening it. Sometimes the bull rushes at the participants and gores one or two. Eventually, the bull, suffering and bleeding from numerous wounds, falls and is lanced to death by one. The person who kills it gets its testicles as a trophy, which he then sticks on the end of the lance and carries into town. If a regular bull fight is bloody enough, this is worse. The animal is harried from one end of the field to the other by numerous participants and doesn't stand a fighting chance against the lances that are wielded against it.
During the dictatorship animal rights activists mounted an enormous protest, and from 1966 to 1970 it was prohibited. Then, because it was a "tradition" and part of the local "folklore", it was reinstated. And no matter how hard associations both national and international now fight to stop it, during this democracy there seems to be no way to do so. Every year activists gather and try to impose themselves between the lancers and the bull. Last year thiry people were injured in confrontations. But the Civil Guard steps in to let the tourney continue to its barabaric end.
I understand that a tradition that has lasted hundreds of years has a certain weight in a community. But I also understand that there are traditions that I am glad no longer exist, no matter how important they were once upon a time. Bear-baiting is one of them. It was also common in the middle ages, and people loved to see the spectacle of dogs attacking a tied-up bear. But it is now considered horrific. Yet, substitute people for dogs and a bull for the bear, and we have the same situation in twenty-first century Tordesillas. There is no difference. I don't believe in taking animal rights to extremes. If that were to be done we wouldn't even have pets, because having them means we impose our will on them. But, unsolicited cruelty of this kind should be put behind us. There is no need for it now. Bull baiting is not a "sport". A sport is a match of wills or brawn between humans. Not the cruel lancing and corralling of an animal just to watch it bleed and die and then parading its testicles on a lance.
Tomorrow is the Toro de la Vega. Unfortunately, though we consider ourselves civilized, it will take place. There is no willpower from above to put a halt to it. It's sorry to say that during a dictatorship such an event was stopped, and yet during a democracy there's no way to stop it because it's considered a "freedom" to be able to celebrate such "traditions".
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