The city of Medellin recently had its annual bull fighting festival. From the last week of January until the end of February, there were 4 straight weekends of events held. The Plaza Of Macarena, Medellín’s very own bull fighting ring, was the location selected to take on this important festivity. Thousands of “paisas” visited the festival and enjoyed of both national and international bullfighters selected for this year’s season. Every weekend six different bulls were selected to challenge a bullfighter, and all of them were defeated this year, leaving a total of 24 dead animals.

Bullfighting is a greatly controversial issue. This practice has created divisions between the citadel, separating them into those who support it and those who are against it. An example of an individual who does not support these kinds of events is TCS’ High School principal, Roger Arbabi, who stated, “I went to several bullfights when I was younger… I went out of curiosity.” Although Roger Arbabi has gone to this type of events before, he believes this gave him the chance to understand and witness what happens there. Based on what he saw on his visits to the ring, Arbabi stated, “killing an animal for sport is not necessarily the best way to go.”

On the other hand, there are those people who completely support bull fights and are against government movements to end this kinds of events. Many TCS High School students are big supporters of this practice, and every year spend an important amount of money on this event. Samuel Vieira, TCS High School student, was not the exception. “I spent 357 mil pesos per fight, for a total of four fights. It was so expensive because I was located in Barrera, the best seats possible,” stated Vieira. The support for this event is so tremendous, that student like Vieira spent over one million four hundred thousand mil pesos in just this year’s season, and Samuel is only one of the many supporters. Eliana Lopez, TCS 11th grade student, has bull fights listed as one of her favorite events of the year. She has lots of passion towards this, even to the point that she has visited not only the festival in this city but in other important cities such as Manizales.

Bulls are not the only ones fighting

As stated before, there are both supporters and opposers to this event, and for the past few years they have been involved in confrontations between each other. Whenever it is bullfighting season, and people are going to the Plaza, it’s common to witness direct confrontations between these two groups. Generally the “antitaurinos,” the local name given to people who oppose bullfighting, come in great masses to the Macarena and you can hear them insulting and even physically harming the supporters of this event. There have been times in which the police has had to intervene because the fights get out of control, even reaching the point where they throw rocks and other kinds of dangerous objects at each other.

But not all the “antitaurinos” are violent. Some have rational arguments to support their disregard for this kind of event, and have strong evidence to support their claims in the legal and social abolition of this practice. According to El Colombiano, a group of peaceful protestors formed by “antitaurinos” had a march against bull fights on October 7 of 2017. The protesters used the official day of the animal as a motive to protest the killing and torture of bulls. They walked around the Macarena and chanted to show their discontent. Usually, they also bring posters asking for the event to be cancelled.

There are some “antitaurinos” that are so well-behaved and provide good arguments that even passionate bullfight supporter Lopez, stated, “I believe some antitaurinos have deep-rooted and grounded opinions.” Regarding those who are violent when they question this tradition, Lopez believes that, “they might not agree with it, but they cannot be aggressive about it, they cannot oppress freedom of expression.”

Is it culturally motivated?

The individuals who are currently backing up bull fights have supported this celebration under the claim that there’s a cultural background to it, and it shouldn’t be abolished. Tradition clearly seen this event. Bull fights have existed in Europe for many years, countries like France, Spain, and Portugal have been strong supporters of bull fights for decades, and were the creators of this culture. When europeans came to South America, they brought this tradition along with them. These colonies developed this custom, and Colombia being a Spanish colony started to practice this so called sport.

This tradition has been practiced for generations, and even some “antitaurinos,” such as Arbabi, can recognize the cultural factor behind bull fights. “I recognize the culture that is around it, this has been going on for hundreds of years within a culture,” said Arbabi. Although he understands the cultural aspect of this event, for him as a foreigner it’s difficult to judge, and he still believes it’s not a strong enough motive to continue with bull fights, instead he claims there can be a “culture change over time.”