Fiesta Brava a la Plaza de Toros Mexico

Also known as bullfighting....which I saw last Sunday afternoon at the Plaza de Toros Mexico, the largest such arena in the entire world. From the looks of it, however, I think Fiesta Brava has passed it's heyday in popularity. Apparently, people prefer to watch young men in shorts in games where things don't necessarily die.
We're all familiar with bullfighting from loony tunes cartoons and the like at an early age, but I really had no idea what the real deal was all about. There is a lot of pagentry involved, and it's very routine, except for the occasional severe injury to the matador who might be a few seconds or a mere few inches off. So the bull, who is 3-5 years old, has a name and is announced just before he charges onto the scene in what is his first and last bullfight. There are several matadors in the circular ring to provide no shortage of distractions for the bull. They act as a team, most of them with pink cloths which draws the bull's attention but seem not to have the same hipnotic effect of control as the famous red ones, which are introduced later.At this point, the bull is at full strength, very fast, and quite pissed off (I'm not sure what they do to the bull behind the scenes, or if they are just naturally maintain an ornery disposition). He charges the nearest matador, and once they (the human) knows the bull has singled them out, they run for cover behind one of the covered entrances like the one in the above image center left. They'll butt the partition with their horns until another matador draws their attention away to another part of the ring. Then once the bull has tired himself somewhat, these guys on padded horseback ride onto the scene looking like Sancho Panza and armed with medieval treachery.
The spears are not for show: the matadors draw the bull to the flank of one of the hosemen and then they stab it in the back, which makes the bull gore the blinded horse. The damage is done, and the bull starts to bleed himself into utter exhaustion as he seems to forget his severe injury and continues to charge one matador after another.At this point, the bull is then struck in the back with feathered barbs. There are two strategies for this: either the matador draws the bull to charge and then jumps out of the way and stabs at the last moment, or if he is especially brave (and tall), he himself charges the bull and jumps around and places the barbs around the initial spear wound.
Whatever the heirarchy is among matadors, this must be a step into first name billing.This is done 3 times, delivering a total of 6 barbs into the bulls back . Whether this is just for show, as the bull is now wears a garland for the remainder of the show, or done to expedite the bleeding process, is still a mystery to me.Now that the bull is very weak and disoriented, the star matador comes alone into the ring. One can tell they are stars by their slightly more distinctive dandy outfits, and their headshots on the bill. The one above came from Spain, and while he was certainly not the bravest or the most skilled, he was far and away the biggest showmen of the three. The star has a red cloth and a sword. Somehow, they really are able to control the bull's movements with that red sheet.Whenever they wish, they can make the bull charge left or right and otherwise they can stand mere inches away from the injured creature without much worry. Or at least they do not show it. And they also turn their backs to the bull more often than I would think was good for their health. After perhaps five or ten minutes of this exhibition, when ever they see fit, I suppose, they take their sword, aim well, and then stab the bull in the back. A good delivery puts the sword right through the heart , which kills them pretty much instantly. The matador in blue delivered well in both of his two bulls. The Spaniard did not, and had to finish the mortally wounded bull with a special sword made just for stabbing it in the head.

There is a moment I am sure, just after the delivery of the sword, when the bull starts bleeding profusely from the mouth, when you can see in his eyes, the realization of his own mortality. He knows then what we humans are blessed to know from a young age, and then that spark is gone forever. It is as though this space is more than just an arena for public entertainment; it is a universe contrived to carry this cursed knowledge forcefully to another species and relieve us however briefly from its burden.And then the reality of matter is dealt with. The 450-500 KG of dead meat is dragged head first with a chain by two white horses and a host of characters who seem borrowed from a job selling peanuts in a 19th century circus. What they do with the bull afterwards is anyones guess, but there is a popular taco place across from the arena which provides three kinds of ground mystery meat...I'd prefer to think something like that came from their passing.It's dangerous for all parties involved. Both the matadors shown above suffered injuries. The guy in purple on the left was lifted by the groin as he delivered his barbs but he walked away in one piece with only a limp and a hole in his fancy pants. The star on the right was laid out when he delivered his fatal sword and he was carried away. We never found out what happened to him.

For a very long time, man was always at odds with nature, and always overwhelmed by it. In those times, such displays of dominance over the beast were necessary for our sanity. But now, when the odds are so obviously in our favor (at least for the present) it's time to let go and focus on saving it for us all.

Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, in the beginning.
Man gave names to all the animals
In the beginning, long time ago.

He saw an animal that liked to snort,
Horns on his head and they weren't too short.
It looked like there wasn't nothin' that he couldn't pull.
"Ah, think I'll call it a bull."

Anahaucalli

I should subtitle this post 'or how I get my bearings back'. After about a month's hiatus due to too much work and too little interest in using a computer when I was not, I finally had a chance to get out and explore the city in ways more wholesome than New Year's debauchery. On a whim, I struck out for Anahaucalli, Diego Rivera's ambitious obsession in his golden years to make a permanent home for his extensive collection of per-Columbian artifacts. It is not so easy to find, especially since you have to transfer at Tasquena from the super frequent, very fast Metro to the lazy tren ligero, and then trek out a few blocks.
The architecture is pseudo Mayan, utilizing elements of the talud-tablero , and the complex is composed of a few low slung service buildings organized around a court with that massive hunking block holding down the south side (again, a scheme not unfamiliar to the Mexica). The plan is square, and the (sometimes) vertical distribution of elements, particualrly the windows, indicates some western infulence, but on the whole, it's really more an architecture of individual fantasy (I imagine Rivera dreamed himself a god in a place like this).Inside the tone is heavy, dark, particularly because this is surprising a load bearing masonry structure. It must be a nice place to be on a very hot day, which int turned out to be, although by the late afternoon, as always, things cool down to a brief moment of perfection before the wind picks up. Anyway, as you can see, there are oodles and oodles of pre-Colombian artifacts (Mayan, Aztec, Toltec, etc.) The tour guide (all visits are guided, no exceptions!) mentioned there were over 70,000...mostly small of course, but charming nonetheless. The planta baja (lower floor) is softly lit by marble glazing like the Beinecke at Yale. Unfortunately, as is the case in most museums I've seen in Mexico, there is no subtly or grace in the way the exhibits are displayed and lit so whatever the quality of the natural light may have been was largely unoticable under the high wattage of the unnatural light. Because each room in the entire complex is topped off with a unique ceiling mosaic, and they are highly illuminated, this is an issue in each and every room. It's a delimma between the architecture which creates an atmosphere demanding a certain experience and the need for artifacts to be displayed clearly and neutrally. Here I think that the architecture is just square enough to work out ok, and given the nature of the artifacts, the mood implied is a decent on for viewing.And there were some other temporary exhibits of interest, like the dragons populating the plaza.
And this contraption of cow bones made in the form of human skeletons which could be operated with an organ , a micro-nightmare version of David Byrne's Battery Building installation from last summer.Oh, and there is a terrace just below the pyramidal roof which affords rather excellent views of the mountains (when the haze permits) and the sunset. Next week, I think I'm going to get into those mountains.