A slow death in the afternoon
Can bullfighting survive its many challenges?
After Catalonia’s presumably last bullfight, Guy Hedgecoe asks whether the tradition is in its dying days across Spain.
José Tomás is the most charismatic and controversial figure in bullfighting and his announced return to action after injury is big news for aficionados. But Spain’s corrida tradition is facing some obstacles that even Tomás might struggle to overcome.
Bullfighting is facing a decline in attendance and a ban in Catalonia. But its advocates insist this Spanish tradition can survive its current crisis due, in part, to the unique risks it presents.
Bullfights and Flamenco. It’s hard to imagine Spain without either of its richest cultural activities. While one recently two-stepped its way to recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural treasure, bullfighting finds itself in the ring against a generational divide, politics and a struggling economy, attempting to defend its history and tradition.
Banned in Catalonia last year, bullfighting is dividing Spain along political and cultural lines.
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