About two patron saints...

I said I wouldn´t post again at least until I finished reading Adolphe, but I didn´t go further with the reading and I have something I want to write about.

You probably know by now how I hate bullfights (if you didn’t, you do now!), and all kind of celebration involving animal suffering (which, unfortunately, is pretty common in my beloved country, and one of the most known aspects of our culture in the rest of the world –together with flamenco).

Today I want to write about 2 different things:

1^ST THING: LOS SANFERMINES

This is the name of a very popular celebration in Spain, in the city of Pamplona, to honor San Fermín, the patron saint of Navarra. It lasts from 6^th to 14^th July, and its main activity is a massive 2-3 minutes run along the streets, followed (and sometimes beaten) by a bunch of bulls on their way to the ring. Each one of these is called “encierro”. The encierros take place every day from 7^th to 14^th, starting at 8 am.

Thanks (at least in part) to Hemingway, a lot of stupid Americans come to Spain these days to take part in the encierros along with the stupid Spaniards. As a result, everyday in the news you can see images of bulls beating people, some of which end up seriously wounded, with arterial injuries and all kind of trauma (last year, one teenager died by the wounds). Everyday they report the number and severity (and nationality) of the people wounded, like it was the most important thing that is happening in the world.

Although bullfights (and bullfighters) are very popular in Spain, you can find more and more Spanish people who claim for their abolishment (yep, and not only Catalans). But with these encierros the thing is different, because bulls are not killed during them. There are encierros in almost every village celebrations, and sometimes even the most anti-bullfight people are ok with them. But honestly, every time that I hear about a runner being caught and wounded by the bulls, all I can think is: stupid! Why do I need to know if you got your femoral artery ripped?

I admit I might be a little radical, but I just can’t stand this stupidity!

Apparently, yesterday´s encierro was specially dangerous and chaotic, because there was a mass of people plugging the ring access when the bulls arrived...

2^nd THING: YESTERDAY PROTEST IN SOL

When I was on my way to meet my friend in Sol yesterday, I was surprised by a miner protest. At one point, all the protesters rose their fists and started singing “Santa Bárbara bendita”. I was running late and didn’t have time for stopping to take a video of them, but it was kind of.. touching.. I don’t know.

(Sarcastic singing:

“Poor me, poor me, San Fermín celebration is over!”
-This is the song that people from Pamplona sing to farewell the celebration until next year...)