jueves, 18 de septiembre de 2014

Spanish stereotypes and Tordesillas' Meadow Bull

Like every year, the Spanish village of Tordesillas "celebrated" yesterday the festivity known as El Toro de la Vega (The Meadow Bull), which consists, as wikipedia well points, of slaughtering a bull by people on horseback or on foot.
Groups defending animal rights protest against this brutality year after year without success.
And here's my view.
As usual, it's always about the two Spains. And for this purpose, we could divide Spanish young society in two main groups: the toffs and the perroflautas.
According to the stereotype, the Spanish toff is typically a middle/upper class kid who studied business or economic sciences in a private university, votes for PP, wears sunglasses and hair cream (and pearl earrings, as big as possible, if it's a female) and goes to clubs to dance like crazy, drink long drinks like crazy and if so, takes drugs in the form of pills.
The Spanish perroflauta, as opposed to the toff, studied social sciences or journalism in a public university, votes for lefty or republican parties, wears clothes as colorful and wasted as possible and green/blue/pink dyed hair, has multiple piercings and tattoos, and gather with friends to drink beer and smoke marijuana sitting on the floor in a public square -where he pees when needed.
The perroflauta will protest in favor of free abortion, euthanasia, public services and female rights. The perroflauta might have worked as a volunteer helping immigrants in the coasts of Cadiz, or cleaning the petrol spilt in the coasts of Galicia (whereas the toff volunteered to receive the teenage pilgrims who came to Spain for the World Youth Day).
In their condition of perroflautas, these guys also protest for animal rights and, in this case, against the meadow bull. Problem? Society doesn't see them as people concerned by the brutality committed against the bull, but as young and miscarried trouble makers who have nothing better to do with their time.
Even myself, being my ideas much closer to those of the perroflautas, tend to consider them this way sometimes...
You'll get my point when you see the photos in this article:
(Click here to see the article)

For the record, I want to make it clear that I'm talking about "stereotypes". I don't mean to offend anybody... Only those who support the festivity!!

I would like to end this post with a funny anecdote... My friend Miky writes a blog where, from time to time, he posts about wikipedia sabotage. Of course, they have moderators to censor the fake facts from the articles, and they act rather quickly, so I had never seen one live... until today!! When I found this:



There's a fake line in spanish next to the photo, under the title "Torneo del Toro de la Vega".
Translation: "Nonsense consisting of slaughtering a bull with lances, which some idiot murderers find funny and they support it. A whole country against this tradition which, mayor after mayor, all completely retarded, no one has the balls to abolish."
(And yes, for possible spanish-speaking readers, the last tab reveals I had no idea how to get a screen shot with a Mac...)







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