The Toro de la Vega has been held again this Tuesday in Tordesillas (Valladolid, 9,000 inhabitants), after two years suspended due to the pandemic, but it has been done in the confinement modality that has been practiced since 2016: without killing the animal with spears , and without nailing a few hooks with currency either, as the City Council and the people in general intended this year.
In the summer, a regulatory change had been approved to introduce this novelty in the celebration, but after a complaint from the animal rights organization PACMA, the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León overturned the new regulations and prohibited the bull from being injured on its way through the streets and pine forests of the Valladolid municipality.
Reluctantly, the town has finally complied.
No one has harmed the animal this Tuesday on its way, while loudspeakers recalled:
Before the chupinazo that starts the Manjar
bull race ,
weighing 560 kilos, the morning atmosphere clearly showed the local devotion to their celebration.
Some hungover youngsters wore pro-bullfighting sweatshirts and banners, some children proudly waved a Toro de la Vega flag and veterans showed off their traditional costume.
Next to a statue of a huge bull next to the Duero river, people crowded to see the animal come out from 11 in the morning and complained about the judicial resolution against the regulatory change to recover a part of the tradition.
Nieves Rodríguez, 72, is outraged at what she feels is "a persecution of Tordesillas."
“They fuck with us a tradition of centuries and they call us barbarians and rednecks”, she vents herself.
Many like her lament here that since 2016 the bull has not been speared to death and they still do not understand that Justice does not allow any type of damage to the animal.
“The bull has never said 'they are mistreating me'”, affirms Rodríguez, who uses the long tradition of the celebration to reject the accusations of brutality.
Banners claiming the traditional celebration of the Toro de la Vega. Claudio Alvarez
The woman speaks next to the building where the Treaty of Tordesillas was signed between Castile and Portugal in 1494 to divide up the Atlantic navigation zones.
This consensus between parties contrasts with the isolation that many perceive today, as Esther García and Genaro Ramón, 62 and 54 years old, affirm: “Everything is politicking, they only remember Tordesillas because of the bull.”
“Why are bulls raised if not?” they question on a terrace before starting the party that they see decaffeinated.
Juan Pedro Vega, 65, analyzes the scene with his beret, stick and traditional suit and snorts when asked about the new regulations that have not even been applied.
“The law is for everyone and it must be followed, but it is assumed with little taste,” he comments, since the generalized anger has not translated into rebellion beyond the verbal.
Manjar,
the progress of the protagonist towards the pine forests.
The bull, which by threatening to charge towards some fence posts causes some tumbling and some tension before running over an umbrella towards the meadows, takes just three minutes to get away from the crowd and be chased on horseback.
Juan Barragán, 46 years old and many tournaments in his history, looks with resignation at what he believes "removes the essence."
The man, although he understands that the speared death of the morlaco is not allowed, he does claim that there is a championship and the badges can be nailed.
“It is what it is”, he ditches it.
The youngest show differences towards the evolution of the festival and in general they better assimilate the new rules.
JN, a 16-year-old teenager who asks not to give her name, explains that she doesn't like soccer and doesn't go to the stadium, but that's not why she asks to be banned.
“If before there was no problem, now neither”, she argues, defending that it be done as always, although in the absence of good bread it is confinement: “Better this than nothing”.
Since 2016, the animal cannot be killed with spears as was traditionally done. Claudio Alvarez
Manuel Rodríguez, 26, has breakfast with two friends of licorice and a cane sitting near the path.
"The parties have to evolve, like everything," admits the young man, who understands that older people or those who "suck the Bull of the Vega at home" reject such progress.
“It is good that they stopped killing him because the controversy is over,” he comments, and criticizes the “anti-bullfighting media center” that Tordesillas has become, despite the fact that bullfighting is practiced in many other places that do not generate much of a stir.
A waitress who requests anonymity insists on this route and cites the enmaromados bulls who have flames on their horns or other celebrations: "I'm not bullfighting at all, but there are no parties with bulls."
For her there is also "a lot of politics" about this case that causes "they have taken it with the people."
The modality of running of the bulls has supporters, with reservations, among those who enjoy the bullfighting world, such as Adrián Carretero, who at 23 years old has a horn tattooed on his leg.
"Before he was much shorter because they killed him before, now you can see more and he's cool," says the young man, who understands the anger of the most classic because "traditions must be respected."
In his opinion, the 2016 ban on killing him in public and the current refusal to nail him with currency poses a threat because "the bad thing is that we started with this and then it ends up disappearing."
Very close to him, a graffiti on a wall asks in vain: "Yes to the bullfight of the Toro de la Vega", a demand that collides with regional laws and justice, which force Tordesillas to search, for the year that comes,
One of the final moments of the bull's tour in the pine forests of Tordesillas this Tuesday. Claudio Alvarez
Once the bull has headed towards the pine forests, the exodus begins towards the bars, which serve torreznos, beers, wines and other non-horned delicacies.
An innocent boy asks his father if after the celebration “they are going to put the bull back in the truck” from which it came out.
The adult responds evasively.
Manjar
's immediate future
lies in a slaughterhouse, even though he has been freed from spears and hooks.
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