“It is a new social and cultural reality in Spain” according to the Spanish Culture Ministry.
This Friday, Spain scrapped their “Annual Bullfighting Award,” prompting a backlash from national conservatives against the abolition of the centuries-old tradition that is seen as a national cultural art form.
In Spanish-style bullfighting, the animal is killed by a sword thrust.
The matador, which in Spanish means “the killer,” uses a cape in a ritualistic manner to excite the bull and eventually tire the animal enough so that it slows down and becomes easier to kill. However, this is not a truly unequal encounter, as at the beginning of the ritual, the bull is fully capable and many times gores or even kills the matador.
Bullfighters have been considered the “All Stars” of traditional Spanish life for centuries, and the traditionalists have deified them in art, song, and performance.
The Cultural Ministry decided to abolish the annual award because younger members of Spanish society are more concerned about animal cruelty, and attendance at bullfight arenas has drastically declined throughout the last 25 years.
For most younger Spaniards, bullfighting has no place in modern life. Let us award to the Cultural Ministry “both ears and the tail” for finally recognizing that blood on the sand, whether it’s the bull’s or the matador’s, isn’t welcome in the 21st Century.
Manos Angelakis was one of the founders, the former Managing Editor for 25 years, the former Managing Editor Emeritus, and former Senior Food & Wine Writer of LuxuryWeb Magazine. He passed away in 2025 as an accomplished travel writer, photographer, and food and wine critic based in Hackensack, New Jersey. As a travel writer, he wrote extensively about numerous cities and countries. Manos was also certified as a Tuscan Wine Master and traveled to wine-producing areas in order to evaluate firsthand the product of top-rated vineyards. His articles in other publications include Vision Times and Epoch Times.
Some of the disappointments in Spanish bullfighting I actually witnessed myself a long time ago when I was working for Young & Rubicam in Madrid.
I even made a note of it: “Once again – a bullfight. On this, the second time I went to a bullfight, everything seemed to go wrong. Early on, the picador’s poor performance prompted a disgruntled spectators to bombard him with their seat cushions.”