Jessica Gresko: L.A.'s Bullfighting Tradition Maintained
Ready to charge Bill Torres at Griffith Park on a Saturday afternoon is a man clutching a bar barbed with two bull's horns. Torres, 65, holds his ground, feet together.
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Practices like this one have gone on for more than three decades at Griffith Park and generally draw half a dozen \o7aficionados practicos, \f7or amateur bullfighters, swishing capes and brandishing dummy swords.
Practicing in the tradition of matadors worldwide, some of the Saturday bullfighters are preparing to fight real bulls in festivals in Mexico or for visits to ranches where they practice with cows. Others come to watch or just to stay involved in a pastime from their youth.
...
The Saturday sessions and this weekend's event aren't the only bullfighting Los Angeles has in its history.
Early Angelenos built a bullfight ring steps away from present-day downtown before the fledgling state of California outlawed the spectacle. The city boasts one of the oldest bullfight clubs in the nation. And a collection of 1,700 books on bullfighting at the Central Library is believed to be the largest in the United States. Still, few people are aware of the city's bullfight history, say aficionados\o7.\f7
"Most people I run into away from the bullfight world don't know much about it at all," said Jimee Petrich, president of Los Aficionados de Los Angeles, the oldest bullfight club, which was founded in 1949 and now meets monthly on Olvera Street.
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Early accounts suggest that Angelenos began attending bullfights, or \o7corridas,\f7 at an area near downtown that was fenced off for the spectacle in the early 19th century. By 1849 a permanent bullring had been constructed on Calle del Toro, now North Hill Street, on the current site of Pacific Alliance Medical Center in Chinatown. The weekly L.A. Star periodically reported gorings.
Not everyone agrees on the nature of the 19th century bouts, however. Early L.A. chronicler Horace Bell, writing in 1881, described an area bullfight with some of the trappings of a modern event: glittering outfits and specialized bullfighters. Other historians argue that Los Angeles bullfights probably were far less elaborate and perhaps milder, more akin to bull baiting, with the animals rarely being killed.
Bullfighting that harms a bull was outlawed in California after it became a state, though Portuguese -- or bloodless -- bullfights still take place as part of religious festivals. In the 1980s, Los Aficionados de Los Angeles installed a plaque on Olvera Street commemorating L.A.'s early bullfights, and the club keeps talk of bullfighting alive with monthly meetings at El Paseo Inn, where members watch bullfighting films or hear speakers.
...
Practices like this one have gone on for more than three decades at Griffith Park and generally draw half a dozen \o7aficionados practicos, \f7or amateur bullfighters, swishing capes and brandishing dummy swords.
Practicing in the tradition of matadors worldwide, some of the Saturday bullfighters are preparing to fight real bulls in festivals in Mexico or for visits to ranches where they practice with cows. Others come to watch or just to stay involved in a pastime from their youth.
...
The Saturday sessions and this weekend's event aren't the only bullfighting Los Angeles has in its history.
Early Angelenos built a bullfight ring steps away from present-day downtown before the fledgling state of California outlawed the spectacle. The city boasts one of the oldest bullfight clubs in the nation. And a collection of 1,700 books on bullfighting at the Central Library is believed to be the largest in the United States. Still, few people are aware of the city's bullfight history, say aficionados\o7.\f7
"Most people I run into away from the bullfight world don't know much about it at all," said Jimee Petrich, president of Los Aficionados de Los Angeles, the oldest bullfight club, which was founded in 1949 and now meets monthly on Olvera Street.
...
Early accounts suggest that Angelenos began attending bullfights, or \o7corridas,\f7 at an area near downtown that was fenced off for the spectacle in the early 19th century. By 1849 a permanent bullring had been constructed on Calle del Toro, now North Hill Street, on the current site of Pacific Alliance Medical Center in Chinatown. The weekly L.A. Star periodically reported gorings.
Not everyone agrees on the nature of the 19th century bouts, however. Early L.A. chronicler Horace Bell, writing in 1881, described an area bullfight with some of the trappings of a modern event: glittering outfits and specialized bullfighters. Other historians argue that Los Angeles bullfights probably were far less elaborate and perhaps milder, more akin to bull baiting, with the animals rarely being killed.
Bullfighting that harms a bull was outlawed in California after it became a state, though Portuguese -- or bloodless -- bullfights still take place as part of religious festivals. In the 1980s, Los Aficionados de Los Angeles installed a plaque on Olvera Street commemorating L.A.'s early bullfights, and the club keeps talk of bullfighting alive with monthly meetings at El Paseo Inn, where members watch bullfighting films or hear speakers.