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Date Published: 28/04/2023

ARCHIVED - Dwarf bullfighting banned in Spain

ARCHIVED ARTICLE -

The “degrading” Spanish tradition has long been accused of discriminating against people with disabilities

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Dwarf bullfighting banned in Spain

After decades of subjecting people with dwarfism to “mockery”, Spain has this week fallen into line with a clear EU directive and banned “comic” bullfighting shows and events.

This tradition, which is marketed as a fun day out for the family, involves dwarves dressing up as clowns and in other amusing costumes and fighting small bulls. Unlike the long-standing bull runs, which are steeped in controversy themselves, the animals aren’t harmed in the dwarf shows.

Regardless, human rights groups have been campaigning against the events for years and in October 2022, the performance by Popeye Torero, which was due take place in Madrid’s Las Ventas bullring, was cancelled at the last minute. In a sure sign that dwarf bullfighting is going out of fashion, the show was axed after only 37 tickets were sold.

“We have overcome the Spain of the past,” said Jesús Martín Blanco, the director general of Spain’s Royal Board on Disabilities, who was a central figure in the campaign to cancel the Madrid event last year.

“People with dwarfism were subjected to mockery in public squares in our country, passing down the idea that it is OK to laugh at difference, to so many girls and boys who go with adults to see these shameful performances.”

However, the ruling to ban dwarf bullfighting, which was signed on Thursday April 27, hasn’t been welcomed by everyone and several former performers turned out in protest in front of the parliament.

“They take it for granted that people are being denigrated or laughed at, and it’s the opposite: the respect they have for us is impressive,” Daniel Calderón, one of the bullfighters, explained.

In other news: Date set for Shakira tax fraud trial in Spain

Image: Image: Jeffadp – Capeia on YouTube

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