The running of the bulls, of the heifers, will return to the streets of Zaragoza as well as the rest of the popular bullfighting festivals. A ban that the municipality of Natalia Chueca ended this Thursday, and that had been in force for eight long years in the city, due to an absurd ban inherited from the communists of Zaragoza en Común, which those of Vox. demanded to be eliminated.
It only took a single question to the City Council asked by the people of Vox to find popular fervor in the rural neighborhoods of Zaragoza, the most affected by this ban that Pedro Santisteve imposed in 2016 and which, with a legal subterfuge, made it impossible to put into practice any celebration of these characteristics that takes place in the streets.
“Are they going to repeal the agreement of the previous government of Zaragoza en Común that prohibits the use and occupation of public property for the organization of bullfighting celebrations?”, Vox appealed last June, before the Committee on Culture, Education and Tourism, arguing that there was no reason to “continue being restrictive and going against the autonomous norm.”
“It is about respecting current legislation and the freedoms of all the neighbours who wish to attend this type of shows that are part of the cultural and traditional heritage of our villages and also of the rural neighbourhoods of Zaragoza,” they explained.
Bullfighting festivals in the streets of Zaragoza
The response from the Chueca executive was not long in coming and the mayor once again showed firm signs of defending the cultural traditions of Zaragoza, in this case linked to bullfighting.
This Thursday, among the Government agreements, the repeal of this ban was approved. In this way, what is indicated in the regional regulation (updated in May 2023) is followed, which establishes the promotion of the Aragonese tradition, public safety and animal welfare in this type of events. This includes the release of bullfighting cattle, rope bull, round bull, ensogado, embolado or engamellado.
For the Minister of Participation and Internal Regime, Alfonso Mendoza, this agreement allows the Aragonese capital to enjoy the same bullfighting celebrations as those celebrated in the cities of Aragon, applying in all cases the regional regulations.
“It was not understood that in a city located a few kilometers from Zaragoza these popular events were scheduled and that they could not take place in our streets and rural neighborhoods, when the bullfighting celebrations are one of the main attractions of the programming of festivities, given the long-standing bullfighting tradition and roots that exist in our city,” he stressed.
Since, as Vox explains, rural neighborhoods such as San Juan de Mozarrifar, Montañana, Monzalbarba, Juslibol, Garrapinillos or Casetas, which traditionally organized these celebrations, have not celebrated them normally for eight years, because they could only do so on “lands owned by private organizing entities.”
Characters of popular festivals in Aragon
It should not be forgotten that Aragon is the second region in Spain with the highest number of bullfighting festivals in Spain, behind the Valencian Community. According to official data, 2,741 celebrations of this nature have taken place in our community. In other words, one in seven small shows in our country has taken place in Aragon.
In addition, the Misericordia bullring in Zaragoza tops the ranking for the largest number of popular celebrations held each year during the year. An honour that makes it considered in the bullfighting circuit as “the cathedral of the popular festival”.
Communists and Prohibition
How did the communists manage to impose this ban without contravening regional regulations or national laws? Zaragoza en Común described the popular bullfighting celebrations as “animal abuse”, that is, the traditional running of the bulls with wild cattle, the liberation of cattle and the bullfight of heifers, and determined that the City Council would not collaborate, organize or finance any of these celebrations that involved “mistreatment or cruel acts towards animals, such as the bull with a rope, the roped bull, the burning bull, the fire bull or other similar variants”.
Thus, referring to such “animal abuse”, they have prohibited the authorization of any “use or occupation of public domain or municipal property”, as well as any provision of municipal resources for its organization. In this way, in practice, they have deprived with a stroke of the pen a multitude of city residents who do not understand popular festivals without the traditional bullfighting celebrations.
