Dead silence reigns in the Medinaceli station area. At the beginning of the afternoon, the Civil Guard vans landed with more than a hundred agents in the town of the Roman Arch. They have taken a stand and are making sure no one gets angry. The agents wait for the arrival of animal rights activists from Madrid while some city residents comment on the situation at the Carlos Mary bar.
“Did you see what they did?,” said Ángel Corrupio in response to the police deployment. He then assures that the suppression of the festival was carried out with judicial tricks and that both Pacma and the judicial authority played with the deadlines set by the Town Hall and the Council did not have time to respond and it would be abolished at least this year celebration with “very cautious” measures.
Corrupio, originally from Zamora but residing in Medinaceli, affirms that he is neither bullfighting nor anti-bullfighting but that he respects tradition: “El Toro Jubilo must continue because of its historical and heritage value,” he concludes. .
A group of neighbors drinking coffee also express their discomfort. They believe that the animal activists came “to provoke”, because it made no sense to come and demonstrate when the party was suppressed. Why don’t they attack the correbous?, refers to one of them who prefers to remain anonymous but underlines that Pacma focuses on the festivities of the autonomous community “politically the weakest” in Spain.
Before the church bells ring at 6 p.m. around 70 Pacma supporters gather on the Town Hall Square. The guards, with good words, prevent residents from passing through to avoid riots and clashes.
Many have speakers and nothing As soon as they entered the city, they chanted their slogans: “We are there, we are not killing”. “bullfighters you have four wines left”, “Toro Jubilo we saved you”, “bullfighter buy a book”, “this is the beginning of the abolition”…
The president of Anti-Bullfighting of Guadalajara, Mamen Montaño, went to Medinaceli to say clearly: “We help Medinaceli defend the bulls, oxen and horses used in bullfighting. They will continue and so will we. We won’t stop until the torture stops. We include San Fermín and San Juanbecause they use animals for fun and mistreat them,” he says.
On the Town Hall Square, around 70 activists demonstrated for “animal rights”. Fifty meters away, town resident José Luis Lozano walks along the side of the road with his cane. Remember that on one occasion they used the same Toro Jubilo for five years.. He lived in the pastures of the city and even the road where the rite was celebrated was known. “Fifty years ago, these – animal rights activists speak – would have been eaten by city dwellers. Look at what the bull suffered as it lived in the city for five years and was used for five rituals. “What nonsense they are up to,” he said with resignation.
The secretary of the Animalist Party, Javier Sanabria, recognized, in statements to Ical, that this Saturday was a holiday for the activists, since they normally demonstrate when the animal is tortured and on this occasion they do it because he realized that it wasn’t me who mistreated him. However, the struggle continues because the ban is specific, that is, the Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León has not yet ruled on the total suppression of the celebration. “We will continue to demonstrate until a judge makes a final decision in our favor and against the celebration of the Bull of Jubilo”, he underlines so that this resolution can establish jurisprudence for the rest of the bullfighting celebrations presenting similar characteristics.
Furthermore, recognizes that Pacma chose the Jubilo Bull because it was “symbolic” and so that the rest of the villages with bulls know that “the party is over”. “Today we are organizing a festive event because one of our objectives has been achieved. “We arrive in Soria with a very big smile.”
For her part, the coordinator of Pacma Madrid, Asunción Estévez, affirms that the Toro Jubilo was arrested as was the Toro de la Vega in Tordesillas (Valladolid) and expresses her joy at the judge’s decision this week, precautionary and determined measures. that no tradition is above the well-being of an animal.
“We have to be with the times in which we live. Most people are against bullfights financed by public subsidies. Bullfighting costs us all money. Many residents of Medinaceli are opposed to it and do not give their opinion. There are other people who enjoy cruel activities and that doesn’t mean the state should allow them,” he says.
Estévez believes that all activities that involve having fun with an animal and AndThis includes banning minors from entering bullfighting schools. “We are also against confinements. “Toro de la Vega is cruel and so is Jubilo,” he said, adding that it was judicially proven that the municipal ordinance that governed the party was illegal and that the animal suffers even if it does not die.
“Just watch the videos of the Jubilo Bull because they set their horns on fire and then they blur them. I think we have to put ourselves in their shoes and that goes beyond any argument against it,” he emphasizes.
Tradition
The Jubilo Bull rite consists of young men harnessing the bull to a post and covering it with mud from its legs to its head. After that, they place a metal rod (gamella) on their antlers, on which They carry two large balls of fire that burn during much of the celebration. The waiters tempt the bull until the balls go out, after which the celebration ends.
The Jubilee Bull of Medinaceli always coincides with the eve of the religious festival in honor of San Arcadio, Eutiquiano, Pascasio, Paulino and Probo, martyrs, whose relics, according to tradition, were transported from Africa to the city of Medinense on a bull which carried flaming brands on its horns.
