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Last episode ("When Culture Attacks") left Sam and I in the Valle Sagrado where powerful forces from deep within the earth had summoned descendants from a proud native South American nation to celebrate a mixture of their heritage and their religion on a crisp sunny afternoon. We both shrugged our shoulders and joined in the procession as if we had a choice. He joined because he is a functioning member of a well-functioning society. I joined because there couldn't possibly have been a better thing to do that day than walk aimlessly around town with a smile on my face.
The Exploitation and Contradiction of South America: La Corrida - Episode 2: Living La Corrida Loca
Tysonv2005-11-05 08:20:52
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Last episode ("When Culture Attacks") left Sam and I in the Valle Sagrado where powerful forces from deep within the earth had summoned descendants from a proud native South American nation to celebrate a mixture of their heritage and their religion on a crisp sunny afternoon. We both shrugged our shoulders and joined in the procession as if we had a choice. He joined because he is a functioning member of a well-functioning society. I joined because there couldn't possibly have been a better thing to do that day than walk aimlessly around town with a smile on my face.
The day's flow of foot traffic took us through the main plaza and toward the northwest of town where the village meets the campo and the great snowy, towering peak of Chikon rises overhead. Rumors had circulated days before as we had been hiking up the Chikon Valley that a corrida (bullfight) was in the works and we had seen youngsters corralling bulls downhill toward the town as we hiked. But that was probably a daily occurrence.
Today, however, as we rounded a corner in the dirt road, we saw a spectacle unmatched by either of our two pairs of eyes thus far. In a harvested, barren choclo field, trucks formed a ring as they were parked lengthwise in a circle and were covered with standing men, women and children facing inward. It definitely didn't seem to be a bull ring but as people ran in circles from all angles in order to get a better view, we knew there was something going on inside. We hiked a few meters across the rugged choclo field for a view inside or at least to get between some trucks to watch, but we were even more fortunate.
"Samuel!" beckoned a voice from atop an eight foot wooden structure which stood inside of the ring of trucks. Upon closer inspection, the "bullring" was constructed of six inch diameter timbers, held together by rope at its cross-sections, covered across its top by hand-cut 2x6s, and had a slow decline in
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