MEXICO CITY — Hilda Tenorio feels at home in Plaza México, the world's
largest bullfighting arena, approaching an angry bull that outweighs
her by some 1,000 pounds. It is her [1]17th appearance here. Wearing a
shimmering suit of pink and gold rhinestones, Tenorio waves her cape —
and the bull charges.
But Tenorio is nervous. It is only her second bullfight in four years,
after a hiatus that began when a bull gored and nearly killed her in
2019. She couldn't eat solid food for three weeks and needed
reconstructive surgery on her face. She had returned to the ring out of
sheer commitment — she wouldn't let a bull dictate when she would
retire.
"The biggest scars are the mental ones," says Tenorio, 37. "There is no
recipe for overcoming such a trauma."
Tenorio's appearance is also unique for another reason. It is among the
first bullfights held in Plaza México in two years, after Mexico's
Supreme Court recently reversed a 2022 ban on bullfighting in the
capital.
The high court's decision breathed life into a centuries-old tradition
that has faced [2]declining popularity, animal rights protests and
outright bans in some countries. It's legal in six other countries —
Spain, France, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. But amid this
fight for survival, bullfighting is also in some ways entering the
modern era, as a growing number of female bullfighters challenge
preconceptions about women's abilities and demand to be treated on
equal footing as their male counterparts.
"There is a belief that the braver you are the more macho you are. And
for that reason a woman cannot be as brave as a man," Tenorio says.
"Female bullfighters were overlooked."
Alexander Fiske-Harrison, author of Into The Arena: The World Of The
Spanish Bullfight, likened female bullfighters to women playing
Shakespeare's Hamlet or Macbeth. "If the setup is such that it is
defined by masculinity, you are subverting expectations," he says.
Tenorio didn't think about expectations when she became interested in
bullfighting. She was 12 years old and a natural athlete when she saw
her dad watching a bullfight on television. "I was amazed to see the
images of the bullfighters controlling the bull," she says. "And they
did it so calmly. I said to myself, 'I can do that!' "
It didn't occur to Tenorio until years later that all the bullfighters
she saw were male.
"When you're a kid — and it's something we should learn from children —
you dream big and think that nothing is impossible." In addition to
being a bullfighter, Tenorio is also a general-practice attorney.
Tenorio says that in the entire history of bullfighting, just 16 women
have become matadors, the highest rank a bullfighter can achieve.
It wasn't until 1974 that women in Spain were even allowed in the
bullfighting ring. Today, of 10,554 licensed bullfighters in Spain
there are 803 matadors —and just seven are women, according to Spain's
Ministry of Culture.
But while female and male matadors fight the same size bulls, they are
almost always segregated into separate events.
"It goes against what female bullfighters have fought for for so long,"
Tenorio says. "We fight the same bulls as the men do. The same weight
and size. And we should be able to mix with the male bullfighters. That
would be true inclusion."
Fiske-Harrison says male bullfighters have historically not wanted to
mix with women. If a male bullfighter sees a fellow male close to being
gored, "you still wouldn't run in to help until he is literally
bouncing on the point of the bull's horns," he says. But if a male
bullfighter sees a female in distress, they face a conundrum: "If you
run into the ring to protect the woman it's a massive failure of
professional courtesy." On the other hand, he says, male bullfighters
break the "chivalric code of being a knighted gentleman" if the woman
is, in fact, gored.
"I think the matadors may have taken the line that there is no upside
for them," Fiske-Harrison says.
Opponents of bullfighting see no distinction between male and female
bullfighters. The tradition amounts to [3]animal cruelty, they say — a
sometimes slow and agonizing slaughter of a majestic animal.
In banning bullfighting in Mexico City in 2022, a judge said its
practice violated resident's rights to a healthy environment free from
violence.
For a city that has a nearly 500-year history of bullfighting, the
ruling was a stunning turn of events. A panel of five Supreme Court
justices [4]overturned that decision in December without explanation.
Tenorio clerked at the Supreme Court from 2017 to 2021 helping draft
opinions. She left in order to pursue bullfighting full time.
Now, Tenorio was making a triumphant return to the world's biggest
stage. Early in February, she appeared with two female bullfighters —
fellow Mexican Paola San Román and Colombian [5]Rocío Morelli. Unlike a
few weeks earlier, when the 42,000-seat arena was jam-packed with
spectators, the arena for the women's bullfight is just a quarter full,
if that. Vendors hawk beer and snacks as a mishmash of spectators —
rich, poor, children and the elderly — oscillate between cheers and
boos.
Gabriela Rodríguez says she came specifically to see the female
bullfighters. A motorcycle aficionado and adrenaline junky, Rodríguez
says even she could never imagine taking on a 1,200 pound bull.
"Imagine a woman confronting a massive animal like that! I mean, I
wouldn't do it," she says.
Everyone in the stands seems to hold their breath when 30-year-old
Morelli walks to the center of the arena and falls to her knees, pink
and yellow cape in hand. As the bull charges, Morelli swishes the cape
and the enormous animal misses her by inches.
About 20 minutes later, Morelli again faces the bull alone. She raises
her sword and thrusts it into the bull's neck, killing it on her first
attempt. The crowd cheers wildly and spectators pull out white
handkerchiefs and start waving them, the sign of a great bullfight.
Morelli is awarded one of the bull's ears as a prize.
Tenorio is next. She's the more experienced bullfighter, but she looks
shaky. When it comes time for the kill, she stabs the bull but the
sword doesn't stick. After various attempts, she stabs the bull
repeatedly in the neck. The bull teeters but still doesn't die.
As the crowd boos, the bull is led out of the arena to be killed behind
closed doors.
A week later, Tenorio says it was a difficult night. She did her best
to train but she wasn't in tiptop form, she says. Plus, the trauma of
being gored still haunts her.
She says, "I've still got a ways to before Hilda Tenorio is back like
before."
References
1.
https://www.elsoldemexico.com.mx/circulos/sociales/hilda-tenorio-y-paola-san-roman-las-toreras-mexicanas-que-han-hecho-historia-11413939.html
2.
https://anoet.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/festejos-2022.pdf
3.
https://www.hsi.org/news-resources/bullfighting_in_mexico/
4.
https://apnews.com/article/mexico-city-bullfighting-ban-lifted-b6fb42aefb515ea711cbf7682eb5bee4
5.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMrHtmCzMB8
