Bullfighting's Blood Brothers
60 Minutes Interviews A Star Matador, Who Is Then Nearly Killed In The Ring
Comments 
140
|
Page 2 of 4
April 19, 2009
E-Mail Story
Print Story
Sphere
Share
Blood Brothers Revisited
Brothers Cayetano and Francisco Ordonez are part of an illustrious bullfighting dynasty in Spain. As Bob Simon reports, they're creating just as much drama outside the ring as in it. | Share/Embed
Blood Brothers Revisited (13:33)
Deadly Allure Of Bullfighting (0:54)
(CBS) Bulls were the family business, and the family tragedy. In 1984, Paquirri was badly gored in a minor ring somewhere in central Spain. He died a few hours later. His widow, the boys' mother, did everything possible to lure them away from the ring. She sent them both to summer camp in Maine; she also sent Francisco to a military academy in Indiana.
It didn't work. Francisco returned to Spain and went straight for the bulls. "There's no way out," Francisco explains, "We have it in blood."
"I'm sure that I [was] born to be in a ring," he adds.
And, Francisco says when the time comes, he wants to die in the ring. Before every fight, he unpacks a suitcase which carries a portable chapel. He prays to his patron saints and to the Virgin Mary.
He says he is still frightened before a fight. "I think to have fear is good…. Because if you don't have fear, then you can't be a brave man."
Cayetano didn't want to be a brave man. He was happy in Santa Monica, Calif., where he planned to be a TV producer, and was having a good time. But then he went back to Spain.
"Practically all my family has been bullfighters. So I always had that curiosity in my mind. But I never had the strength, perhaps, to take the final decision," Cayetano explains.
He later found the strength and courage to give it a try. But age wasn't on his side: he was by then 27, which is very old to start training to become a matador. His friends and family thought he was crazy.
Cayetano says his brother wasn't very happy with the idea of his brother fighting bulls. "It's not something you would like for someone you love."
But Cayetano loved the idea of becoming a matador. A film made at the time shows how Cayetano left his world behind and retreated to a ranch. He spent more time with bulls than with people. It was a monastic existence. He learned about the cape, and he learned about the kill.
Asked what it was like the first time he fought a bull, Cayetano tells Simon, "It was scary. I saw it so big, and I thought, 'Oh my God, am I prepared for this? Isn't it too early maybe? Shouldn't I fight the smaller one first?'"
That was three years ago. He's fought a couple of hundred of fights since then.
Before a fight, he relaxes with his Mac and his music.
Produced by Michael Gavshon and Paul Bellinger
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Back To Top
RSS
Sarah Palin To Resign As Alaska GovernorAt Hastily Convened Press Conference Says She Will Not Run for 2nd Term, Mum On Future Plans
Gov. Sarah Palin Resigns
RSS
Day In Pictures
The Man Who Figured Out Madoff's SchemeTells 60 Minutes Many Suspected Madoff Fraud; Says SEC Is Incapable Of Finding Fraud
Comments [ + Post Your Own ]
Now you're in the public comment zone. What follows is not CBS News stuff; it comes from other people and we don't vouch for it. A reminder: By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.
I too saw bullfights in Colombia until my early 20s, so I know what it is to see and experience a bullfight. The problem is that since the late 60s, bullfighting became a billion dollar industry, and this caused the bull rings, breeders, and matadors to corrupt the ritual. I?ve gone behind the scenes in Colombia, Mexico and Spain and have seen how the bulls are deliberately weakened all in the interest of protecting the matador.
The bull?s horns are filed slightly to disorient the charged, the water is spiked with sulfur to induce diarrhea and dehydration, the hoofs are dipped in acid causing the bull to continually move throughout the ring (triggering the spectator to mistake this for ferocity), the eyes are rubbed with Vaseline to further reduced its vision, sand bags are hanged from the neck for hours to weakened the neck muscles, and so on. Now days, when the bull enters he ring, he is constantly falling, landing on the knees of his two from legs (in fact, you can see this on the segment when Cayetano was gored as he misstep backwards; the bull landed on his two front legs). Now, during my father?s time, bulls this weak would not have been tolerated, but today since the spectators are mostly tourist, no one complains.
The bashing towards 60 minutes are valid. Bob Simon has given the bullfighting industry a 20 minute free infomercial. There was no attempt to describe how he bull is adulterated behind the scenes to weaken the animal and to give maximum protection to the matador. There was nothing educational about this segment, just contributing to the brainwashing of naïve tourist to continue to fund this corrupt bloody ritual.
-- Tuliothx (For some reason my login name is showing blank on the postings)
First of all, bullfighting is not art. While there is much artistic expression in bullfighting with the music, the choreographed maneuvers, the elaborate dress, there is no artistic value in watching a team of 6 men armed with lances, daggers, knifes, and swards killing on an already weaken animal. If we are to call this art, then he butcher in the slaughter house is also an artist, the organizers of dog fighting or CockFighting are also artist ?- a ridicules statement.
Let?s call bullfighting for what it is, a bloody sacrificial ritual. A ritual to kill an animal in the most cowardly and brutal way for he sake of entertainment.
Second, art is a creative process, not a destructive. It is supposed to express ideas and interpretations of the human spirit. A ritual that seeks to destroy an animal for entertainment does not classify as art.
It is just a sacrificial ritual.
-- Tuliothx (For some reason my login name is showing blank on the postings)
You misinterpret my reasoning for the Michener quote, as I personally do not find bullfighting either unnecessarily cruel, nor brutal. For true cruelty to animals one need go no further that the hugh "farms" that raise the food for millions of McWhatever eaters.
More than sport, bullfighting is an art, one that ends in death, yes; but certainly the bull in the arena stands a better chance than those in the abbatoir...
I had also hoped that by quoting Michener, rather than, say, Hemingway, I might provoke a more measured adversarial response than the posted rants of most of those opposed to the sport.
Your response quoting Albert Schweitzer is the sort of dialogue needed...
estoque
As one of America's greatest authors, James A. Michener, once said, "Of course, bullfighting has elements of brutality, but so does surgery, hunting, and the income tax."
Estoque
Please let the bull win the next fight and then ban bull fighting all together!
Thank you.
i am so inspired and proud of the overwhelming compassion and intelligence displayed by those opposing cruelty. thank you to all the posters who speak so movingly for those without a voice - it looks like almost 98% of posters (or more) are on the side of kindness!!!!!!
i would love a reply from 60 minutes - are you there??? - showing that they maybe get it, that they may be capable of learning and becoming better and that they WILL take the suggestions of many posters here and tell the truth about bullfighting and from here on out, choose the side of kindness, enlightenment and courage opposed to the side of cultural cruelty and cult of personality and evil.
This is NOT a Culture, a Sport or in any Way Cool-its cruel, barbaric, sadistic and perverted!!!!!
ITS DETESTABLE FOR ANYONE WHO IS HUMANE-everyone supporting THIS is a MURDERER, TORTURER and a HEARTLESS and SOULLESS MONSTER!!!!