Bull run

Bullfighting,especially the Spanish la corrida,was always a contest between man and beast. In the last few decades,it became an argument between tradition and modernity the modernity of human rights,gender equality,pacifism and animal welfare as against what in Spain is a religion of art and masculinity punctured now by women bullfighters. Spain cannot be imagined without the corrida. But few will deny Catalonias ban struck a blow against an anachronism.

The traditionalists may yet preserve the corrida in Madrid and Andalusia the bullfight heartlands. But their cultural contentions had been pulling less weight in Catalonia,an original homeland of the corrida. Yet,politicians who legislated the ban couldnt dodge the allegation that,right now,it has less to do with animal welfare than with Catalan nationalism. Earlier this month,the Spanish constitutional court struck down some provisions of Catalonian autonomy,notably its right to claim nationhood. In Madrid,they see the vote as revenge,an aggressive emphasis on Catalan difference from Castille. Catalan nationalist parties overwhelmingly voted for the ban,with Catalan elections just round the corner.

The world was another place when Hemingway valorised the arena as a place to die with equanimity,authentic as bohemian Paris was not. The torero has near-mythic status: the epitome of bravery,skill and honour. Hes said to look his most graceful when laid out after death. Thus lamented Federico Garcia Lorca for his friend,legendary matador Ignacio Sanchez Mejias,that there may never again be an Andalusian so true,so rich in adventure. The bull is finally triumphant in Barcelona which,once of three bullrings,will see the surviving La Monumental close in January. Will that begin the battle for Madrid?