There are things one thought were already overcome. Like SMS messages, polyphonic ringtones, and, of course, bullfighting. But no: the Popular Party has decided to resurrect a cultural corpse, dust off the secondhand embarrassment, and request that bullfighting be recognized as cultural heritage.
In Lanzarote. In the Canary Islands. Where bullfights were banned in 1991, in case they had forgotten.
Yes, 1991. While on the peninsula they were still debating whether killing an animal in public was art or barbarism, here on the islands we were already clear that abuse is not culture. We islanders are more than three decades ahead of that debate. In this land, suffering is not applauded, nor is it dressed in lights to torture an animal. Sorry, PP, but the "national sport" never caught on among banana trees, volcanoes, and seas of lava. Here, the party is celebrated with timple, pilgrimage, and Malvasia wine, not with blood in the sand.
And the worst part is not that they are asking for something so anachronistic, but the attempt to sell it as a "tradition." Tradition is gofio, Canarian wrestling, the shepherd's leap, or the ranchos de ánimas. Tradition is taking care of the land, not drilling it. Tradition is respect, not the spectacle of cruelty.
Dear members of the Popular Party: the Canary Islands already gave their lesson 34 years ago. And it was a lesson in ethics, empathy, and modernity. The Canarian population rejected bullfights not because of fashion, but because of conviction. Because we are a people who know what it means to be treated as inferior and who do not need to reaffirm ourselves by making those who cannot defend themselves suffer.
So, please, if you want to talk about cultural heritage, start by knowing your own. Read a little, remember, and, above all, understand that the future is not built by looking at the ring, but at the world we want to leave behind.
And if you like watching someone face a bull so much, do it metaphorically: face reality.
Because here, in the Canary Islands, bulls only exist in stories and metaphors. And thanks to that, we sleep more soundly.
