Death in the afternoon

September

The great feria month.

2nd and 3rd — Palencia — usually good fights — intelligent public. Nice Castillian town with good beer and excellent quail shooting.

3rd and 4th — Merida, Villarobledo, and Priego. Usually two fights at Merida, one at each of the others.

The first Sunday of September there is a fight at San Sebastian, and if Sunday comes after the 4th, at Aranjuez.

5th and 6th — Feria at Cuenca, with usually two fights and a novillada. Wonderful town, terrible road there. Same dates, feria at Castellar, with two fights. Between 4th and 6th either fights or novilladas at Segovia, Huelva, Requena, Jerez de los Caballeros.

Feria starts at Murcia either 7th or 8th. Usually two fights.

7th or 8th — Utrera, Palma de Mallorca, Cabra, Bélmez, Tortosa, Ayamonte, Cáceres, Barbastro, Santoña, Benavente, and occasionally Valdepeñas and Lorca.

September 9 — A two-fight feria starts at Calatayud, and on the 10th Albacete commences a feria with three successive fights, although sometimes as many as five are given. Either of these is good.

9th, also, San Martin de Valdeiglesias, on the road from Madrid to the Sierra de Gredos, Villanueva del Arzobispo, Barcarrota, and Andújar.

10th or 11th — Usually two-fight feria starts at Zamora, and on the 11th there will usually be fights at Haro, Utiel, and Cehegin.

September 12 — The feria starts àt Salamanca, with three fights on successive days.

There are also fights at San Sebastian the second Sunday in September, this usually a cheap fight though sometimes good, and at Utiel, Mellila, and Barcelona.

The third Sunday in September the fall subscription season usually starts in Madrid, with fights each Sunday until the middle of October.

September 14 or 15 — There will usually be fights or novilladas at Jerez de la Frontera, Aranda de Duero, Castuera, and Aracena.

On the 15th or 16th there will usually be fights at San Clemente, Mora, Trujillo, and Tomelloso.

On either the 18th, 19th, or 20th, depending on where the Sunday comes in the month, three days of successive fights start for the feria of Valladolid. The town is easy to reach by rail or road. These are often good fights and the public is intelligent. On one of these three days fights are usually given for the ferias of Oviedo, Olivenza, and Zalamea la Real.

On the 21st of September a three-day bullfight feria starts at Logroño. This is the easiest of the September ferias to reach from the French frontier via Hendaye and Irun. The fights are usually of a high standard.

On the 21st, 22nd, or 23rd there will ordinarily be one fight at Talavera de la Reina, Fregenal de la Sierra, Soria, and Requena.

On the third Sunday in September, if the weather has been good in the north and visitors plenty, there will sometimes be a fight at San Sebastian. There will nearly always be a fight at Tarrogona, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Malaga, Bilbao, and Cordoba. These were usually formerly held on the Feast of the Blessed Virgin.

Between September 25 and 28 there will usually be one fight at Quintanar de la Orden, Torrijos, Hellin, and Béjar.

On September 28 is the first fight of the two-fight feria of San Miguel in Sevilla. These two fights are usually much better than the spring feria corridas.

Fights may be given on the last three days of September in Caravaca, Ubeda, Jaen, Almendralejo, and Belmonte.

The most important ferias in September are those of Salamanca, Calatayud, Albacete, Valladolid, Logroño, and Sevilla. All of these are worth going to.

October

On the first, second, and usually third Sundays in October there will be fights at Madrid and Barcelona, and usually Valencia.

October 1 and 2 — Ubeda, feria.

October 3 — Soria, feria.

Between October 2 and 4 — Zafra, feria.

Usually there will be a fight during the first week in October at Aranjuez.

On either the 12th or 13th of October commences the feria of Pilar in Zaragoza, consisting of four to five fights. This is the last important feria of the season.

Between the 15th and 20th there will be a feria at Guadalajara, with one fight, and on the 18th and 19th another at Jaén, with two. On either the 18th or 19th there will sometimes be fights at Gandia and Játiva.

The last Sunday in October there will be fights at Barcelona and Valencia if the weather has been good, and occasionally a fight on the last day of October at Gerona.

The great feria of the month is that of Pilar at Zaragoza.

Toward the middle of October the formal bullfight season starts in Mexico City and throughout the country.

November

In case of good weather bullfights may be given the first week of November in Barcelona or Valencia. They will be given each Sunday in Mexico City and in various Mexican cities, bullfighters contracted for Mexico usually leaving immediately after the feria of Pilar at Zaragoza.

The last fight in Spain is usually at Ondara, in the province of Alicante, between the 16th and 20th of November.

December

The second big month of the Mexican season, with fights every Sunday in Mexico City and frequently in various other Mexican cities.

In Lima (Peru), Caracas (Venezuela), and Bogotá (Colombia) the bullfight season commences around the middle of December, usually with Spanish matadors in addition to whatever local phenomenons are in fashion. In Venezuela there are occasional fights in Valencia and Maracaibo, as well as more or less serious occasional bullfights in Panama and Guatemala. To see bullfights in November or December, Mexico City is the place.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

For a list of 2077 books and pamphlets in Spanish dealing with or touching on tauromaquia, to the authors of all of which the writer of this book wishes to acknowledge his deep indebtedness and to apologize for his intrusion, the reader who wishes to make a study of the history of the Spanish bullfight is referred to Libros y Folletos de Toros, Bibliografía Taurina, Compuesta Con Vista de la Biblioteca Taurómaca de Don José Luis de Ybarra y Lopez de Calle por Graciano Diaz Arquer and published in Madrid at the Library of Pedro Vindel.

The present volume, Death in the Afternoon, is not intended to be either historical or exhaustive. It is intended as an introduction to the modern Spanish bullfight and attempts to explain that spectacle both emotionally and practically. It was written because there was no book which did this in Spanish or in English. The writer asks the indulgence of competent aficionados for his technical explanations. When a volume of controversy may be written on the execution of a single suerte one man's arbitrary explanation is certain to be unacceptable to many.

E. H.