“In Portugal there is no bullfighter who is a public figure”, says CAP Secretary General :: Touro e Ouro
Luís Mira, Secretary General of the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal (CAP) recently gave an interview to the newspaper “Nascer do Sol” (Sol), where he makes some important and pertinent considerations about bullfighting, and especially about the way in which the intervenients are industry and society in general.
In an extensive interview with journalist Sandra Peres Pinto, Luís Mira, one of the strong men in agriculture and the rural world in Portugal, was invited to comment on “bullfighting and hunting”, considering that “are different things”.
For Luís Mira, the controversy with bullfighting is related to “a cultural issue”, considering that “cities have lost the culture of bullfights ”much to blame for the bullfighters”, and explains why. “Because in order to defend a certain thing, the protagonist needs to show his face”, begins by explaining, “we go to Spain and there are seven, ten bullfighters who are public figures. They are recognized anywhere in the country and advertise for the most prestigious Spanish brands. As a singer or a chef is known here”, he says, adding that “today it has more status to be a chef in Portugal than to be a bullfighter”, something that does not happen in Spain because “the bullfighter had an aura of courage and had the ability to endanger his physical integrity, which does not happen to chefs, unless they cut off their finger.”
Luís Mira goes further and even states that “in Portugal there is no bullfighter who is a public figure”, then giving the example of “a few years ago, Mestre Batista made an advertisement for Gillette, I think that says it all. At the time, the one who made the Gillette ad was not Cristiano Ronaldo, it was to demonstrate the importance of bullfighting“, whereas “there is a need for protagonists of bullfighters themselves.”
One of the strongest farmers in Portugal seems to have no doubts that bullfighting will stay “reduced to rural areas, where people have a connection to animals, where they appreciate them, sacrifice for them, but do not humanize them”, this is because in your understanding “the animal in the cities is humanized, it is part of the family. People then cry a lot when the cat or dog dies.”
Luís Mira concludes by considering that to perceive a bullfight “I have to have taurine culture”, “in Spain, the Bullfighting Dictionary has two large volumes, if a person has never read anything about bullfighting, if he has never read anything about bullfighting and if he goes to see a bullfight he thinks it is the greatest stupidity, because he does not understand what is going on there , does not have such a culture. In Spain it is more puritanical than here, because the horns are not protected because there are no handles. are different things”, he concludes.