DAVID GONZALEZ was trying to capture a charging bull on his mobile phone camera during a village fiesta in Villaseca de la Sagra in central Spain on August 9th. Instead it was a bull that caught him. The 32-year-old became one of nine people gored to death at festivals this summer (four alone on the most recent weekend), raising questions about Spain’s love-hate relationship with bulls.
Sophisticated Spaniards are dismayed that foreigners associate their country more with stomping beasts and strutting matadors than with painting, music or technology. Whether romantic or revolting, Spain conjures up visions of fearless, sequinned, cape-waving fighters dancing around half-tonne bulls and sinking swords into their necks—or being gored.
The truth is less glamorous. The animals mostly provide entertainment at village fiestas, chasing the brave and the foolish down streets or around makeshift rings. All are amateurs and a few are drunk. The last top matador to die in a Spanish ring was José Cubero, known as El Yiyo, in 1985.
While village fiestas thrive, serious…