“But as [the] week progressed and in rehearsals, and just
listening to words of the song, we realized the bullfight was a
metaphor for an unhealthy relationship, an abusive relationship, a girl
and a man, and the torment she faces. Scared, vulnerable but has to be
strong. She has to make a decision—find the
strength—empowerment, despite her feelings/confusion. Something
has to click in to protect herself, know she's important enough.”
“I’m
dancing my heart out tonight,” Anderson wrote on Twitter.
“This dance has a lot of meaning for me. I think all my
relationships with men are in this one. Empowerment!”
Charo,
described on her website as “musician, singer, comedienne,”
stars in her own dancing protest against bullfighting, the video “España Cañí: Dance, Don’t Bullfight.”
While
the activity is illegal in the United States and most other countries,
some 250,000 bulls are killed annually where it persists in parts of
Spain, France, Portugal, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and
Ecuador, according to the website of The Humane Society of the United
States.
Last week in Madrid thousands of Spaniards took to the
streets in a demonstration against the regional government of
Madrid’s move to cloak bullfighting with legal protection by
declaring it an element of cultural heritage, as reported by The Daily
Telegraph.
Many animal welfare groups condemn the practice, which is said to involve multiple stabbings and exhaustion of the bull over a long period of time.
Proponents hail it as a cultural tradition and art.
Katerina Lorenzatos Makris is the author of 17 novels for
publishers including Avon, E.P. Dutton, and Simon & Schuster, and
hundreds of articles for publications such as National Geographic
Traveler, San Francisco Chronicle, and Veggie Life. She wrote a
teleplay for CBS and short fiction for The Bark magazine. With coauthor
Shelley Frost, she wrote Your Adopted Dog
(The Lyons Press). Holding a B.A. in Environmental Science Studies and
a lifelong interest in animal issues, she spends a lot of her time
battling a severe addiction to dogs.
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