Free Death and the Sun by Edward Lewine Page B

in top-shelf professional bullfights in Spain, and each breeder is known by its brand—which is both the name the bulls appear under and the symbol (Jandilla’s is a star) that is seared into their hide with a branding iron. The proprietor of the Jandilla brand was Francisco de Borja Domecq y Solís, a member of an old and powerful Jerezano family that had become a major force in the breeding of bullfighting bulls. Don Borja, as he was called in bullfighting circles—the “Don” indicating the respect accorded to bull breeders—raised his bulls on two ranches: Jandilla in Andalucía and Los Quintos in Extremadura. The Jandilla ranch comprised four square miles, much of it devoted to corn and rice, its two cash crops. Bull breeders claim that raising bulls is so consuming of time and resources that they don’t make money at it, a claim many aficionados dismiss.
    The breeding stock of the Jandilla brand was spread out over both of Don Borja’s ranches and consisted of around 500 cows and 30 seed bulls, which were mated each year to produce about 350 offspring that would eventually yield up to 90 mature bulls—enough to supply fifteen full corridas. Like all bullfighting bulls, Don Borja’s animals lived a mostly wild existence, interacting with humans rarely apart from a few special days. These included the days when they were vaccinated, separated from their mothers, and branded with the year of their birth, a serial number, and the Jandilla star. (On the day of branding, each animal was also given a name, which was written into the ranch’s ledger. There is no apparent rhyme or reason to these names, but at Jandilla, as on some other ranches, the names related to the bulls’ parents.)
    At two years of age the calves were tested for bravery, but the males and females were tested in different ways. The female calves were tested in a manner similar to the testing Fran had participated in before his corrida in Valencia. The cows were made to charge a picador in a bullring, and those animals that charged the picador repeatedly after being hurt by the lance, and charged the
muleta
, were set aside for breeding. Male calves, on the other hand, were tested in open fields by horsemen who knocked them down with wooden poles, and those male calves that got up and challenged the horsemen after being thrown down were reserved for the ring. Males and females that failed their trials were slaughtered for meat.
    The cows and bulls were tested differently because the bulls were destined for corridas, and the Spanish corrida is grounded on the fact that the bull has never faced bullfight conditions before. Bulls are intelligent creatures with long memories. A bull that’s been caped or pic’d will learn from that experience, and if that bull is confronted by those same circumstances later in life, it will be more likely to ignore the cape or the horse and try to kill the man, and no matador could create artistic passes with such a bull. But even so-called virgin bulls that have never been caped or pic’d learn quickly during the twenty minutes they spend in the ring, becoming more likely, as the bullfight progresses, to ignore the cape and strike the man. This ability to learn is part of the reason bulls are killed in bullfights. You cannot perform with the same bull twice.
    Bulls learn to use their horns by fighting with their cousins in the field, and they become more dangerous as they age. By Spanish law, bulls used in formal corridas must be between four and six years old, but in modern times most bulls are sent to the ring before they turn five. When Jandilla bulls mature they are divided into lots of six animals that will be sent to the same corrida, the breeder selecting each lot to make it consistent in size, beauty, and bravery. The best lots are sold to the most prestigious rings; lesser groups go to lesser rings. A top corrida of Jandillas, of the type appropriate for a