La Corraleja

Corralejas are a tradition here on the Colombian coast. Since my host brother generously agreed to bring me, I went to the one in Usiacurí that’s held every August in honor of the fiestas patronales.  It was a unique experience – a sort of hybrid between a bullfight and a running of the bulls, like gladiatorial games if they had taken place in the wild west.  A temporary ring constructed from recycled wood with corrugated metal roofing is erected on the soccer field, which sits below a steep hill where people who don’t want to pay the entrance fee or prefer to keep a safe distance can watch from above.  Three different brass bands, including the one my host brother plays trombone in, play porro music, a variant of cumbia, to animate the bulls and the crowd.  The bulls are released into the ring one at a time.  Dozens of men crowd the ring, some on horseback, some with capes or banners promoting candidates for the upcoming mayoral elections.  Dozens more line the outside of the ring, taunting the bull and jumping up on the fence or ducking under it to protect themselves when the bull comes near.  The crowd cheers when one of the men on horseback or on foot manages to spear a bull and gasps when the bull nearly gores someone.  The festivities start mid-afternoon and continue until sundown.  I was not the only female spectator, but there were far more men, who drank beers or shots of whiskey or rum from a passed bottle.  

Views on the tradition are mixed.  Many people in Usiacurí have told me they don’t go because it’s dangerous.  Last year a man was killed when a bull escaped the ring.  The day I went, there were no serious injuries, one man did get trampled and another headbutted. I later learned that another day that weekend a man was gored and later died from the injury. Other people are opposed because of the mistreatment of animals.  The bulls are not killed, but they do get roughed up quite a bit – speared, kicked, beaten, tails pulled, various objects thrown at them.  It was certainly hard to watch at times, and inspired many thoughts about tradition and masculinity and how both are passed from one generation to the next. Here’s some photos I took at the event: