Coastal Traveler - Summer 2008 - (Page 52)

Matador for a day at the California Academy of Tauromaquia By Geoffrey Grey The first bullfights were warm-up acts for Roman gladiators. Medieval knights lanced bulls from horseback to practice jousting. It reached its modern form in the late 18th century. Two picadors on horseback lance the back of the bull’s neck, so it droops. Then three banderilleros stab barbed flags into the shoulder and neck muscles to weaken the beast for the matador, who impales the heart. Cock, dog and bullfighting are banned in the United States. So going to Mexico for bloodsport is a form of vicetravel, always a popular theme. — The Editor It darts out of the chute and bucks its way around the ring, yelping out of control. It looks shaggy, desperate and annoyed. Then it charges right at all of us cowering behind the wooden barrier at the edge of the ring, kicking up dust and ramming those two nubby horns into the chipped-up wood. No. Way. No way. I am not going out there and taunting this huffy 300-pound animal, not with this fake wooden sword and swath of red flannel cloth. But the ring’s steel doors are closed. The stone walls are too high to jump over. If only I could reason with it — I won’t hurt you if you won’t hurt me, promise — then maybe I’d get to fly home without a hoof print between the eyes. Then I am out there, alone with the cape. She is staring right at me — true, this is a young female, just a training animal, not a real bull. Still, she does not look pleased. “Dude, she’s so good right now — walk right at her closer.” The voice is that of Coleman Cooney, my bullfighting mentor. “Closer,” he insists. “Now toque!” A toque is a shake of a matador’s cape, and Mr. Cooney is the owner and founder of the California Academy of Tauromaquia, one of the very few bullfighting schools in the United States. When his students have advanced past learning a few basic moves, or passes, he takes them to this working ranch in Valle de las Palmas, Baja California, about 30 miles south of the border town of Tecate, to practice on real animals. At my level of expertise, the aim is not to kill or harm anything, but to try out moves and get some idea what matadors are up against when they dance around in that bullring. School starts in the gravel driveway of Mr. Cooney’s ranch in Alpine, Calif., a mountain village about 30 miles east of San Diego. Last year some 175 students signed up to learn the tricky and controversial art of toreo. Mr. Cooney, 48, now a screenwriter, lived the expatriate life in Spain for nearly a decade, picking grapes in vineyards and becoming an aficionado práctico (or serious bullfighting fan) by learning a matador’s cape maneuvers on bull ranches. Back in the United States, he founded his school nine years ago. While bullfighting is illegal in the United States (except for nonlethal “bloodless” events in some states), and California also bars promoting or advertising bullfights, it is not illegal 52 coastaltraveler summer

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Coastal Traveler - Summer 2008 Contents Coastal Connoisseur Coastal Picks Coastal Art Coastal Flyer Coastal Sex Coastal Eco Coastal Surfer Coastal Adventurer Coastal Snaps San Diego La Jolla Laguna Beach Malibu Santa Barbara San Luis Obispo Big Sur Carmel Monterey Santa Cruz San Francisco Sausalito Mill Valley Stinson Beach Bolinas Olema Point Reyes Station Fairfax Inverness Marshall, Tomales Sebastopol Petaluma Sonoma Coast Redwood Coast

Coastal Traveler - Summer 2008

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