Nina Chausow
AS children skipped through the gates of Estepona’s feria dressed in traditional flamenco garb, another group stood outside, protesting a more controversial cultural practice.
The Colectivo Antitaurino Marbella, an anti-bullfighting organisation, protested the inclusion of bullfighting in the week’s festivities.
Throughout the week, Estepona’s bullfighting ring featured famous matadors such as the brothers Fran and Cayetano Rivera Ordónez, and young bullfighter Javier Jiménez.
One horned protester lay in the middle of the group, her back impaled with fake banderillas, or the barbed flags used in the second stage of a bullfight.
Other protesters surrounded her, covered in fake blood and holding signs declaring, ‘The torture returns to Estepona’, and ‘Torture- neither art nor culture’.
A group spokesman said: “We reject that, in order to celebrate the feria of a city as beautiful as Estepona, we must torture and kill beautiful animals.”
The organisation had previously mounted protests on Estepona’s paseo maritimo, where they created a demonstration with a stuffed bull and typical bullfighting instruments.
