La Monumental: an uncomfortable inheritance?

One day, some time ago, I went to the bullfight. Allow me to say, in my defense, that I understand and, in large part, share the arguments of those who consider bullfights a spectacle belonging to other times ---not to say a savagery---, and that they hardly fit into a society like ours, increasingly committed to animal welfare. However, we have to accept that the fondness for bullfighting ---much to the chagrin of some who, in fact, consider it a kind of inheritance from Francoism--- has been very present in Barcelona for a good part of the 20th century. The city came to have three large bullrings at full capacity (La Monumental, Las Arenas and El Torín) plus a fourth provisional one, apparently in La Sagrera. On the other hand, some politicians and artists of the country -not at all suspected of connivance with the dictatorship- have been recognized bullfighting enthusiasts. Therefore, we have an undeniable bullfighting heritage, even if it makes us uncomfortable... But let's not get ahead of ourselves, I'll talk about that later.

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What I wanted to tell, to begin with, is that I once went to the bullfight and, in fact, I don't think I'll ever go back. I went to La Monumental, specifically, on July 6, 2009. I remember the date well, not because that experience marked a before and after in my life, but because according to the bullfighting chronicles that can still be consulted online, it seems that that was a historic bullfight. José Tomás was fighting, who, for those unfamiliar with the subject, we could say is a kind of Messi of bullfighting. Apoteosis de José Tomás en La Monumental de Barcelona (Apotheosis of José Tomás in La Monumental of Barcelona), is the title of Zabala de la Serna's chronicle in ABC which begins by saying: "And the myth that became flesh three years ago was elevated to the slopes of Tibidabo exhausted in a penultimate wave of enthusiasm. José Tomás on the shoulders of a people of demons dancing in our heads." Almost nothing! Paco March, in La Vanguardia, is not far behind either. In La Capilla Sixtina del toreo (The Sistine Chapel of Bullfighting), we read that "José Tomás, in little more than two hours lived with maximum intensity, made a compendium of two centuries of bullfighting until completing a work of art -pardon the irreverence- comparable to the Vatican jewel."

It is clear that, according to the experts on the matter, that afternoon at La Monumental we witnessed a kind of miracle, although I must confess that, for me, after the first bull ---I suppose once the novelty effect wore off--- the show started to bore me and I was more attentive to the fauna that filled the stands ---gentlemen with half-foot cigars, ladies dressed in their Sunday best, many celebrities who confirmed that Tomás was the fashionable bullfighter...---, than to what the master was doing. I also have to admit ---animal rights activists, you will forgive me---, that that slaughter of six bulls did not seem like a butchery to me. Surely because, being quite short-sighted, from afar you miss the most gruesome part of La Fiesta: all that blood that, in the eighties, we saw on TVE in very close-up shots.

Every time I pass in front of La Monumental, I think it's a shame that Barcelona doesn't know what to do or doesn't want to do anything with this colossal building

All this is now history ---fortunately, most of you will think---, because it has been more than a decade since bullfighting was abolished in Catalonia. Of the bullrings of El Torín and La Sagrera, not a trace remains. Las Arenas was remodeled years ago ---with more or less success, it's a matter of taste--- and now functions as a shopping center. However, with La Monumental, Barcelona's last bullring, it seems that no one really knows what to do. In recent years, it has been published that it would house a hotel and a shopping center, a circus school, and even a large mosque. The Barcelona City Council has expressed, on some occasions, the will to allocate it to social use or for it to function as a cultural facilitybut, for now, it seems to be in the making.

It's as if La Monumental were an uncomfortable inheritance because it reminds us that Barcelona was once bullfighting

La Monumental remains in the hands of Grupo Balañá, which, since the abolition of bullfighting, only rents it out sporadically for events. This autumn, if the restrictions derived from Covid-19 allow it, it will host a new edition of theMonumental Club, a leisure and culture proposal that, one weekend a month, fills the arena with live music ---Manel, La Bien Querida or Delafé---, also DJs and variousfood trucks.

Every time I pass in front of La Monumental ---I have it two steps from home---, I think it's a shame that Barcelona doesn't know what to do or doesn't want to do anything with this colossal building of Neo-Mudéjar and Byzantine style. Not only because it has undeniable artistic and patrimonial value, it is a protected work as a Cultural Asset of Local Interest, but also because it has been the scene of some important historical events. I think, for example, of the rally that President Lluís Companys delivered, in the midst of the civil war, or that of the PSUC in 1978, with Santiago Carrillo and Dolores Ibárruri sitting in the front row. La Monumental has also been the scene of great concerts that remain in the affective memory of many Barcelonians. Surely the most famous is the one the Beatles did on July 3, 1965, but we could also highlight those of the Rolling Stones, Bob Marley, Tina Turner or Bruce Springsteen.

And yet it is as if La Monumental were an uncomfortable inheritance because it reminds us that Barcelona was once bullfighting. Ten years after the abolition of bullfights, hasn't the time come to decide what we do with La Monumental?