Of course, there is fear. That of mothers, first. Like Alexandra, the mother of Lysio, a 13-year-old bullfighter apprentice, who gave a demonstration in front of a calf and without killing that day, in Arles, as part of the feria. “I’m scared,” she says bluntly. But that’s the real passion. And I’m proud too! Pride to see his child dominate a bull, which adult and in the arena for bullfights, weighs nearly half a ton.
Like Lysio, there are twelve of them at the bullfighting school in Arles dreaming of themselves in a costume of light. Mehdi Savalli, their trainer and former matador, knows the difficulties. He knows that only one or two of them will succeed. “It’s like for football players, he sums up. Those will succeed who will give their all, with seriousness and diligence. »
“Amazed by the bullfighter in his costume of light and by the bull”
Fabien, 21, is on the right track. He starts bullfighting two-year-old animals, still without killing. He fell into it at the age of 10. “My father, who was more of a Camargue racer, took me to see a bullfight when I was 10 years old. I was amazed by the bullfighter in his costume of light and by the bull. I told him, I want to do this”.
Still, bullfighting is increasingly denounced by its opponents as a cruel practice towards animals put on show. “But us, it’s our culture, our traditions, we were born with that. Those who are against just don’t look, ”wishes Mehdi Savalli, who grew up in the Camargue, in the land of bulls.