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Viva el toro
Bullfighting is seen as a vicious and cruel spectacle of blood that continues to flourish in Spain. Some view it as an honorable contest between a brave matador and a vicious beast. Join Cristina as she travels to Seville and experiences bullfighting for the first time. During the event, will she be horrified by the cruelty or mystified by the beauty?
- GenresSpanish Literature
67 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 6, 2021
Taking my high school Spanish classes, I was really appalled at the quality of the books they had us read. One can craft stories for early Spanish speakers that are much more engaging than this kind of crap.
But I do not simply hate "Viva el Torro" because it is boring. It also contains an atrocious, nauseating message. I still remember how much this book's message riled me up as a ninth-grader well over a decade ago. After fierce (and justified) opposition to bullfighting, the main character attends a bullfight where the Matador opts not to kill the bull, and she then decides that she does indeed like bullfighting after all because the bull does not always die. Sometimes the Matador chooses to let a particularly brave bull survive. But what about all the bulls who do die (and die terrible deaths at that?) Clearly, the main character does not have any set of consistent principles. This book thus trivializes opposition to bullfighting, and it attempts to brainwash kids into believing that right and wrong can be arbitrary and cultural. If I could, I would give Viva el Torro zero stars, or even a negative number of them.
But I do not simply hate "Viva el Torro" because it is boring. It also contains an atrocious, nauseating message. I still remember how much this book's message riled me up as a ninth-grader well over a decade ago. After fierce (and justified) opposition to bullfighting, the main character attends a bullfight where the Matador opts not to kill the bull, and she then decides that she does indeed like bullfighting after all because the bull does not always die. Sometimes the Matador chooses to let a particularly brave bull survive. But what about all the bulls who do die (and die terrible deaths at that?) Clearly, the main character does not have any set of consistent principles. This book thus trivializes opposition to bullfighting, and it attempts to brainwash kids into believing that right and wrong can be arbitrary and cultural. If I could, I would give Viva el Torro zero stars, or even a negative number of them.
February 18, 2020
It was the hardest read, but I do understand all of it.
Read
December 4, 2022Compré estos libros usados para practicar vocabulario, pero no los recomiendo.🫤
April 15, 2025
I was forced to read this for Spanish . . . so not much to say
March 5, 2011
its in Spanish what do you expect
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews