Women and the Bullring

Readers who were captivated by the character of the female bullfighter in Pedro Almodovar's latest movie, Talk to Her, may be interested in picking up Feiner's award-winning history of female matadors, bull breeders and impresarios. Though women were officially banned from the Spanish bullring until 1975, Feiner's exhaustive research proves that women have actually been participating in corridas since at least 1654. (Bullfighting itself dates back to the Middle Ages.) In addition to chapters providing biographies of such matadoras de toros as Bertha Trujillo, Raquel Martinez and Mari Paz Vega, the book contains an introductory essay on the ""art"" of bullfighting, overviews of the major changes in bullfighting since 1975, and information about fights and fan clubs outside of Spain and Latin America. Jose Ortega y Gasset once said, ""You cannot understand Spain, its culture, or its history, without truly understanding the corrida, because every facet of Spanish society is clearly represented in the bullring."" With this history, then, Feiner enlarges readers' understanding of both a sport and a country. 80 b&w photos. FYI: This is the first English translation of Feiner's book, which was awarded the Antonio Diaz Canabate prize in 1995.