The terrible thing about long struggles is that little by little they take away the best and most experienced fighters, precisely because they are the oldest and most seasoned, and who can indicate which is the best path. This struggle for the rescue of our liberties is bitter, because those of us who have enjoyed them to a greater or lesser extent for 40 years are the oldest; and in our eagerness to recover them, most of us have to do it at the end of our lives, and in that, nature forgives no one.
If we, the older ones, do not manage in time to pass on that consciousness of living history of libertarian struggle to the younger ones, the possibility of obtaining it will be lost, and they will have to repeat the mistakes that the older ones made to recover it, irremediably falling into a vicious circle that lengthens the suffering of the generations.
I say all this because over the years I have seen the departure of a significant number of Venezuelans who, because of their age and experience, each one in his own field, contributed their grain of sand to the Venezuela we are now trying to recover. That was the case of Victor Jose Lopez, better known by his friends and colleagues in journalism as "El Vito", who left us alone to continue this struggle that is becoming endless.
I met El Vito at the Gran Café in Sabana Grande at the beginning of our Constituent Project. It is curious that it was there, a Café where other dreamers have sat in the past to think about the great ideas that have occurred in this country. He contributed what every project of this nature needed, a unique experience in social communication necessary for its presentation in society. El Vito co-founded with us the Alianza Nacional Constituyente Originaria, ANCO, being at the end of his days Honorary Director of our organization.
There were countless meetings where El Vito participated with us to find the best way to communicate this project to Venezuela initially. Being the authority he was and a consummate master in journalism, El Vito never bragged about his condition, which exalted him in his human condition and people skills, something recognized by all those who knew and treated him.
In addition to his political concerns, El Vito was internationally recognized as a journalist specialized in bullfighting, being impossible to know the character without exploring his passionate side for the bullfighting festival, so much that led him to be, in my opinion, the most important author of the country on that subject, with solid published works such as "Memoria de Arena", "El Toreo en Venezuela", "Solera brava, el toro de lidia venezolano", not to mention a biography of the greatest Venezuelan bullfighter, César Girón. El Vito was justly recognized with the National Journalism Award, the Monseñor Pellín Culture Award, and the Municipal Literature Award.
I always wondered -and I asked him- the reason why a character with a peaceful profile and political dreamer like El Vito liked the bullfighting activity so much. That is why he gave me one of his works to better understand this festival and in particular its development in our country, "El toreo en Venezuela" (Bullfighting in Venezuela). To me it always seemed a violent thing, but reading it in his work and investigating a little more in the existing confrontation between those who seek its disappearance and those who like him defended it, I found something that perhaps I could decipher a little more this exceptional character, who could connect his passion for bullfighting with the struggle with a savage criminal regime.
The fiesta of the bull is the scenario that confronts man with the beast and the inevitable triumph of man over it. It goes beyond entertainment, and some, like El Vito, even consider it an art. When I revisit with the disappearance of El Vito the notes that I read and inquired in his opportunity about that subject, I "fell the locha", with the posthumous pardon that my dear friend El Vito can dispense me, that is precisely what we have in Venezuela. A great bullring where we are all bullfighters facing a unique beast that we have not been able to decipher because we are bad bullfighters, to the point of confusing a bull with a Nú, as Oscar Yanes used to say (see in Spanish "Oscar Yanes" Opposition General Staff, in https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/2013/10/estado-mayor-de-oposicion-oscar-yanez.html).
Bullfighting in Spain was born in the 12th century and "was the name given to the works or books that deal with and compile the different techniques of bullfighting, where the rules of bullfighting are also developed in the form of a manual to be read by the bullfighters"... "The first known bullfighting was known as the Cartilla de Osuna (a booklet, in which the rules are proposed, to fight on horseback, and practice this courageous, noble exercise, with all skill) published in 1726" (see Bullfighting, in https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauromaquia#Cartilla_de_Osuna).
It is very interesting what at the beginning of those times defined the first of this discipline, what a bullfighter had to know to face the beast: "In this Cartilla de Osuna defines what bullfighting is in some way. Bullfighting is a manly act, he says. Manly because it has a series of qualities that at that time the enlightened people obviously attributed to the male sex, such as courage, daring, agility, and nonchalance. It is also a public spectacle, the Cartilla de Osuna tells us, that is to say, it serves to distract the public in general, it says, the natural melancholy, adds this Cartilla de Osuna. The act is based on courage, but not only that, but also on technique, based on absolutely essential prior knowledge that the author sets out in the form of rules..." (see in Spanish Las primeras Tauromaquias a pie/XX Aula de Tauromaquia, in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyda--US5Mg, min 8:00).
In other words, seen from this perspective, bullfighting is the art of confronting a beast and coming out alive. Without knowing the rules and without courage, one cannot face it, and even less so without daring, agility, and nonchalance, attributes that we have not yet convened together, despite being the ABC of an art that dates back to the twelfth century.
But the matter is even more complex. The subject has been addressed by the most important Spanish-speaking intellectuals, and it is a subject that is still being debated in the world, beyond the superficial and obvious treatment that should be given to animals. Don Juan Lamarca López, President of the Círculo Taurino Amigos de la Dinastía Bienvenida, published an article in the Academia de Mérida where he highlights the specific weight of bullfighting in the Hispanic culture:
As is well known, bullfighting has always generated a real intellectual problem and Ortega y Gasset tries to harmonize currents by making an analytical and philosophical interpretation of the importance of bullfighting in Spain and the effects that bullfighting has had on Spanish culture and daily life: "in effect, it is a fact of overwhelming evidence that for generations and generations this fiesta was, perhaps, the thing that has made the greatest number of Spaniards happiest" ..... "Bullfighting is not only a reality of the first order in the history of Spain, but, when attention is paid to it and historical reason is brought to bear on it, it leads to the discovery of a fact, hitherto arcane, of such importance that the history of Spain cannot be made without an understanding of this spectacle..." Plainly and smoothly said: That whoever wants to know how Spain is, should go to see a bullfight" (see in Spanish La intelectualidad y los Toros, by Don Juan Lamarca López, in https://blogacademiademerida.org.ve/la-intelectualidad-y-los-toros/).
And the history of Spain cannot be made without including its colonies, from which we were all born, heirs of that culture. That is, ourselves. Trying to understand the loss of El Vito in today's Venezuela, we must understand that someone capable of understanding this intellectual quest, unique in its kind, is gone. That is the quality of those who are leaving us in this deep confrontation where the beast is winning.
I am sorry to tell you my dear friend El Vito, wherever you are, that belatedly I finally understood your love for bullfighting, although I still struggle in that future, which leaves the deepest traditions in the past, but tries to draw something better for everyone, without yet achieving it. With this small tribute to your two passions of life, Venezuela and bullfighting, I return to you, because you deserve them more than me, the words that you gave me in the dedication when you gave me your book: "Indefatigable as a fighter, brilliant in your condition of Master in the doctrines...". Farewell, Master...
Caracas, March 26, 2023
Blog:
TIC’s & Derechos Humanos, https://ticsddhh.blogspot.com/
Email: luismanuel.aguana@gmail.com
Twitter:@laguana
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