Submitted by Emily Bange on the 2012 fall semester program in Granada, Spain…
On Saturday I took an optional day trip to Ronda, a city about two and a half hours southwest of Granada. I was a little iffy about going at first, partly because I’d never heard of it before and partly because it meant waking up early on a Saturday. But my roommate and another friend convinced me, and I am so glad they did. The picture below was reason enough to make the trip.
In addition to seeing the awesome Puente Nueva, we also visited a bullfighting ring. That was less awesome, but no less interesting. I knew before that bullfighting was a gruesome sport and nothing that I would ever want to see. I also knew that it was incredibly inhumane. But now I know specifically how inhumane it is, and I honestly got a little sick thinking about it. It is very much comparable to the way that the gladiators fought in ancient Rome; only this time there are no lions, and the humans generally win- though not always. The saddest part about the whole issue, in my mind, is that even though bullfighting has fallen out of favor among many Spaniards, who recognize its cruel nature, the industry actually continues to please a tourist population that mistakenly thinks that all there is to Spanish culture is Flamenco and bullfights.
On a lighter note, I think, we also got to see the Chapel of the Hand of St. Teresa of Avila, which was pretty cool. St. Teresa was a nun during the 16th century who reformed the Carmelite Order (only woman to ever reform an order, I believe). When she died her body did not decompose as a normal corpse would (I did not believe this at first either- Google “incorruptibles” if you don’t believe me). So they cut off her arm and sent it to Rome as proof of her incorruptibility, and then she was canonized. Pretty cool qualification for becoming a Saint, if you ask me. The Catholic Church no longer uses this condition as a characteristic of sainthood, but it’s still remarkable that her body, as well as those of a handful of other Catholic saints, has not decomposed. Another little interesting fact about St. Teresa is that the Carmelite order that she belonged to went barefoot all the time. They only wore little sandals when they went outside of the convent, but otherwise were completely barefoot. I do not know the reason behind this, but apparently they are something of an oddity for this reason.
Sorry if this post was a little gruesome for anyone! I found it all fascinating, if a little gory. I promise that next week will be lighter!