Problem was--and I don't know why this hadn't occurred to me on the long drive out--they didn't speak a lick of Ingles. These gentlemen, while appearing affable and eager to please, as the entertainment arts dictate, didn't have a clue as to what I was asking them, and there was no one free to translate. From my observations, the performers fell into specialized categories: The bullfighters appeared to be in their 20s and in prime physical shape, although age among little people is deceptive. There were the actors--the show included a mock-Chippendale's number and a comedy skit involving a giant inflatable bottle of Corona--who overlapped with the bullfighters, although a hierarchy began to emerge, with the front line in the mad-cow bulwark perhaps better termed "fresh meat." From our limited back and forth, I could also glean that the bullfights would be done Portuguese style, i.e., the bull would be allowed to live (perhaps for fiscal as much as sentimental reasons), and that there is a rich heritage of midget rodeos throughout Spain, Mexico, and Central and South America. This troupe, Los Internacionales Enanitos Toreros de Aguascalientes, was apparently the first to tour the United States.
Los Matadoritos
In the ring, the midget rodeo troupes of Mexico parody macho culture in pink Speedos and diminutive displays of daring. But on their home turf of Aguascalientes, Paul Cullum discovers that these little people have bigger dreams.
Later, distilling these findings into a coherent thesis, I decided it would not be an outright breach of my professional duties to perform a quick survey of the phenomenon on the Internet. Here I learned, for instance, that the Mexican Midget Rodeo tradition (according to documentary videotape) might feature flaming go-carts, female midgets--hot female midgets--dancing to "Baby Got Back" and, on occasion, a midget bullfighter being mounted by a vindictive bull. Through the use of a Spanish-to-English translation generator on the Los Enanitos Toreros de Torreon site, I was further able to determine the following:
"For more than 20 years, the Spectacle of the Enanitos Bullfighters of Tower has been characterized for being an amusing and healthy event of entertainment designed for all the public, but with emphasis on it children and girls. . . . The show has evolved with the step of the years, being returned more elaborate and with better characteristics than it have added emotion and admiration on the part of the assistants. Nevertheless, the main elements of the spectacle continue being the Laughter and the Healthy Diversion." In conclusion, the website assured, "Whether facing to brave bulls, amusing bullfighting tasks, carrying out corrupt lucks and of American detour, performing daring acrobacias or representing the artists of the moment, the Enanitos Bullfighters of Tower continue being the Number One."
