STARR COUNTY, Texas \u2014\u00a0In the heart of the Texas borderlands, an ancient sport lives on with a twist.<\/p>\n
The Santa Maria Bullring in Starr County is the one place in Texas where you can still watch a traditional bullfight. It started in 2000 and reopened last year after closing in 2023. Owner Miguel Nu\u00f1ez says people missed seeing the unique shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople keep coming back because they love it. It\u2019s the tradition of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
And every part of the tradition is still alive \u2014 almost. Instead of piercing the bull with a sword, the\u00a0torrero, or bullfighter, must get close enough to the animal to take a flower off its neck.<\/p>\n
Cayetano Delgado from Monterrey, Mexico, has fought bulls since he was 6 years old and has traveled to perform in the Santa Maria Bullring since he was a teen. Delgado says the adaptation is done out of respect for the country hosting them and, of course, the animal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s different here because the bull doesn\u2019t die,\u201d Delgado said. \u201cBut for me, the danger is the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delgado prepares for the fight with mediation and lots of prayer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most intimate moment for a bullfighter is this one, as he\u2019s getting ready to face the animal,\u201d Delgado said. \u201cIt can bring a lot of fear. It\u2019s a ritual that requires concentration.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Once he steps into the ring, though, you would never know he\u2019s scared. Delgado and the other\u00a0torreros\u00a0charge toward the bull and spin away, even laying down directly in front of it. It all builds up to the moment he takes the flower off the bull. With every victory, this Spanish and Mexican tradition becomes a little more Texan.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STARR COUNTY, Texas \u2014\u00a0In the heart of the Texas borderlands, an ancient sport lives on with a twist.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[9980,16878,132,134,133,1570,102,138,2777,30720,223,82,27,26986,1569,835],"class_list":["post-225249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-app-arts-entertainment","tag-app-latest-entertainment-stories","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-el-paso","tag-entertainment","tag-lily-celeste","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-editors-picks","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/225250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}