Two catalans have also sent a reply to The New York Times regarding the article regarding the article “In a Spanish Region, a Twilight of the Matadores“. These replies have not been published by the New York Times but we reproduce them here (you can find the Col·lectiu Emna reply: “A Public Reply to the New York Times III).
Manel Macià i Gallemí
There will not be a “referendum” in the Catalan Parliament on the abolition of bull-fighting in Catalonia. The political system here offers the citizens a way to change or amend laws; it is called an ILP (Iniciativa Lesligativa Popular) whereby a commission of people, and I belong to this commission, can propose a law and have it discussed and voted on in Parliament after following a series of regulated steps (www.prou.cat). It is our constitutional right to, in this case, try to abolish bull-fighting in our country. According to independent polling results, more than 75% of the Catalan population would like to see the end of bull-fighting, and that, Mr. March, is not a minority.
Deborah Parris
Letter referring to Michael Kimmelman’s article (Oct 1st 2009) about bullfighting in Catalonia
When Michael Kimmelman writes so scathingly about Catalonia, Catalan values and Catalan politics, he would do well to speak to a wider range of people than bullfighting aficionados and English writers. The bullfighting establishment, largely dominated by retrograde men, uses the argument that Catalans reject bullfighting from a separatist standpoint because it is in their interest to confuse the issue. They promote the idea that it is not care for animals but dislike of the Spanish behind the anti-bullfighting movement because this lets them off the animal-rights hook and plays into the hands of the general anti-Catalan feeling Spaniards tend to have. If you research the issue, Mr. Kimmelman, you will find that the anti-bullfighting movement is wide-spread in the whole of Spain and that nationality does not come into it.
