In 2003, at the main door of the Bullring, a statue was erected in honor of the Colombian bullfighter Cesar Rincón, whose symbolism he represented that afternoon in March 1991 when the bullfighter emerged triumphantly through the main door of the monumental Bullring. of Sales in Spain.
The sculpture sculpted by Argemiro Díaz Moreno, born in Gramalote Norte de Santander, leader of a group made up of eight people Eduardo Pita, Diego Abril, William Cucaita, Javier Mateus, Edilson Camargo, Julián Rincón, Noemí Estupiñán and José Agudelo who worked during the day and at night, with a studio, workshop, bedrooms and kitchen being provided within the plaza facilities due to the time gap they were in, it has a height of five meters and forty centimeters, made up of three subordinates who carry Rincón on their shoulders, in a scale that doubled its real size, made of clay and plaster, with fiberglass finishes prior to the tanning process, perched on an exterior cement oval that included a gazebo of flags, a water fountain, another bullfighting sculpture , as well as the busts of the successful bullfighters at each fair. The details of the work were agreed directly with Rincón, after several meetings in Bogotá and Paipa, where several alternatives were presented and finally the one that magnified the moment of triumph was chosen.
Today, a rainy day in La Perla, within the framework of the commemoration of “World Anti-Bullfighting Day”, and the launch of the “Transformations for Life” initiative by Social Prosperity, the sculpture was removed by the Mayor’s Office. from Duitama.
According to José Luis Bohórquez, mayor of La Perla de Boyacá, this clearing is being carried out as a message of the rebirth of the place that was once one of the most important bullfighting arenas in the country, but that from now on and thanks to the approval of the Project of the anti-bullfighting Law of May 28, which prohibits bullfighting and other related activities throughout the national territory, it will undergo a landscape transformation and benefits for the community.
The misfortune
Although the idea was to preserve the statue in its entirety and move it to another place, the lack of planning and the artisanal nature of the clearing plan led to the work suffering considerable damage, among others, the detachment of the matador’s left arm, the head and the crushing of one of the work’s subordinates, a situation that has very upset those who consider this work as an icon of Duitama culture.
Gustavo Bolívar, director of Social Prosperity, was in Duitama, not only for the symbolic removal of the statue, but also for the socialization of the call “Transformations for life”, an initiative that will allow municipalities with bullrings to have infrastructures of mobile markets to strengthen local economies and encourage farmers to grow and sell their products.
According to Bolívar, $15,000 million will be invested to transform these spaces, for which a call will be made to mayors who have bullrings and are interested in converting these torture rings into the “All” plaza.
This year it is planned to deliver 15 mobile markets and inaugurate the first of them within the next 3 months. “We want there to be peasant markets on Sundays, the infrastructure of a mobile market will be financed so that they can install it and the peasants can take their products to sell. It is a change in strategy, it is an economic conversion that will benefit many people who will be unemployed by law,” said the general director of Social Prosperity.
The new law establishes a period of three years for the government to offer economic alternatives to people who work in bullfighting. Currently, only seven countries in the world, mostly in Latin America, allow bullfighting: Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, Venezuela, Spain and France.
The space was attended by the Senator of the Republic, Esmeralda Hernández, leader of the “No más Olé” project approved by the Congress of the Republic.
