The Colombian soul is understood in a "corraleja"

A kind of bullfight but collective and chaotic, insane, a great drunkenness in which the entire town throws itself into the ring to fight and torture a defenseless and resigned animal.

If I had to explain to someone what Colombia means without giving any theory but living an experience…

I would do it by inviting foreigners to a "corraleja".

Another experience could be taking a bus at the "El Alto de La Línea" perhaps without brakes in some section and with a gringo sitting in the first row passing "las vueltas (el cambio de dinero)" between the driver and the other passengers.

What is a “Corraleja”?

A kind of bullfight but collective and chaotic, insane, a great drunkenness in which the entire town throws itself into the ring to fight and torture a defenseless and resigned animal.

A corraleja is a party in which there is no bullfighter but everyone can participate in killing the bull.

People do it drunk and it takes place in Sincelejo, Colombia.

It is a mess, there is music, there are no authorities, the stage is precarious, almost on the verge of falling.

Everyone is drunk and drinking cheap drinks and there is a band playing music to the beat of the "porro".

I refer to the corralejas as a metaphor for the Colombian soul beyond moral discussion, because what one sees in them is the “recocha” and the “chambonería”, the sad joy of a drunken and inattentive people.

People who run with enthusiasm and determination without ever knowing where, chaos flourishes as method and illusion, the exhibition of that unbridled and cowardly courage that only in the anonymity of the crowd.

That is the culture of the Colombian that has not allowed progress.

He runs to all sides and does not know where he is going or what he is doing.

A joy in chaos and suffering.

The essence of the corraleja is to defy death because anyone can be a bullfighter and the construction of the stage is flimsy.

There have been deaths because the stage falls.

The corraleja is peculiar because the objective is to be entertained.

People enjoy is that the bull charges a person.

Not so much the death of the bull.

It is just as it represents the Colombian soul: what people enjoy the most is being entertained, even if it is mediocre.

It is supposedly a Spanish tradition in the region when the ranchers arrived, people promote a party with the animals and little by little it turned into that mess.

Today there is a debate to ban it but I don't think it works. Colombian culture is too strong when it comes to defending something that is related to barbarism.

If you want to go to one, it is in Sincelejo and they are always held in January.

Yaaaa llegó el 20 de eneroooo dice la canción

That was what José María Samper told about bullfights in the Colombian 19th century: everyone was drunk in the ring, the stands collapsed.

The funny thing is that this is the essence because two centuries have passed and it is still exactly the same: the stands collapse and everyone is drunk.