 The Plaza de Toros Oriente, or "East Bullring," seating three thousand spectators, was built around 1856, continuing the city's deeply rooted bullfighting tradition.
For many years after the founding of San Miguel, local indigenous groups celebrated the day of their patron saint San Miguel Arcángel with two weeks of bullfights, in which only they entered the bullring, prohibiting any Spanish participation. The bullfights took place in the main square (now at Plaza Cívica Soledad). Back then there were no trees, since this was the town market. A makeshift woodplank fence was put up and seating was arranged for the local authorities. Another interesting tidbit is that Ignacio Allende, a famous figure in the Mexican War of Independence, was a bullfighter here in his youth. Some time later, in 1937, Felipe Cossío de Pomar, a painter and writer who was brother-in-law to the most famous bullfighter of the era, Juan Belmonte, arrived in San Miguel and brought with him a passion for bullfights that soon spread throughout the city. The bullfighting tradition of San Miguel has flourished since colonial times, and today is visible not only in September, during the festivities of San Miguel Arcángel, but throughout the year.
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East Bullring |