A 10-year-old Franco-Mexican boy who has become a star child matador had his hopes crushed again on Saturday when his “beginner’s” bullfight with calves was banned for a second time in southern France.
Michelito is already a celebrity in Mexico’s bullfighting world — where he has killed 60 bulls since he was six years old — but he has not been given the same reception in the south of France, where a furore has erupted over minors participating in bullfights.
Michelito, whose full name is Michel Lagravere Peniche, said he was “disappointed” by the cancellation of the bullfight.
PHOTO: AFP
“It’s like if someone asks a kid who plays soccer not to play,” he said.
Authorities banned the becerrada — bullfight for beginners with calves that are not killed — hours before it was set to take place on Saturday in the city of Arles, the event’s second location after it was banned by the mayor of the town of Fontvieille the day before.
The Anti-corrida Alliance had denounced Michelito’s participation in the competition, saying the child matador was at risk of injury and that the event would breach labor laws limiting the work of minors.
Michelito said groups like the Alliance should not get involved in bullfights.
“If they don’t like them, they shouldn’t come to bullfights and that’s all,” he said.
Meanwhile the president of the Alliance, Claire Starozinski, hailed the decision by regional authorities to ban the child’s bullfight.
“Even if the aim is not to kill, there is a risk for a child of 30kg to be put face-to-face with an animal of 200kg,” she said.
Authorities from the southern region surrounding Arles did not attribute the ban on Saturday to the age of the boy, but instead said the problem was the bullring, claiming it did not conform to security standards.
“We are disagreeably surprised because we don’t have this problem in other towns in France,” said the boy’s father, Michel Lagravere, denouncing the presence of security officers outside the bullring in Arles.
He accused the anti-bullfighting group of using his son because he is “in the media spotlight” more than other children who participate in the same becerradas.
The Alliance said it targeted Michelito “because he is a star in his country and he fights in corridas aiming to kill” in Mexico.
“All this shocks me,” said Michelito’s father, a French-born former matador who runs a bullfighting school in Mexico.
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