Bull Fighting

The custom was brought to all Spain’s New World colonies, but its popularity suffered when Charles IV in 1805 tried to ban it (an act later annulled by his son Ferdinand VII).  In the mid-19^thcentury new bullrings were built in Havana (with a 10,000-seat capacity), Santiago, Puerto Principe, and Matanzas.  In Santiago (and elsewhere) the sport suffered from a lack of good fighting bulls.  It also became associated more and more with the Spaniards, particularly as the authorities sought to promote it as a manifestation of Hispanidad, and Creoles began to reject it as therefore inconsistent with Cuban nationalism.  When it was outlawed under the first United States intervention, there was (in contrast to cockfighting) no popular sentiment in favor of its revival.