The divisa is a bundle of coloured ribbons, usually made of silk, although sometimes produced using fabric or other materials. It is placed on the bull’s morrillo (the muscular area at the base of the neck) at the moment the bull enters the arena. This symbolic element has a double function: firstly, to identify the ganadería (breeding ranch) to which the bull belongs, and secondly, to stimulate the animal so that it enters the ring with greater energy after spending several hours in a dark enclosure (chiquero, the holding pen) while waiting for the moment of the bullfight.
In the past, the colours of the divisa were chosen at random. However, from around 1820 onwards, breeders began to select specific colours for their bulls. Since then, each breeder has chosen the colours according to personal preference.
One example is Jesús Gil, former president of Atlético de Madrid, who owned the Valdeolivas breeding ranch together with his son and chose the red and white colours of his football club. Other ranches, such as Guadalmena, opted for the colours of the Spanish flag, while Daniel Ramos, a breeder from Valencia, selected colours that reminded him of his homeland, such as the blue of the sea or the orange of the region’s most emblematic fruit.
Other breeders, instead of creating a new ranch from scratch, acquire a historic hierro (the branding iron that identifies a ranch) and usually respect both the shape of the pial (the association mark) and the colours of the divisa, due to the prestige involved in being at the head of such a well-established lineage. This was the case with Victorino Martín when he purchased the Albaserrada ranch, or Tico Morales when he acquired the cattle and rights to the iconic Pablo Romero breeding ranch.
The divisa consists of an iron harpoon to which one or more coloured ribbons identifying the ranch are attached. In some bullrings, such as La Maestranza in Seville or Vista Alegre in Bilbao, it was traditional for the ribbons to be arranged in a circular shape in the same colours as the divisa, with the harpoon placed in the centre. This circular arrangement is known as the moña (a decorative rosette of ribbons).
Most divisas consist of two colours. However, some ranches use only one colour, such as Fuente Ymbro (green), Jandilla (blue), Parladé (yellow) or the Portuguese ranch Ortigão Costa (red). There are several divisas with three colours, and only one well-known example with four colours: that of Marcos Núñez — crimson, gold, green and black.
As a curiosity, the Miura breeding ranch uses a green and red divisa in provincial bullrings, and green and black in Madrid. This is because the first time Miura bulls were fought in Madrid, their divisa coincided with that of an older ranch, Plácido Comesaña, forcing the Seville-based breeder to change the colours. Nowadays, however, many ranches share the same divisa colours, and their bulls are distinguished by the design of the hierro with which they are branded.
The divisa is placed just before the bull enters the arena. This is a high-risk task due to the proximity of the animal and its likely reaction once it feels the iron. For this reason, in most cases the mayoral (the head stockman of the bullring) or another member of the bullring staff carries out this task from above the pens, either from the passage connecting the toriles (the gates leading to the arena) or even from inside the chiquero. However, in some bullrings in France, such as Vic-Fezensac or Eauze, the operator stands in the callejón (the passageway between the arena and the stands), next to the puerta de toriles, and drives the harpoon with the ribbons into the bull’s neck at the very moment the animal steps onto the sand.
It is then that the bullfight begins, and the bull honours its ancestors by proudly displaying, in those first powerful charges, the colours of the lineage to which it belongs.
If you would like to know the colours of the divisas used by all fighting bull breeding ranches, you can consult in Servitoro.
