Spain's Osborne bull may return to Ceuta 40 years on

Ceuta looks back at the Osborne bull it lost in 1984

Is the Osborne bull returning to Ceuta? That is the question circulating on social media for days now, since the story resurfaced of the figure that crowned Monte Hacho between 1974 and 1984, when it was installed with the authorization of the last Francoist city council for a local distributor of Jerez wines. Four decades after its removal, some are calling for it to be returned to the city's landscape.

The map of the 92 survivors

The advertising emblem was once a massive rollout and is now an endangered species. Between 1957 and 1960, more than 500 bulls were erected across the country. Only 92 remain today. Andalusia keeps 24; Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León, 14 each; the Valencian Community, 11; and Aragon, 6. Madrid and La Rioja are down to two. Catalonia, the Basque Country, Murcia and the Canary Islands have none, and the Basque Country removed its last specimen recently.

The Canary Islands once had bulls in El Goro, Ingenio, Tacoronte and Los Rodeos airport. The last one said goodbye in Telde, above the El Cortijo golf course. Ceuta appears in no current count. Melilla still keeps its own.

Emotional heritage, nostalgia and something more

Some read the proposal as a defense of sentimental heritage with little future. Others dismiss it as advertising nostalgia for a brand that no longer needs billboards. And a third current entangles the sign with the debate over identity symbols and coexistence in the city: the crossroads that generates the most noise and provides the least data.

It is worth remembering the obvious: the bull is cut iron, not a city project. A sheet-metal bull on a mountain fixes nothing and bothers no one. The striking thing is that in Spain even iron ends up being voted on.