Juan Manuel Filomeno Herrera was 29 years old and lived in Huamantla, Tlaxcala. On Saturday, August 22, he went out running as he did every year, when 21 fighting bulls were released onto the town’s streets.
He never made it home. The videos that circulated afterward showed the exact moment the animals charged into the crowd: bodies thrown into the air, people gored, a woman dragged along the ground while others ran to save themselves. By the end of the day, two people had died and eleven were injured.
La Huamantlada began in 1954, inspired by the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, and is considered the largest event of its kind in the world, with bulls released from nine different points throughout the city. It had gone eight years without a death being recorded. This August 22, that streak ended, along with the lives of at least two men who only wanted to live out their tradition.
