Spain's La Tomatina

Witness History

In 1945, a fight broke out between two groups of teenage boys during a parade in the Spanish town of Buñol in Valencia. The boys ended up throwing tomatoes at each other.

They decided to repeat the deed every year on the anniversary of the first fight, defying disapproving looks from older neighbours and even bans by the city council.

Eight decades later, their shenanigans have led to one of Spain’s most popular and international festivals, as well as the largest tomato fight in the world: La Tomatina.

Thousands of people, some of them from faraway countries, travel to the small town, to toss tomatoes to each other for an hour, and dive into a sea of tomato juice.

Goltran Zanon is the only one of those boys who is still alive. He told the story to his daughter Maria Jose Zanon, and Valencian history teacher Enric Cuenca Yxeres. They talk to Stefania Gozzer about Goltran's memories of the first Tomatina.

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(Photo: Woman is pelted with tomatoes during La Tomatina festival. Credit: Getty Images)