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I have attended 'bullfights' in Spain, Portugal and Mexico. I was simply disgusted with the Mexican version.
The Portuguese version is more closely aligned with the original Spanish fighting. Good show and spectacle. Of the Spanish fights, it is something more akin to a grand sequence which culminates in a duel to the death.
Oh, and Argentina also. Very different there also.

I offer no excuses,justifications or comparisons to another activity. Bullfighting seen from the context of Spanish tradition is not what most Americans, or others, see and experience.

Ansell12 - as to:
"I’m also old enough to remember that American men were proud of being “masculine”, and described Latin cultures using the derogatory term “Macho”."

If I may, again, here we have a corruption of what the true meaning of the term is meant to convey. In the Spanish culture (not necessarily the Mexican culture) the term 'macho' is far deeper and richer than what it has become in the American lexicon.
It was/is used to denote a 'masculine man' who acts with responsibility to his family, to his and their honor and to his word. One whose actions are conducted with pride and truth and honesty. Not arrogance - but with true concern for his family, his friends and his honor.
yes, a bit of a throw-back to a different time, but if viewed in this context I think you will understand the difference.
What it has come to be, derogatory and mocking - "Macho Macho Man! - is quite different in its original context.