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TOREROS AT THE VANGUARD FOR THE 2009 EUROPEAN
TAURINE SEASON |
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Introduction
Last year in January I wrote
the article TOREROS AT THE VANGUARD FOR
THE 2008 EUROPEAN TAURINE SEASON,
, the theme of which was the
ongoing process of renewal of the top bullfighters, which I called “the changing of the guard”. I
stated that after “El Juli” took his
alternativa in 1998, and joined Ponce and José Tomás at the top, the process of
change had almost stopped. Therefore, this trio of top matadors had continued
being the leaders of bullfighting during the first six years of the new century
without any meaningful opposition or competition.
On the other hand, the renewal process surged to life
again in the middle of the of the 2006 European Taurine Season when of a few
young matadors, who had taken the alternativa during this new century, started
to have a strong impact with their repetitive successes in the bullrings. 
Then,
the process of renewal accelerated during the 2007 season, when these new
matadors continued to play important roles in bullfighting. Consequently, they
unsettled the existing status quo among the established leaders, forcing them
to compete to justify their status, or otherwise to play a supporting role or
even to retire.
In that
article last yearl
concluded that at the end of the 2007 season the process of renewal was already
a fact at the top due to the extraordinary successes of these new stars who,
along with Ponce, José Tomas y “El Juli”, will be the stars of the 2008 season,
while the remaining stars of the 90’s who are still active would just play
supporting roles. At he same time, maybe with an excess of optimism, I guessed
that the 2008 season would be, as interesting and successful or more so than
2007 one. It was certainly interesting, since the process of renewal continued,
but, by comparison the results of the 2008 season were not as positive as those
of the great 2007 season, since a few important matadors were not as successful
as they had been the year before. Also, it was disappointing that no new
promising matadors had succeeded in joining the stars at the top to continue
renewing
the process.
In the same article I
discussed the ten matadors who, based on their successful campaigns in the 2007
season, I thought would be in the vanguard of the 2008 season with more or less
importance. I predicted that the vanguard
would be integrated by the three veteran matadors Ponce, José Tomás and “El
Juli” as well as the newer stars “El Cid”, Sebastián Castella, Miguel Angel
Perera, José María Manzanares, Alejandro Talavante and Cayetano Rivera
Ordóñez plus the unpredictable artist “Morante de la Puebla”, a survivor of the
90’s, who was returning to bullfighting after a very brief retirement.
Toreros at the Vanguard For the 2009 Taurine
European Season
From here on, this article
could be considered as a follow-up to TOREROS AT THE VANGUARD FOR THE
2008 EUROPEAN TAURINE SEASON, since I
will be commenting about the quality of the 2008 campaign of each of these ten
matadors, in order to anticipate the relevance that they might have in the
upcoming season, which officially opens in Castellón, Spain, in March.
To provide an idea of the
scope of the 2008 campaign of the ten mentioned matadors, I have included
statistical data obtained from “Escalafón”, published by the press at the end
of the 2008 European Season last November, which shows the number of corridas as
well as the number of trophies obtained by each of those matadors. Note that after the name of each bullfighter
there appear two rows of numbers enclosed in parentheses. The figures enclosed
in the first parenthesis ( ) represent for the numbers of corridas fought, and the ears and
tails obtained during the 2008 season: (x corridas;
x ears; and x tails); and the set of numbers enclosed in the second
parenthesis [ ], shows the distribution of the total number of ears by
the category of the plaza in which they were granted to the matador [x ears
obtained in 1st class plaza; x ears obtained in 2nd class
plaza; and X ears obtained in 3rd class plaza]. This second set of
data will help the readers to evaluate the respective importance of the
trophies granted to the matador, since it is not an equal feat to cut an ear,
for example, en Bilbao, a 1st class plaza, as it would be in Huelva,
a 2nd class plaza, or in Mérida, a 3rd class plaza.
A View to the Accomplishments of the Ten Star Matadors of the 2008 European Season and Their Perspectives For the Upcoming One.
I will now comment about the
2008 campaign of the ten toreros of the vanguard at the same time than I will
speculate as to what their perspectives may be for this season that will begin
very soon.
I will start by dealing with
José Tomás and Miguel Angel Perera, who have been the two matadors who,
although following different paths, completed the campaigns of greater impact
in the 2008 season. The veteran José Tomás, by finishing a short but
exceptional campaign, increased his fame as an intriguing and legendary torero,
while the younger Perera, completing an extensive and almost perfect campaign,
was the first matador of the new wave to solidify his position at the top of
bullfighting.
José Tomás (20-42-2)
[19-23-0] Continues To Be the Most Exciting and Commercial Torero
By now any person who
follows bullfighting very well knows what an exceptional type of torero José
Tomás is. He possesses a classical and pure toreo that he practices with great
courage, giving everything he has in each performance, often disregarding his
personal well-being. He has always appealed to knowledgeable aficionados and
taurine critics, as well as to the general public, but since he returned to
bullfighting in Barcelona in June of 2007, after a five-year hiatus, José Tomás
has added some indefinable personal characteristics to his intrinsic excellent
taurine values, such as charisma, mystery, exoticism and and even
a sense of
tragedy, that have enhanced his attraction, converting him in the most popular
of the existing bullfighting stars. In addition to that, he has limited his
performances, and did not permit them to be televised. Consequently, wherever
he fights the tickets are sold out far in advance of his appearance.
Since his comeback, during the 2007 and 2008 seasons
José Tomás has fulfilled and surpassed all expectations, by succeeding in almost all the 36
corridas in which he participated, obtaining 76 trophies, and paying at times a
high price in blood for some of those ears.
On his second short European campaign he triumphed in
17 corridas of
the 20 in which he performed, obtaining
a total of 44 trophies. He cut one ear in Valencia, Santander, Almería and Valladolid, while he
cut two ears in Castellón, Cordoba, Salamanca, Murcia, Linares and Aranjuez.
Furthermore, in two performances he was awarded six trophies in Malaga, and
three in Granada, Pontevedra and Cuenca, and in Jerez he cut two ears and a
tail. In America, he also scored in México and Bogotá. Only on three occasions did he leave the plaza without any trophies.
José Tomás three most
impacting and historical successes took place in Madrid and in Barcelona. In
his two performances in Madrid he cut seven ears. On June 15, after executing
two exceptional faenas with two brave bulls, he was rewarded with three ears
and left the ring by the Puerta Grande. Three weeks later he did not open the
same door, in spite of having cut four ears, since he was in the infirmary
being treated for the three gorings that he received. The other historical
event took place in Barcelona in his last fight of the year, where he pardoned
the life of a Cuvillo bull, and was granted the symbolic trophies of two ears
and the tail.
The low points of his
campaign were marked by his gray performance in the mano-a-mano
with “Morante
de la Puebla” at the Puerto de Santa Maria, where he was caught too many
times. José Tomás was seriously gored three times during the season, in Jerez,
Madrid and El Puerto.
In spite of such phenomenal
accomplishments, José Tomás has again been much criticized for not having
completed a campaign fighting from the beginning of the season to the end, and
for not having faced the aficion at all the important plazas, such as those in Seville, Bilbao and
Zaragoza. He has also been criticized for not competing regularly with the other top stars.
The aficionados were hoping
that, like most big figures, José Tomás would complete a more traditional and
demanding campaign this year, so they would have more opportunities to see him
performing. Nevertheless, that will not be the case, since his manager Salvador
Boix made public last month that his torero plans to follow a similar path
during the 2009 season.
In
any event, even if José Tomás follows the same path this year as he did last
season, there cannot be any doubt that the charismatic diestro from Madrid is
going to be more appealing than any
other star matadors during the 2009 European Season, and if any aficionado
plans to see him perform, he will have to travel to the limited places where
this intriguing matador decides to fight.
Perera
(82-154-3) [28-73-53] Firmly Entrenched On the Top
Miguel Angel Perera, after completing two and a
half
lukewarm seasons as a full-fledged matador, started climbing to the top at the
end of the 2006 season, then he continued ascending in 2007, and he finally
reached the top and firmly secured his position among the star matadors during
the last season.
After finishing a successful winter season in Latin
America, Perera started his 2008 European campaign in Castellón 
on February 29
by cutting three ears, and he finished it in Madrid on October 3. That
afternoon, he fought in alone in Las Ventas, facing five bulls, and obtaining
four ears. He did not leave the plaza by the Puerta Grande because he was lying
seriously injured on the operating table in the infirmary. Hi first bull had gored
him, but he bravely remained in the arena to continue fighting four more bulls.
Again, he was very badly gored by the fifth animal, but heroically barely
managed to continue fighting until finishing off the bull. Not being physically
able to confront the last bull, he retired to the infirmary. Later, as a
consequence of the severity of his injuries, he had to undergo four more
surgeries, from which he has been recovering until a few days ago, when he
successfully reappeared in Colombia in January.
Between February 29 and October 3 Perera performed in
80 more corridas obtaining 157 trophies, many of them in first class bullrings.
He failed to cut ears in only 13 corridas. The fact that after being
seriously injured in Alicante on June 20, he fought three days later emphasizes
his superhuman determination to be a commanding matador.
It would be
easier to enumerate the few plazas where
Perera did not have an outstanding performance than to list the many bullrings
in which he cut multiple trophies, or left the ring by the Puerta Grande. These
are some of his achievements: he opened the Puerta Grande in important plazas
such as Madrid, Barcelona, Nimes, Bayona, Palencia, Castellón, Soria, León,
Huelva, Vitoria, Linares, Murcia, Albacete and a few more. He was rewarded with
two ears in Seville and Bilbao. He had almost flawless performances by cutting
four ears in Santander, Olivenza, La Línea, Cuenca and Murcia; he obtained
seven trophies in two corridas in Valladolid. He also cut a tail in Murcia and
another in Nimes, and pardoned the life of a bull in Dax. In April Perera took a
little break from the European season to brilliantly fight two corridas at the
Mexican Feria of Aguascalientes.
We do not
recall that in the last few years a torero had completed a campaign with such
repeated successes as Perera did in 2008. This fact is very impressive, but it
is more remarkable how this young man from Extremadura has done it, since he
accomplished it by adding an exceptional classical quality to his emotional type
of toreo, and executed it with great courage, apparent ease, great mastery and
intelligence.
Now I will
comment on veteran stars Enrique Ponce and Julián López “El Juli” who in the
2008 season have continued still to be in commanding positions as they have
been since they took their alternativas in the 90’s. What is different is their
perspectives, since the ‘patriarch’ Ponce, who is contemplating a possible near
retirement, has been performing at his own pace, sure of himself, without
looking for or evading unnecessary confrontations. On the other hand, “El
Juli”, on his tenth anniversary of his alternativa, with illusion of continuing
active for a few more years and maintaining his privileged position, has been
responding to the challenge of the new figures, who aspire either to unseat him
or otherwise to join him on the taurine vanguard.
‘Patriarch’ Ponce, One Year
More On the Very Top (62-66-3) [22-17-27]
Enrique Ponce in
2008 has completed one more season, his 18th, fighting from the
beginning to the end of the season, performing in all the important plazas,
without refusing to appear with the new wave of stars, and obtaining enough
significant successes to justify the reazon why he is firmly seated on the same
throne that he has occupied since one year after he took his alternativa
in1990.
Ponce no longer
needs to compete with anybody or to reach new goals. So he directs his efforts
to just constructing, from time to time, exceptional faenas, in which his
brilliant elegant, majestic and dominant type of toreo comes alive; and when
success in not possible, he solves any problem a difficult bull may present
with great facility, using his cold, sober courage that permits him to think on
his feet fast in front of the bulls.
After fighting a
few corridas with great success in the Latin American winter season, Ponce
started his 18th campaign as a matador by cutting three
ears on March 1 in Olivenza,
and he rapped it up in Jaén on October 18.
Between these dates he 
participated in 60 additional corridas, obtaining a total of 3 tails and 64 ears, 22
of which were granted in first class
rings. Enrique also opened the Puerta Grande of many plazas, among them the
plazas of Linares, Iscar,
Leon, Roquetas de Mar, Santander,
Pontevedra, Malaga, Dax, Beziers, Bilbao,
Antequera, Aracena, Daimiel, Nimes, Ubeda and
Zaragoza. Also in other plazas, such as Granada, Huelva, Vitoria, Bayona,
Pontevedra and Gijón he cut an ear. Furthermore, he pardoned the life of one
bull in Sanlúcar de Barrameda and of another in Montoro.
Also, he earned the “Most Successful Matador” trophy of the ferias of
Las Fallas in Valencia and of the Feria del Pilar in Zaragoza. A month after
finishing the European campaign, Ponce cut four ears in Lima, Peru, and for the
third time in his career, he was given the “Escapulario del Señor de los Milagros”.
The low points
of the season for Ponce were the few accomplishments he had during the months o
May and June, and the lackluster performances he had at both the Seville and
Madrid ferias.
The man from Valencia, from time to time has stated his intention to retire soon. For
instance, he announced to the press that will not come back to fight any more
in the plazas of Madrid, Pamplona or Logroño. On the other hand, I believe that
as long as he continues performing in the ring as brilliantly as he has until
now ---he just cut a tail in La Mexico in Mexico City on February 8--- he could
be playing an important role in bullfighting as long as he whishes to do so.
Therefore, Ponce, will face 2009
maintaining his privileged position as the patriarch of toreo.
"El Juli" Commemorated the 10th
Anniversary of his Alternativa Completing Another Successful Campaign in 2008
(74-104-3) [20-35-32]
The
young maestro Julián López "El Juli”, fighting with the same courage,
great ability and exceptional know-how as always, and already converted into a
classical maestro, has completed another successful campaign in the European
bullrings in his 10th season as a full-fledged matador. During the
year he held ground defending his privileged position against onslaughts of the
newer stars. He responded to these challenges with outstanding performances, which
became better and better as the season progressed.
His performances
in the middle of the season were not as successful as they had been during the
season before, since he often was unlucky with the type of bulls he was
assigned in the drawing and, also, because he failed with the sword on
occasions, losing trophies that he should have earned for his good work with
cape and muleta. On the other hand, in many other instances, he has overcame
the problems presented by some of his difficult opponents to ending up putting
together brilliant faenas. I witnessed one of these which took place in the
corrida of April 5 at the Feria of Seville, where he surprised us by cutting an
ear from a very dangerous bull.
Julian opened
his campaign on February 29 in Castellón and fought 74 corridas, cutting 104 ears and three
tails, 20 of these trophies were granted to him in 1st class plazas.
He also left the arenas on the shoulders of his admirers on multiple occasions
from plazas as important as Valencia, Barcelona, Bilbao, San Sebastián Arles, Dax, Nimes, Badajoz, Burgos, Avila, Alicante, Huelva, Almería, Palencia, 
El Puerto de
Santa María and San Sebastián de los Reyes, among others. Furthermore, he cut
one ear in many other locations such as Seville, Jerez, Valladolid,
Cordoba, Burgos, Pamplona,
Mont de Marsan, Zaragoza and Jaén.
The most negative
occurrence in Julian's campaign was to pass silently through Las Ventas,
without being able to duplicate the overwhelming success he had last year. On
the other hand, the great successes he accomplished in Nimes, Barcelona, Zafra, Zaragoza and Jaén at the end of the
season made up for his disappointing performances in Madrid in the spring.
On September 19 in Nimes “El Juli”
commemorated the 10th anniversary of his alternativa, which he took
in that plaza by facing six Daniel Ruiz bulls. That afternoon the young
maestro demonstrated the range of his varied repertoire, sometimes fighting
with the same enthusiasm and creativity with which he used to please the masses during the earlier stages of his
career. Other times he fought with the mastery and classicism that he now
possesses. He cut seven ears and a tail. The following day he had another
overwhelming performance in Barcelona, cutting three ears and opening the
Puerta Grande. In addition to that, in October at the Feria of Zafra in two
performances he obtained six ears and pardoned the life of a bull, and in the
ferias of Zaragoza and Jaén he was awarded one ear.
But his sensational closing of the
European season was not the end for “El Juli’s” successes, since he continued collecting trophies at
the ferias of the Latin American winter season. This probably is a prelude to
what “El Juli” may accomplish in the 2009 European season, when this already
mature maestro will continue to be featured as a brilliant star in all the
important ferias.
Let’s lok
at four more toreros who formed part of
the taurine vanguard during the 2008 season. These matadors were important
stars of the fiesta last season who, like Perera, took the alternativa some
time during this decade. They are: "El
Cid”, who completed the most successful campaign of his
career, and now feels secure in his well-deserved high position; the classic
and elegant matadors José
María Manzanares Cayetano, who continued ascending to the top in 2008, in
spite of both cutting short their campaigns because of illness and injury,
respectively; Sebastián Castella , who underwent a campaign with some ups and
downs; and Alejandro Talavante, who performed in 2008 with more downs than ups.
In 2008
“El Cid” (89-100-3) [16-27-57] Confirmed Again his Qualification as a Powerful
Maestro
“El Cid”, after five rough years of
having to confront dangerous bulls from the
most difficult ganaderias, such as Victorino Martín, Miura, Cebada Gago and
others, he started in
2006 to be part of the ferias as an important torero, and the following
year he
become a top matador. Finally, already secure in his well-deserved high
position, he completed a successful season in 2008 as a star torero, without continually having
to prove that he deserves to be a figura.
“El Cid” has
had many significant triumphs, and he could have a few more, since in a few
occasions, after completing phenomenal faenas, he lost trophies for not using
the sword with efficiency. Therefore, his campaign, in spite of being very
good, did not reach the high level of the of the 2007 one.
Some examples of
these shortcomings happened in Seville where, after he executed a good faena to
a difficult ‘victorino’, he was not rewarded with an ear for failing with the
sword; a similar event occurred in Madrid, where he could have opened the 
Puerta
Grande twice, but because of his failure to kill well he left the plaza on
foot; and in Zaragoza after a fantastic faena which merited the awarding of a
tail, he received only one ear.
Nevertheless, “El Cid” had many successes last season, since en
89 corridas he earned 100 ears and 3
tails, and 16 of these trophies were granted in first class bullrings. These
were some of the places were he won these trophies: four ears in San Sebastián de los Reyes; three in Cáceres
and Bayonne; two in Barcelona, Algeciras, Burgos, Huelva, San Sebastián, Gijón and Palencia; and two ears and a
tail in Sanlúcar de Barrameda, where he pardoned a bull’s
life on May 24. Furthermore, he
obtained an ear in important plazas, these being Madrid, Seville, Valencia, Pamplona, Zaragoza, Arles, Nimes, Dax,
León, Castellón, Pontevedra, Vitoria, Salamanca, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Algeciras, Puerto de Santa María and Jaén.
It is safe to predict that “El Cid,
already fully recognized as an established star, with his classical, solid and
all powerful style of bullfighting, which is highly appreciated be the critics
and aficionados as well by the general public, will continue to play an
important role in almost all the ferias of the 2009 European taurine season.
With
Manzanares, the Art and the Elegance Will Continue to Be Present in the Arena (66-83-0) [20-6-42] in the 2009 Season
For the second time, José María Manzanares, who was regularly
exhibiting the greatness of his pure and traditional manner of bullfighting in
the European bullrings, was compelled to cut short his 2008 campaign in the
middle of September, due to some type of sickness, which made him very weak.
This was a pity, since
Manzanares was unable to finish his successful campaign by putting the icing on
the cake, at a time
when he was consolidating his fame as the torero who
represents the most pure classicism. This young man from Alicante possesses the
necessary courage and determination to fight with knowledge, mastery, elegance,
harmony, art and purity. In addition, he also has other good bullfighting
qualities, which cause some of his faenas to have a major impact on the
aficionados that is not measurable by the traditional trophies of ears and
tails.
During the 2008 season, José
María appeared on the most select cartels of all the important ferias,
competing with the best matadors, and facing only bulls of the most selected
brands. Without participating in the Latin American winter season, because he
was recovering from his debilitating tropical ilness, which made him stop
fighting in August of the prior year; he opened his 2008 campaign at Castellón on February 29, and concluded it
prematurely on September
20 in Murcia, when he still had several contracts left
to fulfill. He did not score in either of these two corridas. Nevertheless, this fact did not mean much,
since in the other intervening 64 performances he cut 83 ears, 20 of them in 1st class plazas.
The following are some of the
achievements that this classic young matador obtained during the 2008 season: he cut four
ears in two corridas in Alicante, and as many
trophies in El Puerto de
Santa Maria; he was awarded three ears in two corridas in Seville, and the same
quantity of trophies in only one fight in Segovia, Olivenza, Puertollano, Plasencia, Segovia, Linares, Mérida and Ronda; also, he
cut two ears in each of his performances in Santander, Mallorca, Albacete, Toledo, Gijón, Talavera de la Reina, Algeciras, Roquetas de Mar, San Lorenzo del Escorial, among other places; furthermore, he earned an
ear in Mont de Marsan, Vitoria, Gijón, Almería,
Bayona, Malaga, Valladolid, Salamanca and several more places. Later, in his comeback
after recovering from his illness, in October in Lima, Peru, he performed very
well, cutting ears, and later he also continued fighting with notable success
in other ferias of Latin America.
Of special
importance were his brilliant performances at the Maestranza in the Feria de
Abril in Seville that earned him the trophy given to the most successful
matador in that feria. Also, his unforgettable rounded and artistic faenas he
put together in Ronda, El Puerto de Santa Maria, Alicante,
Linares and Bilbao were
exceptional.
One never would have imagined four years
ago that the easygoing young man with little ambition to succeed in the fiesta
brava, was going in 2008 to become one the most admired matadors of he
bullfighting vanguard. Now it is not difficult to believe that, if Manzanares
continues to be healthy and the bulls do not hurt him, in this coming season,
he will top the many successes he had since he started his run to the top on
the year 2006.
Cayetano (53-82-1) [9-29-44] Took a Step Forward in the 2008 Season
The dynastic matador Cayetano Rivera
Ordóñez took an important step forward with his notable good performance in the
2008 European season, in spite of not having been able to finish it, due the
injury that he suffered in Palencia.
Cayetano, like Manzanares, fights with a
pure and classic style, which is highly appreciated by the good aficionados. On
the
other hand, different from Manzanares, he still has not completed a full
campaign as a full-fledged matador, fighting in all the main plazas, to
demonstrate the scope of his good toreo. This has happened, in part, because of
his having been gored on different occasions, and also because Curro Vázquez,
his manager, decided to measure or postpone his appearances in important plazas
as Madrid or Seville. His intention was to give his matador more time to
mature, since Cayetano started late in the profession, having very little
experience either as an aficionado or a novillero. It is worthwhile to note
that Cayetano was pursuing a life away from bullfighting, and when he was 28
years old he decided suddenly to become a torero.
Cayetano’s 
personal charisma plus his
family’s public background has converted him into a popular person whose life
is continually scrutinized by the media.
This fact, added to his taurine qualities and his successful
performances in the arena, means that his inclusion in any cartel would attract
a non-taurine audience as well as the regular aficionados. Therefore, this
torero from Madrid, since his alternativa, has fought in any place he has
wanted to under the best conditions as if he were already a-super star of the
fiesta brava.
Cayetano started the 2008 season in March
in Castellón and finished it in Palencia on September 3, where he was very
seriously injured. He cut one ear that afternoon. He performed in 53 corridas, earning 82 ears and a tail. Nine of these
trophies were cut in 1st class rings, 29 in 2nd class
arenas,
and 44 in 3rd class plazas.
three years as a matador 
