Cordoba

The bull’s head spun upward and to the right as Benitez expertly buried the sword downward past the head and between the shoulder blades of the charging animal. With the bull dead at his feet, Benitez began to slowly make his way out of the bullring. This had been his fourth and last bull of the afternoon. He had displayed courage and style and the kills had come quickly with great precision. During the final kill, one of the bull’s horns had managed to neatly scoop out Benitez’ left eyeball which now rested, fully intact, on his cheek where it hung by an optical nerve. He showed no reaction to the condition of his eye or the crowd that stood and cheered. As he neared the exit he reached up with one hand, plucked the eyeball off of his cheek, and tossed it into the bleachers as though it were a mere piece of garbage. Benitez no longer fights bulls but when he is seen walking through town, mothers grab their children by the arm, point to Benitez and say, “Ahi va un hombre” (There goes a man).

When I was eleven years old my mother handed me Gates of Fear by Barnaby Conrad, which was soon followed by several other books about bullfighting and matadors. They were all non-fiction, as is the paragraph above which was permanently implanted in my brain from the first time I read it. My mother’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Spain. Her maiden name was Cordoba which I was soon to discover matched the name of the city in Spain that is in the heart of the country’s bullfighting region and has produced many of history’s greatest Matadors.

I read and re-read Gates of Fear which was a compilation of ball-busting bullring yarns covering the last 100 years. I imagine that I may at the time have been the only eleven-year-old gringo living in Los Angeles whose bedroom walls were plastered with bull fight posters.

Juan Belmonte Garcia began his career as a matador in 1914 with a style that was a radical departure from all those that had preceded him. Prior to Belmonte, matadors were in constant motion, circling the bull at a safe distance waiting for an opportunity to frantically jump in and out of harm’s way to execute a single cape maneuver but never very close to the bull. Belmonte completely reversed the pattern by remaining stationary and making the bull come to him. When the bull rushed at him, Belmonte’s feet never moved as he stood his ground and used his cape to draw the animal inches from his body as it charged by. Belmonte’s style created a sensation and became the standard by which all that came after him were measured. Belmonte’s legs were malformed from birth and he was unable to run and jump as well as other children in his youth. This condition may have been responsible for his approach. Working in such a manner so close to the bulls took its toll and Belmonte was gored thirty-five times during his career. Belmonte shown below – photo from El Mundo.

Belmonte's star rose quickly as he made the cover of Time magazine and became good friends with Hemingway who worked him into both Death in the Afternoon and The Sun Also Rises. A rivalry developed between Belmonte and another matador named Joselito (Jose Gomez Ortega) who at age twelve was the youngest person ever to receive the title of matador. Joselito adopted Belmonte’s style and they became the best of friends.  They performed together in hundreds of corridas from 1914 up until 1920 when Joselito was killed by a bull at the age of twenty-five. This period is referred to by aficionados as the golden age of bullfighting.

Belmonte eventually retired to his 3,500 acre ranch in Andalusia, Spain. In 1962 he was diagnosed as having cancer and like his good friend Hemingway, took his own life. He was buried twenty yards away from Joselito his former friend and rival.

Manolete (Manuel Laureano Rodriquez Sanchez) was born in Cordoba and grew up to become a matador whose fame and popularity exceeded that of Belmonte. He fought bulls from 1940 to 1947 and lived the life of a rock star. He was paid annually more than ten times what the entire New York Yankee team received. He performed in Spain, Mexico and South America. His image and name were everywhere on products and in songs and tabloids – he was bigger than Coca-Cola. Manolete shown below - photo from the Grand Valley State University Archives.

Manolete’s style was even more statuesque than Belmonte. Where Belmonte had worked six inches from the bulls, Manolete worked one inch away. Where Belmonte had stayed rooted to the ground for a single pass by the bull, Manolete would remain in place, motionless, and extract from the bull a string of four or five consecutive passes. It ended badly during a performance in Linares, Spain where a bull named Islero and Manolete managed to kill each other at the end of the fight. Spain’s dictator General Francisco Franco, ordered a three-day national moratorium during which all radio station broadcasting consisted of funeral dirges. Spain’s Museum of Bullfighting located in Cordoba was dedicated to Manolete’s memory.

The last Matador of note was El Cordobes (Manuel Benitas Perez) which translates as “The Cordovan” as he also hails from the City of Cordoba.  El Cordobes shown below - photo by Lucien Clerque.

El Cordobes, who was reared in an orphanage, used a flamboyant dare-devil approach during the 1960s to become the richest matador in history. He first drew attention to himself by jumping into the ring during a bull fight that was in progress so he could display his bravery and footwork facing a real bull. This happens on occasion and the idiots that try it don’t always survive. During his first official performance he insisted on placing the banderillas himself instead of the person assigned to do it. The banderillas are three-foot long spears that are stuck into the top of the bull’s neck. The three-foot length provides enough clearance to enable the person (referred to as the Banderillo) planting the spears to avoid the bull’s horns. El Cordobes broke the wooden spears off and successfully stuck the bull with “pencil-length” banderillas.

Matadors are aware of conditions which influence a bull to charge or not to charge. El Cordobes used this knowledge (and some big balls) to delight the crowds – such as planting a kiss on the bull’s head between its horns; or sucking on the bull’s horn like it was a lollipop; or droping to his knees in front of the bull, often with his back turned to the bull. Instead of staying put while the bull passed by, he would sometimes throw in an acrobatic move like a ice skating double toe loop as he twirled the cape about. Purists viewed these theatrics as a crude set of tricks but the moves put on by El Cordobes always turned out to be real crowd pleasers.

El Cordobes performed in 111 corridas in a single season, the only matador to ever exceed the previous mark set by Belmonte. Unlike the 533 Matadors that died in the ring since they began keeping track, El Cordobes made it to retirement and now lives in seclusion near, where else but, Cordoba.