We remember Manolete, the stage name by which Manuel Rodríguez Sánchez (1917-1947) was known, above all, for his tragic death in the ring, a victim of the Islero bull. The image of him has been blurred by a gruesome story according to which the right-hander, during the Civil War, would have starred in a bullfight in which the bullfights were replaced by republican prisoners, thus killed in a cruel way.
However, this alleged creepy episode is not supported by sources. There are those who place it in Badajoz. Others, in Malaga, on the occasion of the celebration of the taking of the city by rebel troops. This discrepancy in location already makes us suspect that it is a hoax, although on many occasions it is recorded as an incontestable fact.
What we know is that the bullfighter, during the fight, was in Córdoba. He joined the ranks in 1937, although he was the son of a widow. In the middle of a war, the need for troops explains this type of situation. If it had not been for the war circumstances, he would never have become a soldier. He has to take care of his military obligations, while also finding time to dedicate to his great passion, bullfighting. This is how he intervenes in bullfights organized in towns near the front.
Everything has been said about a myth like Manolete. Many have seen in him, due to his serious appearance and the paleness of his face, the incarnation of the sad post-war Spain in which so many people struggled simply to eat. Like so many characters who come from nowhere, he wanted, of course, to be rich. When fortune smiled on him, he showered his mother, Doña Angustias, whom he idolized, and his sisters with gifts. A Mercedes and other luxuries were reserved for him, such as tailored suits in the most exclusive tailor shops.
Until 1944, his fame seemed irresistible. People idolized him, even though his bullfights were the most expensive at the time. His nickname, “The Monster,” reflects the admiration that his followers had for him. From then on, however, luck stopped showing him the kinder side of him. Fans began to whistle at him for a variety of reasons. He was reproached for being monotonous, for trying to avoid the most difficult farms.
It has been assumed that, in the ideological field, the right-winger professed a recalcitrant Francoism. The truth is that he was not too interested in politics. In fact, during his visits to Mexico he met the socialist leader Indalecio Prieto and sympathized with the Republican exiles, although always on the condition of not talking about politics. If contentious topics were brought up, he was ready to leave immediately.
Circumstances required him to swim and put away his clothes. According to historian Carlos Martínez Shaw, starting in 1939, his relationship with the Franco regime “was forced and distant.” That did not stop the dictatorship from trying to exploit his figure for his own benefit. He then spread the lie that the bullfighter, in Mexico, had refused to perform the parade until the flag of the Second Republic was removed from the plaza. In reality, it was all a propaganda invention.
The Franco regime viewed the bullfighter with bad eyes due to his controversial romance with a divorcee, the beautiful actress Lupe Sino. Manolete, surely fed up with the continuous gossip, preferred to concentrate his activity in America, where he obtained one triumph after another.
His prolonged absences caused the feeling of hostility towards him to multiply in Spain. It was said that he was a traitor, someone more concerned about foreigners than his compatriots. For the right-hander, this disagreement constituted a cause of practically unbearable stress. He handled the problem very badly. A few days before his last fuck, he expressed his disagreement in a confession to journalist Matías Prats: “They ask me for more than I can give. This can’t even continue like this.”
He was right. His physical condition was no longer the same. He felt more and more tired. Did the excesses take a toll on you? His biographer Juan Soto Viñolo, in Manolete. Bullfighter to forget a war (Delfos, 1986), states: “His health was poor, he had been weakening little by little (…), plagued by alcohol, drugs, sleepless nights, relationships with Lupe and rejection systematic of the public.
If we add to all this his recklessness in the ring, getting incredibly close to the bull, we already have all the ingredients for a tragedy foretold.
