350 km from Pamplona is Teruel, which celebrates its festivals around this time, including the Angel Fair. And on a day like today, July 9, 2016, Curro Díaz, Morenito de Aranda and Víctor Barrio were announced in it, with bulls from Los Maños. When on the third of the afternoon, by the bad name “Lorenzo”, Víctor Barrio was preparing to give a natural, the wind exposed him, the bull did for him and, already on the ground, sank the piton into his lungs. And in that goring his life left him. Joaquín Luna, a journalist from La Vanguardia, who was there, wrote urgently: “Everyone in the Plaza de Teruel made it clear that there was hope, but we all knew that he had been lifted up lifeless by his companions… the plaza was silent, a silence that made us It will stay with us for the rest of our lives.”
The bad news began to spread through the lines of the Pamplona bullring when there was still a bull to fight and it was at the end when we were all aware of the magnitude of the tragedy. The bullfighters, who left the ring, the first. And the Festival was dyed in mourning while the merriment continued in the streets, although the faces of many appeared blank.
Seven years later the memory of Víctor Barrio continues in the memory of bullfighting and as such I bring it here.
As it also remains, but this as a happy anniversary, that of July 9, 1985, with Esplá and an Osborne bull as protagonists. It so happened that the teacher from Alicante had one of those afternoons that, as the years go by, grow in memory. It was the total fight, which exploded in the third of banderillas and was consummated with a crutch and rapier (a thrust receiving in the media, the bull rolled at his feet) two ears and tail as a prize and the syncopated song of the rocks: It’s plá, plás, plás, plás (clapping noise). In banderillas, we said, Esplá, consummate specialist, at the level of the greatest (Gallito, Sánchez Mejías…) quoted, danced, ran, nailed, and the end was when he asked the boy of banderillas for his red beret, tied two natural, one with the beret and the other with the sticks, he left that one under the bull’s snout, looked for other lands, called him from afar heh, bull, heh! And from power to power, the bull-bullfighter meeting took place in the exact place where the beret was. The square, a madhouse.
Thus, with those memories, the bullfight began this Sunday, July 9, 2023, with cattle from Cebada Gago, with very astifin antlers and three brave men before them, with everything to win: Adrián de Torres, Román and Isaac Fonseca.
Adrián de Torres made his debut in Pamplona, ??fair recognition of his important time in Madrid, and he did so with a bull that showed no fixedness and all distraction. Even so, he made a removal for tight chicuelinas and another for gaoneras of merit. Seated the shoes, start of work with statuary in the media and on the same ground round batches with more dedication from the bullfighter than from the bull. He changed pitons and the one from Cebada attacked worse, so he returned to the right but there was little to scratch, although the bullfighter from Linares insisted on adding crutches that contributed little, including manoletinas under the sun, before taking up the sword. He took advantage of the bull’s start to leave the lunge, which fell defective and the pithing turned out to be a quinario.
The first of Román did not feed great hopes of exit, even less when passing through the picador, with its sudden attacks. But Román, often he is, went to the media to toast the task, Osasuna shirt in hand. The wind bothered but the Valencian basted a series of right hands based on command and good positioning. On the left, the one from Cebada sang his meekness and in this way he continued the rest of the task despite Román’s efforts. He went in for the kill and the sword stood guard.
The Mexican Isaac Fonseca cut off three ears in the bullfight the previous year in Pamplona and today he presented himself as a matador. As had happened in the previous two, the third did not lend itself to showing off with the cape, which Fonseca handled as chicuelinas. After toasting the public, on his knees in the media, he passed behind the back and gained the attention of the supporters’ clubs. Violent bull that Fonseca bravely and firmly stood up to with the crutch in his left hand. He tried it for the right, without options. The blow was effective and they rewarded the delivery with an ear.
At snack time, the best thing to do is to try to pay attention to the lines, even more so those in the sun, and Adrián de Torres did it by kneeling in the media. He called the barley -which was a big shot- and it started like a train and the two right hands had added value. Already standing, the task, in which he alternated his two hands, had the virtue of adjustment and settlement, which was not a small thing with what he had in front of him. All this without the bull responding to the bet properly. He spoiled it with his sword, which entered the third and miraculously escaped the mishap, the right piton directly to the jugular.
The script of the bullfight followed the same thread of meekness of the bulls with the fifth, but this one without disguising it despite Román’s efforts to fix it on the crutch, which he achieved at some point with his head and heart.
With the large door ajar, Fonseca received two long knees from the third to the sixth, who sported two hooks for pitons. The tercio de banderillas was brilliant and the public, who took notice, forced Juan Carlos Rey and Tito to dismount. Once again, the pass was changed from behind to start the task, but this time standing up. Courage is not assumed for the bullfighter born in Morelia, it is manifested, and he gave proof of that, once again, before a bull that did not give away the attacks but that they came, disorderly, due to the decision, dedication and, also, ability from Fonseca. He went straight after the sword (what a merit, with such sharp needles to fight), it was buried high up and the ear, this time, was indisputable.
