“Don’t go from Navarra, don’t go from Pamplona” sings the lyrics of the pasodoble (in the mornings, in the Plaza de Toros, waiting for the arrival of the running of the bulls, sung at the top of their lungs by the crowd) song) when they arrive on the day 14, who signs this, upon hearing it, his eyes shine and his heart trembles. And so, year after year, even more so when the farewell is in a city whose people welcome you and treat you with moving generosity.
For this and more, this latest San Fermin chronicle goes for them.
For years, until the digital era did its thing and the pandemic finished it off, on the cover of one of the two paper magazines that weekly brought bullfighting news to fans, the image of the head appeared, next to the header. of a Miura bull, always the same one and not just any: it was “Hairy” and between python and python -what a horn!- 95 cms. It was fought at the 1987 Sanfermines and it fell to Roberto Domínguez, who was returning to the ring after a sabbatical in London and triumphed with him, thus beginning a second stage in which he achieved figure status.
Miura was and continues to be a legend (almost two centuries contemplate it), it is a unique casting, the morphology of its bulls, including antlers, also distinguishes them and in Pamplona they have fought more than fifty times and won several prizes. Many bulls bred in Zahariche have gone down in the history of bullfighting, for good, in the case of “Bombito” fought in 1999 by Juan José Padilla in Pamplona who starred in a third of the ten-minute rods and won all the prizes or “Tahonero” , with Manuel Escribano in Utrera and that is the only pardon in the history of livestock. Or for the worse, whose names I will not mention although who else knows what happened in Linares with “Islero” and Manolete.
And before the miuras, in the last of the 2023 Bull Fair, an international shortlist was announced, the Albacete, Rubén Pinar, Juan Leal born in Paris and raised in Arles and Jesús Enrique Colombo, from Venezuela.
It started badly, very badly. Rubén Pinar tried a long change in the third and the 615 kg Miura knocked him down, on the ground he stuck the python into his jacket with violence, another defeat directed to the armpit and the bullfighter who fell headlong on the sand . Inert they took him to the infirmary and the bullfight remained hand in hand.
The noise was broken silence after a few minutes and Juan Leal took charge of the fight and, arriving at the last third, he toasted the wounded companion, leaving the huntsman on the boards in the infirmary area. Leal, who is a bullfighter of Spartan value, summoned the bull from afar and changed his journey a couple of times when he came to his jurisdiction. The miura did not pass but Leal stood up to him, defiant, stealing crutches from one and another python that could not be in divine shape, but with emotion as the flag. Puncture and slump were not the signature that deserved the effort, awarded with an ovation.
With Pinar in the hands of the doctors (without goring and regaining consciousness, he was transferred to a hospital to undergo medical tests) the order of the fight was altered and in second place came what should have been third, for Colombo, who tried the I bullfight Veronica without much brilliance, which did arrive in the quite by chicuelinas and in the auction with a very graceful serpentine. The Venezuelan bullfighter took the banderillas, went to the lines of the clubs and put on a show, to their delight.
Colombo provided the “sunshine mayor” in his “last term” after decades in “office”. At the beginning he passed it through the right piton without demanding it because the bull showed more than little strength and the slaughter did not reach height. But the lunge had a quick effect, the rocks were ready for the work and the ear fell.
Juan Leal went to porta gayola to receive the one who was the first of his batch, third of the afternoon that did not bring great joy in the first thirds. The French bullfighter knelt on his knees in the middle and in such a way he fought him, or tried to, roundly, also when he stood up, but the Miura did not have enough strength or caste. When he took the left, things got worse but Leal, with the white suit and gold dyed with the blood of the bull, opted for the arrimon, the boasts, standing and kneeling. He respected everything (in front of him he had, despite what was previously commented on his condition, a Miura) and that is how the public perceived him, who, after a puncture and lunge, even asked for the ear, a prize that was returned to the ring.
The bull for the snack fell to Jesús Enrique Colombo and more than one left for a moment the good food and good drink when the bull noisily knocked down the picador and then forcefully took a second punch. It was not easy in banderillas, they started with strength and feet and Colombo was not successful. He doubled over at the start of the job and crutched round without adjustment. A Miura with interest to which Colombo, who also tried it naturally, did a job that never took flight. The lunge, yes, chooses to be the one at the fair.
The fifth came out, 635 kg the creature, tall, cornalón and astifino as he alone (he did not reach the aforementioned “Hairy Eye”) was imposing and took two long-lasting punches. He charged in the only way he could do it given his anatomy, with his face up, even when he tried to lower it by taking the trick and Leal tried to bullfight in round or natural with as much will as little profit. End of work stuck between the pitons, rudeness and lunge that stood guard.
Last of the afternoon, last of the Bull Fair, which, like the rest of the fights, did honor, in terms of presence, to that name. And a good set of arms from Colombo handling the cape. Two punches in order and the
Venezuelan, perhaps with his countryman Morenito de Maracay (Pamplona’s idol in the 80s) in mind, banderille looking for the complicity of the clubs and this time things turned out much better than in his previous bullfights. Toast and the Miura that he started as soon as Colombo called him from a distance and with the crutch in his right hand. Series of round and noble – in Miura – the attacks, the same when he took the left but the feeling remained that the bull and the bullfighter spoke a different bullfighting language. Again, a great lunge and an ear that opened the big door for him.
The Venezuelan bullfighter came out through it, the crowd was waiting in the streets, everyone was singing in the stands, and there were only three hours left for that poor me who winds up the clock that counts the days for the following year’s chupinazo. We will be back.
