Death in the afternoon
Page 28
The beginning of the faena. Luis Freg in the pase de la muerte in Madrid.
The end of the faena. Luis Freg in the hospital with a cornada in his chest. Note the scars on the right leg, the scar in the left armpit, and the unplaited lock of hair, that when braided makes the pigtail that was formerly the caste mark of a bullfighter.
Rafael Gomez y Ortega, called El Gallo, standing in the entrance to the Madrid ring with his young brother, José, called Joselito or Gallito, at the start of Joselito's career as a matador. El Gallo is on the left, Joselito beside him. Fourth from the left is Enrique Berenguet, called Blanquet, the confidential banderillero of Joselito. The matador on the right is Paco Madrid of Malaga.
Joselito in a pase natural at the start of his career. Note how, without any contortions, with complete naturalness, with no cork-screwing or faking, he is passing the horn past his belly; bringing the bull around controlled by the swinging end of the cloth that the man is keeping before his far eve.
Joselito, at eighteen, watching a Miura bull that he has killed swaying on his legs before going over on his back, four legs in the air.
Joselito working with a difficult bull, provoking the charge with his leg; then doubling the bull on himself with the muleta, making him attempt to turn in a shorter space than his own length to tire him.
Joselito at the height of his career, working close, dominating the bull with absolute security, knowing just how much swing of the cloth will move him, controlled a step at a time, and how much more will provoke the full charge. His intelligence and security and the closeness with which he worked made all the bulls look easy to handle. Blanquet, standing by the white-marked burladero, knowing as much about bulls as Joselito, is the only one in all the audience who looks worried.
Joselito the spring he was killed, fat and out of condition after a winter in Lima, Peru, citing an uncertain bull to charge. The bull is slow to start and Joselito, reluctant to rise from his knees and admit his proposal to pass the bull with both knees on the ground was a failure, has just taken out his pocket handkerchief and thrown it at the bull to start him.
The bull comes (the handkerchief still shows on the ground) and Joselito passes him with the muleta without rising from his knees or having to sway back, having calculated exactly the angle the bull will take in his charge.
Joselito taking a bull out a step at a time from the querencia or position he has taken by the barrera; talking to the bull, working on the eye furthest away from the man with the end of the cloth that he imparts a swinging, flicking motion to with his wrist; exposing his own body to give the bull confidence that there is something to charge and yet keeping the animal's main point of vision on the cloth and controlling his impulse to charge with that wrist movement. A brave bull is easy to work with if the man is brave and technically sound; it is the cowardly bull and the uncertain bull that call for most intelligent and careful handling since they will charge as fast as the brave bull but there is no way of knowing when the charge may come.
Here are the naturals of Joselito and Belmonte; the touchstones of their art. Joselito, below, is healthy, sound, natural, his physique and knowledge enabling him to keep the bull well controlled in the muleta. Belmonte, above, is natural in that there is no distortion of his body by himself, but he takes the bull from a more dangerous angle, he emphasizes his peril at the same time as his domination and he has a sinister delicacy of movement that Joselito lacks.
JOSELITO DEAD
JUAN BELMONTE
LAST VIEW OF JUAN BELMONTE
FIRST VIEW OF CHICUELO
CHICUELO
Who could do this
CHICUELO
Who hated to kill
CHICUELO
Of the disasters
AFRAID OF THIS
Opening a cornada in the Madrid infirmary
AFRAID OF THIS
Valencia II, called Chato, with a cornada in the right thigh.
AND OF THIS
Manuel Granero killed in the Madrid ring
AND OF THIS
Granero dead in the infirmary. Only two in the crowd are thinking about Granero. The others are all intent on how they will look in the photograph.
AND OF THIS
Vicente Pastor killing in the ring at Burgos. The horn has caught him as he put in the sword because the wind has blown the muleta up and toward the man.
AND OF THIS
After the corada. Varelito in the hospital
AND OF THESE
Bull of Vicente Martinez that went alive out of the Madrid ring in 1923 when Chicuelo was unable to kill him.
These took his place. Manolo Bienvenida, Domingo Ortega and Marcial Lalanda making the paseo in the ring at Aranjuez. Ortega when this photograph was taken was still an unknown novillero and acted as sobresaliente or substitute matador for the other two.
Marcial Lalanda making the quite of the mariposa or butterfly. Moving backward across the ring, the folds of the cape swing lightly. It takes great skill and knowledge of bulls to do properly or at all.
Marcial Lalanda in a cambio de rodillas made when the bull first comes into the ring.
Marcial Lalanda, most scientific and able of present fighters, watching the bull go down after an estocade.
The highly paid Cagancho often kills like this from cowardice while in Navarra amateurs do this for fun.
AMATEUR FIGHT IN PAMPLONA
Sidney Franklin killing on the day of his début in Sevilla and below the same Franklin making a veronica in the ring at Cadiz.
GOOD AND BAD KILLING
Above, Varelito has gone in over the horn, kept the bull's head down as he crossed with his left hand guiding the bull after the muleta and is coming out with the sword in and the bull already dead from the thrust.
Below, Manolo Bienvenida is coming out before he has ever gone in and is stabbing at the bull in passing without ever bringing his body within range of the horn.
Zurito killing—see how the man's whole body will pass over the horn, the sword seems going in an inch at a time—the bull's front legs are doubling under him.
Luis Freg killing—his sword hand tight up against the bull—the bull's eye controlled by the swing of the cloth at the tip of the muleta.
El Espartero killing—both the bull's front legs are off the ground—notice how he is crossing with the left hand.
What happens when the bull raises his head from the muleta when the sword is in. The horn is lifting Varelito by the neck. No man going in to kill can be certain the bull may not raise his head from the cloth while the man's body is passing the horn no matter how well controlled the muleta may be. It is this moment that gives the bull his chance at the man and it is when the man avoids this moment that he is said to assassinate the bull rather than to kill him according to rule.
This, for movement, is Felix Rodriguez in a pase natural on a fast charging bull.
This for instruction, with a certain amount of movement still, is a picador ruining a bull by pic-ing him in the ribs instead of placing the pic in the hump of muscle over his neck and shoulders.
This, to remove all tragedy, is El Gallo, dedicating the last bull of his life as a bullfighter. The story is in the text.
Four of the type of incidents El Gallo avoided so assiduously while fighting bulls for thirty years as a full matador.
Half-bred bull killed in an amateur fight or capea near Madrid but not without, first, having wet his left horn.
The amateur bullfight is as unorganized as a riot and all results are uncertain, bulls or men may be killed; it is all chance and the temper of the populace. The formal bullfight is a commercial spectacle built on the planned and ordered death of the bull and that is its end. Horses are killed incidentally. Men are killed accidentally and in the case of full matadors, rarely. All are wounded; many of them severely and often. But in a perfect bullfight no men are wounded nor killed and six bulls are put to death in a formal and ordered manner by men who expose themselves to the maximum of
danger over which their ability and knowledge will allow them to triumph without casualties. In a perfect bullfight, it may be admitted frankly, some horses will be killed as well as the bulls since the power of the bull will allow him to reach the horse sometimes even though the picadors were completely skillful and honorable— which they are not. But the death of the horses in the ring is an unavoidable accident and affords pleasure to no one connected with or viewing the fight except the bull who derives supreme satisfaction from it. The only practical good the death of the horse gives is in showing the spectator the danger the man is constantly exposed to and keeping him reminded that the spectacle, which the grace and skill of the men engaged in makes him take lightly, or for granted, is one of great physical peril. Writers on the peninsula who tell of the public applauding the death of the horses in the ring are wrong. The public is applauding the force and bravery of the bull which has killed those horses, not their death which is incidental and, to the public, unimportant. The writer is looking at the horses and the public is looking at the bull. It is the lack of understanding of this view-point in the public which has made the bullfight unexplainable to non-Spaniards.
And finally El Gallo in one of the series of delicate formal compositions that the happier part of his life in the ring consisted of. The bull, as he should be, is dead. The man, as he should be, is alive and with a tendency to smile.
AN EXPLANATORY GLOSSARY
OF CERTAIN WORDS, TERMS AND PHRASES USED IN BULLFIGHTING
A
Abanico: spread like a fan.
Abano: a bull which comes out in a cowardly way, refusing to charge, but may improve under punishment.
Abierto de cuerna: wide horned.
Abrir-el-Toro: to take the bull out into the ring away from the barrera.
Aburrimiento: boredom, the predominant sensation at a bad bullfight. Can be alleviated slightly by cold beer. Unless beer is very cold the aburrimiento increases.
Acero: the steel. A common word for the sword.
Acometida: the charge of the bull.
Acornear: goring with the horn.
Acosar: part of the testing of young bulls on the ranch. The horseman cuts the young bull or calf out of the herd, pursues him until he turns at bay and charges.
Acoson: when the bullfighter is closely pursued by the bull.
Acostarse: a tendency in the bull to come closer to the bullfighter on one side or the other when charging. If the bull cuts in close on one side the bullfighter must give him room on that side or he will be caught.
Achuchón: the bull bumping the man in passing.
Adentro: the part of the ring between the bull and the barrera.
Adorno: any useless or flowery theatricality performed by the bullfighter to show his domination over the bull. They may be in good or bad taste varying from kneeling with the back toward the animal to hanging the straw hat of a spectator on the bull's horn. The worst adorno I ever saw performed was by Antonio Marquez who bit the bull's horn. The finest was by Rafael El Gallo who placed four pairs of banderillas in the bull and later, very delicately, in the pauses he gave the bull to refresh him while working with the muleta, extracted the banderillas one at a time.
Afición: love of bullfights. It also means the entire bull ring public, but is usually used in this generic sense to denote the most intelligent part of the public.
Aficionado: one who understands bullfights in general and in detail and still cares for them.
Afueros: the part of the ring between the bull and the centre of the ring.
Aguantar: a method of killing the bull with sword and muleta in which, if the bull charges unexpectedly while the matador is profiled and is furling his muleta, the matador awaits him as he stands, guides him past with the muleta held low in the left hand while with his right hand he puts in the sword. Nine out of ten of the killings in this form that I have seen turn out badly since the matador will not wait for the bull to get close enough to place the sword properly, but lets the blade slip into the neck which can be reached by the man practically without exposition.
Aguja: agujas or needles are one of the names for the bull's horns. It also means the top forward ribs beside the shoulder blades.
Ahondar el estoque: to push the sword farther in after it has been already placed. This is often attempted by the sword handler when the bull is close to the barrera if the matador is showing himself unable to kill the bull. It is sometimes accomplished by the banderilleros throwing a cape over the sword and pulling down on it.
Ahormar la cabeza: getting the bull's head in correct position for killing. The matador should accomplish this by his work with the muleta. He brings it down with low passes and up with high, but sometimes a few high passes will bring down a head held too high by making the bull stretch his neck so high that he tires it. If the matador cannot bring the bull's head up a banderillero will usually raise it with a few upward flops of a cape. Whether the matador will have much or little regulating to do depends on the manner in which the bull has been treated by the picadors and how the banderillas have been placed.
Aire: the wind; worst enemy of the bullfighter. Capes and muletas are wet and scuffed into the sand to make them more manageable in wind. They cannot be made much heavier than the cloth is naturally or they will deaden the bullfighter's wrist and if there is enough wind the man could not hold them. The cape or muleta may at any time be blown clear of the man so that he will have the bull on top of him. In each fight there is some part of the ring where the wind is least strong and the bullfighter should find that lee and do all his fancy work with cape and muleta there if possible, if the bull can be worked with in that section of the ring.
Al Alimón: a very silly pass in which two men each hold one end of the cape and the bull passes under the cape between them. There is no danger in this pass and you will only see it used in France or where the public is very naïve.
Alegrar al Toro: to rouse the bull's attention when he has become logy.
Alegría: lightheartedness, in bullfighting; a graceful, picturesque Sevillian style as opposed to the classical tragic manner of the Ronda school.
Alguacil: a mounted bailiff under the orders of the president who rides at the head of the bullfighters in the entry or Paseo wearing a costume of the reign of Philip II, receives the key of the toril from the president and during the bullfight transmits any orders of the president to those engaged in the bullfight. These orders are usually given by a speaking tube which connects the president's box with the runway between the ring and the seats. There are ordinarily two alguacils at each bullfight.
Alternativa: is the formal envesture of an apprentice matador or matador de novillos as a full matador de toros. It consists in the senior matador of the fight giving up his right to kill the first bull and signifying it by presenting muleta and sword to the bullfighter who is alternating for the first time in the killing of bulls with full matadors de toros. The ceremony takes place when the trumpet sounds for the death of the first bull. The man who is being initiated as a matador goes out with a fighting cape over his arm to meet the senior matador who gives him the sword and muleta, and receives the cape. They shake hands and the new matador kills the first bull. On the second bull he returns sword and muleta to his sponsor who then kills that animal. After that they alternate in the usual manner, the fourth bull being killed by the senior, the fifth by the next in seniority and the new matador killing the last one. Once he has taken the alternativa in Spain his ranking as a formal matador is valid in all bull rings in the peninsula except Madrid. On his first presentation in Madrid after a provincial alternativa the ceremony must be repeated. Alternativas given in Mexico or South America are not recognized in Spain until confirmed in the provinces and Madrid.
Alto: a pase por alto is a pass in which the bull passes under the muleta.
Alto (en todo lo): a sword thrust or estocada placed properly high up between the shoulder blades.
Ambos: both; ambos manos, both hands.
Amor propio: amour propre, self-respect, a rare thing in modern bullfighters especially after their first successful season or when they have fifty or sixty engagements ahead of them.
Anda: go on! You will hear this frequently shouted at picadors who are reluctant to approach the bull.