Madrid woke up dressed in white, but not like when “Filomena”, but in the clothing of its people – or a good part of them – filled with soccer fervor, who already had appointments in the institutions and in Cibeles in the afternoon and evening. , with the mammoth and noisy Bernabéu as the final destination of a party that began just 24 hours earlier at Wembley, including mild Veronicas in the London air of Captain Nacho, who is also a bullfighting bull rancher.
But since not everything in life is football and the San Isidro Fair continues, at those same hours there were those who, although in smaller numbers than in the previous afternoons, went to Las Ventas.
A poster was announced in which the Pedraza de Yeltes bulls were a draw for the fetén fans and before them were three seasoned bullfighters: Juan Leal, Francisco José Espada and Isaac Fonseca. A Frenchman, a Madrid native and a Mexican, proof of the universality of the Festival, because “bullfighting is not Spanish, it is interplanetary” (Bergamín).
An important bull, the first for the Mexican bullfighter; The ear was of justice and the final ovation to the animal, too
Juan Leal, born in Paris and made a bullfighter in Arles, went to the pigsty door to receive the one who opened the bullring, he fought the long exchange with cleanliness and was hardly appreciated. The third of rods turned out to be difficult and procedural, such that they reached banderillas, and the unknown remained of his behavior in Leal’s muleta, which he presented to the public.
In the media and in a penitent posture he summoned the bull from afar and then passed him around until he tried to finish off with a bullfight and was run over, without consequences. He linked some series through the two pitons in which the bull charged nobly and Leal ended up in suburban terrain, in a task of little relief. Effective sword and something else.
The second showed good starting condition but also forces at the limit and was returned. In its place came the hat, with Chamaco’s iron. So many memories of the bullfighter who revolutionized Barcelona in the 50s!
A bull as serious as it was ugly, which Francisco José Espada picked up well with the cape and who took two rods without surrendering and lost his hands a couple of times in banderillas. Bad thing, both.
Fonseca gives his first bull some natural knees
At the third stage of the start of the task, bull to the ground. Espada’s mettle and good positioning managed to add right and natural shots of merit but lacking the emotion that the bull did not provide, exceeding the length of the task.
Five Veronicas gaining ground and finishing with two mediums in the middle, that was Isaac Fonseca’s greeting to the first of his lot, who attacked with candor and not very beyond strength, so the picador barely pointed out the two punches. The fight of Raúl Ruiz and the pairs of banderillas of Juan Carlos Rey and Tito deserved the applause of the public and the three dismounted to collect it.
Fonseca got down on his knees and from afar called the bull that took off quickly, leading a first round in a round to which, once standing, others followed in which the one from Pedraza greedily charged. Tempered the naturals included two series of feet together one by one that raised the tone of the task.
An even more important bull that the Mexican right-hander went in to kill by turning on the morrillo. The ear was fair and the final ovation for the bull, too.
Espada also suffered a crash, and when he tried to get up the bull lifted him up violently and he fell headlong into the sand.
The fourth was open with pitons and little notable in the first thirds, except for Marc Leal’s pair of flags. He again toasted those present and at the beginning with a pass changed from behind the bull tripped him, spending a moment of trouble. A task as willful as it was careless, since the bull came out of each muletazo without understanding and with his face in the clouds and that Leal took longer than necessary.
Two hours after the start the fifth came out. The drowsiness, only broken by what happened on Fonseca’s turn, invaded the streets of Venteños and it continued, waiting for what would happen on Espada’s muleta. And what happened was tremendous. The bull knocked him to the ground and when he tried to get up he violently lifted him up and he fell headlong onto the sand.
Shocked, they took him to the infirmary, from where he never left, and Juan Leal took charge of his fight, first with muleta blows from below and then, when he wanted to continue bullfighting, they protested – for no reason and with flagrant ignorance – because he was not trying to fight. anything other than fulfilling your obligation. Anyway, those things that happen in Las Ventas.
Francisco José Espada, at the moment of being caught by his second
The sixth, Torrestrella’s patch of great presence, was picked up very well by Fonseca. When he tried to hit the right piton with a muleta, the bull grabbed him in a terrifying way and carried him by the back in a few eternal seconds.
Once the prisoner was released, Fonseca, with a changed face and blood on his back, was carried to the infirmary and a chill ran through the streets when Juan Leal took the sword to end an afternoon that ended like the rosary of dawn.
The subsequent medical report attested to the severity of the Fucking: “Bull horn wound on the posterior left hemothorax with an upward trajectory of 20 centimeters that causes damage to the latissimus dorsi and paravertebral muscles, reaching and bruising the rib cage and dorsal spinous processes. . Serious prognosis.”
And Juan Leal, the only matador standing, accompanied by all the crews, left the ring and from there everyone went to the infirmary to find out the status of their wounded companions. The public, in silence.
