The 2015 temporada began on 25APR for me in Sevilla. This corrida de torros featured Juan Jose Padilla (The Pirate), Miguel Abellan and David Fandila "El Fandi" each fighting two bulls. The torros were from Jandilla and Vegahermosa. The first fight was the most interesting to me. A 530 kg Vegahermosa bull showed great fight. He gored Jose Padilla in the left medial thigh during the first act. They must blunt the horns, as Jose Padilla finished the fight but with jeans to cover his torn pants. For his second bull he was wrapped with medical tape and if you look at the pictures you can see a lump of gauze were the horn must have hit. It may not have punctured, but he will be bruised. One also wonders if he will get an aneurysm in the future as this is a tremendous amount of blunt trauma. This same bull showed equal ferocity during the second act. While inserting a Vara and bull knocked the Picador off his horse and the horse on its back. In Hemingway’s Death in the Afternoon and Dangerous Summer it was mentioned that the Picador’s horse often died from disembowelment. Primo de Rivera’s government ordered a quilted mattress to protect the horses belly from the horns and trauma to the horses is now unheard of. This horse survived and walked off the arena. In fact the Picador and horse placed a second Vara in the toro’s Morillo. Injuring the neck muscles is critical in the second act so the bulls head drops allowing a clean kill in the third act. Jose Padilla placed his own banderilla’s as he usually does. This is my favorite part of the fight. The banderillo (or matador in Jose Padilla’s case) exposes themselves to a very feisty bull three times to place six banderilla’s. During the third act, Jose Padilla had some very pretty passes with his muleta before trying to kill the bull with his estocada. It was not a clean estocada and he attempted to finish the bull with a descaballo. He had a hard time getting the spinal cord severed and had to repeat this a few times. A beautiful fight ruined by a poor kill and no ears were awarded.
Miguel Abellan had some beautiful passes with the veronica and good clean kills. He got no orejas for either bull. Sevilla features tough judges. In Sanlucar de Barremeda or Puerto de Santa Maria he would have got something I think.
David Fandila got 145 ears in the 2014 temporada. He is one of the best bullfighters in the world. He left Sevilla with one ear, the only oveja awarded in the six fights. I enjoyed his second bull (he did not get an ear for this one) but he did an amazing backwards run while touching the bulls head in the third act.
I am excited to being the 2015 temporada. The first fight in Puerto is 30MAY and San Lucar 10MAY. I also want to try to make it up to Ronda this year. The next fight in Sevilla is 10 MAY but since Sanlucar is this day, 17MAY will be my next trip to Sevilla. It is a 1.5 hr drive to Sevilla and 14 euros in tolls but well worth it. As Ernest Hemingway said, “Any man can face death but to be committed to bring it was close as possible while performing certain movements and do this again and again and again and then deal it out yourself with a sword to an animal weighing half a ton which you love it more complicated than just facing death. It is facing your performance as a creative artist each day and your necessity to function as a skillful killer.” I think I saw good six examples of most beautiful tradition in Sevilla.
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