April 16, 2016
On 16APR16 I had the opportunity to visit La Maestranza in Sevilla to see Finito de Cordoba, Juan Jose Padilla “The Pirate”, and David Fandila “El Fandi” take on six Ymbro bulls. It is Feria in Sevilla and fights have been occurring nearly every day in April. I was on duty last week and could not attend any fights last week. Now that I am off duty I planned on going to the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday fights. I drove the roughly 2 hrs. to Sevilla on Friday and they were sold out! This had never occurred to me before. I have not been able to figure out how to purchase tickets on line without a physical Spanish mailing address. American mailing address (a.k.a. the base) do not work. You can use hotel addresses but I am not a typical tourist, I stay in an apartment and not a hotel. They did have tickets for Saturday and Sunday so I got $35 euro sol tendido seats. I got my tickets and drove the 2 hours back home. Not a waste through because the Spanish countryside is beautiful in spring. The grain is already ripening and they haven’t even started planting in Star Valley.
Saturday was a rainy day. I got to Sevilla at 1745 for the 1830 fight. Thankfully Allison has an umbrella in the car. Lots of ladies in beautiful Ferria dresses were hiding in the halls protecting their dresses from the down pour. They had put a tarp on the ring to keep the sand from turning into mud. They removed the tarp which was heavy and took a lot of work. This is my first photo. My next photo is spectators in the rain. My third photo is the workers moving wheel barrows of sand and spreading it out to cover muddy areas. I had not seen this before. The rain did stop and it was a nice evening. The first fights were affected by the rain. For example, the bulls would slide after passes.
Finito de Cordoba is the senior bullfighter by age and is from Barcelona. His first bull was a 545 kg brown bull. No music was played for his veronica or muelta work but it was enjoyable. The bull did take the muleta at one point. His first escoparda hit a bone. His second escoparda was true and probably went through the aorta. The bull was dead in less than 30 seconds and blood was coming from the mouth. I have three photos of this. Finito’s second bull was 532 kg. In both fights Finito’s caudrilla did his banderilla work. He got no music in either fight. His picador did drop a vara in the 1st act. His second bull’s escarpada was another deep and true thrust and the bull was down in less than a minute. Finito was probably the most proficient, clean killer of the night but he earned two silencios.
The Pirate took the night. What a showman! His first bull was 541 kg and a difficult distracted bull. He would do everything perfect and the bull would wonder off. Padilla in his great showmanship converted this to crowd support. Padilla took his 1st and 2nd bull from the gate on his knees. He also did muleta work on his knees. A very brave thing to do in my opinion and loved by the crowd. I have photos of this. Padilla, like Fandi but unlike Finito, did his own banderillas. He got music for his 2nd and 3rd acts. He dropped his bull with one true escoparda. The Pirates second bull was 565 kg and a better bull than his first. He got 5 ole’s with his veronica. During his muleta work he turned around and around with the bull touching the bulls rump. They were dancing. He earned two ears from a tough judge for his excellent work and this allowed him to be the only matador of the night to be carried on shoulders through the main gate.
El Fandi’s first bull was 532 kg. He did not take his first bull on his knees and I can only guess this is why he got a silencio. His fight sequence was very good in my opinion. He got music in the 2nd and 3rd acts. He did his own banderillas, 6 true banderillas on the bull’s right. He did get on his knees with the veronica. He killed the bull clean with one escoparda. Fandi’s second bull was a 540 kg bull which he took on his knees from the gate. Again, music second and third act and he placed his own banderillas with a unique four true strikes and 7 flags in. He copied the Pirates well received knee trick, but maybe did it better. He literally was on his knees crawling probably 30 yards getting pass after pass without getting up. He killed the bull with one clean escoparda. El Fandi has a well-deserved reputation as one of the best bullfighters in the world. Maybe expectations were too high because he had a great night but only earned one ear on the second bull.
