El Cid made his presence felt in the ring and exuded the scent of elegant experience, with graceful and bullfighter-like strides, and a serenity and slowness typical of a master with many afternoons behind him. The four verónicas with which he received his first sounded of temperance and good taste. But that good scent faded as the minutes passed and the rhythm of the bull, noble and with quality in its charges, required, besides presence, stillness and firmness.
El Cid took the muleta with his left hand, to revive laurels of the past, and went about it, between patches of insecurity and self-esteem, between intermittent naturales, sometimes crossed, other times detached, without quite taking the desired path.
There was a series, yes, in which the bullfighter truly took advantage of the quality of his opponent, and the naturales came out long and with an aged flavor. He positioned himself well at the end, emboldened, with the crowd on his side, and it seemed that the final disdainful pass tried to improve the unfulfilled effort. But the time came to mount the sword, and El Cid, once again, was the usual one, the bullfighter capable of ruining a dreamlike performance, which was not the case, but he completely dimmed it. It’s not that he failed in the supreme luck, it’s that he showed a clumsiness unworthy of his experience. He insisted on lifting the bull twice and even heard two warnings. Unforgivable.
Another bull suitable for the muleta was the fifth, but the bullfighter had already lost good spirits, and he appeared distrustful, without command, and the muletazos were bland.
The other veteran of the lineup, Uceda Leal, thirty years already as a bullfighter, also did not have his afternoon. He even killed poorly, with a crossed stab on his first, and a pinch, a perpendicular half-stab and five descabellos on the fourth. The one that opened the ring charged in a disjointed way and did not allow any confidence; the other he received with some graceful verónicas, but wasted dullness in the final third, and the bullfighter’s work was as bland as it was superficial.
It is clear that sometimes, like this afternoon, experience is not a degree. Either ideas darken or the years weigh.
The youngest, Javier Cortés — only 16 years of alternativa, which is no small thing — drew isolated and light muletazos before the very scarce greed of the third, but he faced the sixth, a noble and repetitive bull, which allowed him to link a couple of acceptable series with the right hand, more cheered by the stands than they deserved. His good manners were forgotten as soon as he prepared to kill and took two bajonazos and a pinch before the final stab. Bad.
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On that bull, the subaltern Pablo Gallego saluted the crowd after planting two extraordinary pairs of banderillas. On the second, Rafael González did the same for the same reason.
El Pilar/Uceda Leal, El Cid, Cortés
Bulls from El Pilar, well presented and sharp-horned, very uneven in the varas – the first pushed strongly in the first encounter – and tame; noble and dull. The second and sixth stood out in the final third.
Uceda Leal: crossed stab (silence); pinch, perpendicular half-stab and 5 descabellos (silence).
El Cid: pinch – warning -, three pinches, – second warning -, pinch and the bull lies down (ovation); half-stab (silence).
Javier Cortés: low stab (silence); bajonazo, pinch, bajonazo – warning – and stab (silence).
Las Ventas bullring. May 2. Second event of the Community Fair. Full house (21,483 spectators, according to the company). Infanta Elena and the president of the Community of Madrid attended, and were received with a strong ovation. At the end of the paseo, the music band played the national anthem.
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