A Torero of Spain and the Corrida
In and out of the Bullring: a Spanish Bullfighter and his World
The title of this book is taken from the words of comfort that Manuel Benítez, ”El Cordobés,” offered his sister on the day of his first professional bullfight. “Don’t cry, Angelita. Tonight I´ll buy you a house, or I´ll dress you in mourning.”
A story of magnificence and squalor, opulence and grinding poverty, of driven ambition and a single minded pursuit of a goal against every adversity. It is also that rare thing, an objective appraisal of a subject written with such verve that the subject lives and walks and breathes on the pages of the book.
The authors’ use of vivid, descriptive language allows the reader to see, and hear and smell the world they have temporarily entered. Just one example, a description of the cafés patronized by the surrounding world of the corrida, “…with their stench of stale beer and soured wine, their sawdust-covered floors spattered with spit, shrimp shells and cigar stubs, those café’s were the bazaar stalls of the bullfight.”
El Cordobés
“El Cordobes,” learned the trade of bullfighting stealthily, at night, as a trespasser against the bulls of a wealthy land owning neighbor. His first wages were the numerous beatings at the hands of foremen and officers of the Guardia Civil.
In telling his story the whole world of the bullfight is presented for the reader; the entrepreneurs and the hangers on, the well-to-do managers and the half starved chancers who never had a chance. Or worse, those who got their one chance to face a toro bravo, only to discover their own moment of truth in the arena. Their dreams spilled onto the sand in front of a contemptuous audience, they discovered they would never be the men they had so desperately wanted to become.
Spanish History
Students of modern Spanish history will benefit from passages describing the senseless brutalities and futility of the civil war. That atrocities were committed by both sides is well known, how they continued their lives as neighbours is not so well documented.
There are moving accounts of the ensuing años de hambre, the years of hunger, when poverty and pride, hunger and hope walked side by side.
But above all this is the story of one man. A man who rose above everything to become a hero to the ordinary Spanish people, at a time when they so badly needed one.
This book does not glorify its subject. It simply presents a narrative, although stylishly, and lets the facts speak for themselves.
El Cordobes, in his favourite gold-and-tobacco colored suit of lights, did have heroic stature. He followed his own road to destiny with unfailing courage, and a corresponding generosity of spirit. He knew better than most that “…the road away from hunger for Andalucía’s poor youths has led past the horns of a brave bull.”
And yes, Angelita did get the house. Read the book and find out if it was worth it.
Source: Or I’ll Dress you in Mourning, Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, World Books1970
Model Bullring in Council offices, Coin
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