Alicante bullring. Sunday August 7, 2022. Extraordinary corrida, without subscription. Jose Tomas, alone. Absolutely “full of no bills”. Four bulls from different herds were fought (the 1st from Juan Pedro Domecq, the 2nd from Garcigrande, the 3rd from Victoriano del Río and the 4th from Domingo Hernández) well presented and with a disparate game. Noble but weak on 1, excellent on 2, flirtatiously applauded, demanding on 3, disheveled on 4. José Tomás, blood and gold bull. Ovation from the third, two ears, ear and ovation after warning. And on the seventh day, Sunday 7, José Tomás appeared on the paseo like a living legend. On the seventh day, God dreamed of bullfighting because doing it as José Tomás interpreted it in the second act is beyond the reach of even the gods. And on the seventh day of the eighth month of the year 2022, the Madrid master did a colossal job in Alicante. Between divine and celestial. Memorable natural bullfighting: superb, crystalline. Luminous bullfighting, a short circuit of purity, beauty and emotion. A natural anthology. A recital with the left hand, the hand of the best in the history of bullfighting. “Azulado,” Garcigrande’s second, off, was a flag bull. There was a colossal deletion by gaoneras, for meritorious: embroque in the same belly. Fuchsia silk, waiting for the onslaught, as if released. And you will come, the teacher would think. The banderillas bore the colors of the Aztec flag. In Mexico, the professor from Galapagar obtained his doctorate and in Aguascalientes he almost lost his life. A biographical nod.
Some statues in the media were perfectly suited. The “garcigrande” was brave, moreover, he humiliated, he repeated. The excellences of bravery merged with the excellences of naturalness. There was a series of seven, eight! or nine, ten, eleven, twelve! natural with the crazy square. A spiral of beauty. Fifteen natives in a series, counted a lady of the line. Incredible: a storm of emotion that went up the lines to the dams. The last assistants, the master genuflection, were a beauty. Two-handed poetry. Two ears of the law. The rest, more than a snack for the staff, came also phenomenal to digest so much beauty and crunch the incomparable immensity of his left hand.
“Cello”, a well-made chestnut bull from Juan Pedro, He opened a square and showed little strength at the start. Hands in front, very loose face. The Madrilenian received it with chicuelinas of different compasses, including an extraordinary one, and a superb half-foot set. A sculpture. He toasted the audience and prologue feet together. Without squeezing the bullfighter, the bullfighting in the round was tempered, undemanding. With the left, the best version of José could not be seen. Faena without great relief with a series on the right, already with the stockings torn from the bull, peak of cadence and softness. A good slot was left priceless.
The third was an uncle of Victoriano del Río, serious, profound. Very tight was removed by chicuelinas in the media, with the compass closed. Sensational struggled Sergio Aguilar and phenomenal in the sticks Rafael Viotti walked. The bull had and had power. José knew how to do it with the beginning of an anthology of softness and subtlety. The line, the temple, the cadence. What rhythm, what tact, what delicacy. What a way to fight. The mood was so severe, worthy of the paradox, that the bull seemed distressed. But no. After a dry defeat, the bullfighter found himself afflicted on the back of the bull. Fortunately, a beating without apparent consequences. A few ballerinas made up the emotional epilogue. And another suede lunge preceded the third ear of the afternoon. Three slots in three bulls.
The bull that closed the bullring, by Domingo Hernández, had a lot of genius and little race. Shot, what are they saying now. Beautiful sets of feet received together, scuffles, when the scuffle is a virtue because it aspires to fit and purity. The Madrid master has once again offered himself to the public. The task was an attempt to turn the storm of genius into a breeze, polishing the nuances and polishing the little breed of the bull, which had emotion and apparent zeal. After failing with the steels, he saluted from third.
The José Tomás event collapses the city
Alicante, taken and conquered by fans from all latitudes of Planet Taurus and tourists from all over the world, was a cauldron that boiled in all the arteries of the city. The counters with the “no tickets” in 20 minutes, the hotels with the “exhausted”, restaurants to the brim. In these times of widespread political, institutional and media contempt for the Feast of the Bulls, for a bullfighter to upset a city, without parties and outside the fair, is science fiction. Or a miracle; or all together. But no. Miracles at Lourdes; or in Galapagar.
Since the Fair of Hogueras and, above all, since the businessman Nacho Lloret discovered the bomb announcing that “Josétomás” was going to stab four bulls in the bullring of the Plaza de España, Alicante has become the world capital of bullfighting. El Gordo had played mid-August in Alicante. A few days ago, in the INFORMATION pages, it could be read that the tourist phenomenon of the year – a bullfighter by the name of José Tomás – was going to generate an economic impact in the city of 3.5 million euros. Bullfighting as an economic engine. Thanks to a bullfighter as architect and protagonist, thanks to bullfighting as a claim, and thanks to the businessman Nacho Lloret, who knew how to discreetly manage the negotiations to hire the Madrid maestro. To Caesar what is Caesar’s.
Within 20 minutes, the tickets were sold out via the Internet. Madness broke loose. Bullfighting in the midst of globalization. A trap, as they say -moreover, wrongly said in Spain-, or a “only”, as they say in France, with more semantic criteria and with the clear parallelism of the musical field. “Jose Tomas”, authorize the spelling license, as a unit and as a whole, in concert. As a phonetic fusion of his compound name and as a metaphor for his bullfight, in which a bullfighter and a bull coexist on the same tile. While some journalists try to decipher the fluctuations of the box office with a demoscopic impulse or a sociological vocation to interpret the present and the future of the Festival, the Madrid maestro does not care whether it is announced in August in Alicante or in December in the ‘Arctic. . A unprecedented phenomenon that takes everything forward.
People have come to Alicante from all over the world, from the bull, cultural, artistic and social spheres. Bullfighting as a national event, as the socialist mayor of Madrid, Tierno Galván wrote. How far is the “old teacher” of those who believe in it, anti-bullfighting without intellectual blush, outstanding students of the supposed left.
The master of Galapagar, who shakes every city where he fights like a seismic movement, was also a volcano in the magic ring. He walked, as always, on the sand where the feet burn, the space of fire where the bulls see their space invaded. In this habitat of the bull, the bullfighting of José gravitates and engenders itself. And of course, the lava of pure bullfighting emotion runs up the lines and scorches people like the waves crashing on the seashore. Like a natural phenomenon, with the crystalline intensity of the authentic.