An extraordinary confirmación
Cristian Pérez - caught by his second aguirre (image from Plaza1)
Not all Madrid confirmations of alternativa bear the same weight - of the four that have so far been announced for 2026 (Cristian Pérez with Dolores Aguirre bulls, Tristán Barroso with Núñez del Cuvillo animals, Manuel Diosleguarde with La Quinta bulls and Bruno Aloi with juanpedros), the most worrying combination, in terms of a matador’s experience and the bulls to be faced, was the first. And so it proved.
Cristian Pérez, from Hellín (Albacete), took the alternativa in his home town on April 2 2023, after managing to rack up a total of 29 novilladas con picadores over the course of seven seasons, and left the plaza on shoulders. He appeared three more times that year within his home province. A Copa Chenel entrant for 2024, he had four corridas that season, going out on shoulders in two of these (Hellín and Algete), but parting company with his apoderado, Alfonso Romero, at the end of the temporada. 2025 brought no contracts at all.
Preparation
In advance of his March 29 Madrid corrida, looking back on his career to date, Cristian commented, “It’s been hard. I’ve had to fight for every opportunity, with no room for mistakes, but this is the path that has come my way and which I’m ready to continue. It’s rare - particularly for toreros in my situation - that opportunities arise just when you want them […]After two years in the most absolute oblivion, you reflect a lot. The bench either hardens or rots. In my case, my faith and afición have kept me going. What’s really kept me from giving up during this period has been having a lot of faith in myself, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of discipline, and above all a lot of faith in God. I’ve continued preparing as if I had a big season ahead. I knew that the opportunity would come at any moment… and now it has […] The preparation’s been very conscientious after all this time without fighting. I’ve practised a lot of toreo de salón and I’ve prepared very well physically, because that was also going to help me mentally. And then I’ve done a very big mental job, of trusting myself.
“I’ve two bulls to emerge from ostracism, from oblivion…. or to return to that forever. Everyone knows what fighting a Dolores Aguirre corrida means in terms of its demands and importance. It’s a two-edged sword. It’s true that, in these circumstances, everything you achieve with this type of bull has much more repercussion, but these are very demanding corridas in which the aficionado expects much from you […] I have faith in this corrida, I trust in it, and in myself, a lot. A torero in my circumstances needs a show of authority. Dedication and truth are going to be key, but I’ve also worked a lot on depth, cadence, and solemnity […] I’ve nothing to lose, but there’s a lot I can win. For me, anything positive that happens in Madrid will be a breath of fresh air, both personally and professionally. Hopefully, it will be a key day in which everything can change and give a boost to my current situation. Madrid is the key to be able to appear in other ferias, to go to other places. It's time to present an argument in Madrid so that I can see a ray of light and carry on with more eagerness than ever.”
Cristian in his previous Las Ventas appearance as a novillero (image from mundotoro.com)
The corrida
On arrival at Las Ventas, Cristian, dressed in white and silver, kissed the wall in the corner of the patio de cuadrillas where Iván Fandiño always stood before making the paseíllo. “'For me, maestro Iván is a reference,” Cristian explained afterwards. “When the going got tough, the guy pushed ahead, and, for me, he has been an example to follow. I knew I had to have an afternoon of absolute surrender and rebellion with myself, of knowing that I was capable. I made that gesture because I admire him a lot and I have a tremendous devotion to him. I knew that, from above, he was also going to help me.”
March 29 brought a very windy afternoon, adding to the danger of facing aguirres. Cristian drew the 520-kilo negro salpicado and wide-horned ‘Cantillito’ as his toro de confirmación. In the opening tercio, it revealed itself as a manso, keen to depart from encounters. After the confirmation ceremony, involving Antonio Ferrera as padrino and Isaac Fonseca as testigo, Cristian nevertheless managed to capture the bull in his muleta, coped with the wind and extracted linked series on both the right and left hands that drew “Olé”s from the crowd. A voltereta and a desarme interrupted things, but Cristian recovered for another fine series, killed with an estocada and, after an aviso and a minority petition, was awarded a vuelta.
A chest pass from Cristian Pérez during his Madrid corrida (image from Plaza1)
A long time later, after Antonio Ferrera had shown he didn’t want to know either of his aguirres and Isaac Fonseca’s better performance had ended in protracted swordwork, Cristian came out to face his second Dolores Aguirre bull - the 525-kilo, well-armed, negro chorreado ‘Carafea’. In the opening tercios, the bull displayed a powerful, violent charge, tempered to an extent by picador Ney Zambrano, who was applauded as he left the ring. Cristian brought the same determination to this faena as he had done with the first. He began with half-kneeling derechazos that drew a positive response from the tendidos, the “Olé”s increasing in volume as he produced a series of upright derechazos and a closing chest pass. Then, as he cited for a further series, ‘Carafea’ came straight for him and caught him. In a protracted cogida, Cristian was lifted six times on ‘Carafea’’s horns, and six times crashed to the ground, the first landing - from some height - on to the back of his neck looking particularly bad. Eventually, his body was dragged away from the bull and he was carried to the infirmary, the crowd applauding the albaceteño, leaving Ferrera to kill the bull to silence.
Aftermath
Given the shocking visual impact of the cogida, the news that eventually came from the infirmary was reassuring. Cristian had cuts and bruises to his abdomen, thorax and back and just one 20-centimetre cornada grave in his right leg that had merely contused his tibial artery. (Later, in Madrid’s Hospital Fraternidad del Paseo de la Habana, it was discovered that a cervical ligament had also been damaged, necessitating a neck brace for a month.)
Despite these injuries, Cristian’s first thoughts on entering the infirmary were on returning to the fray. “My only thought was that the work on that second bull was set on a very good path, towards an important triumph,” Cristian recalled later, “and I didn't care about the leg and the goring. I wanted to press on. But I couldn't move. When I went to stand up, I couldn't get up from the stretcher. I couldn’t move my neck or back - it was like I was paralysed. They wouldn’t let me get up and they put me to sleep. I didn’t know anything more until I arrived at the hospital.”
Nevertheless, Cristian had done enough to be the talk of the corrida. His attitude and his toreo, despite the wind and despite facing aguirres, had impressed everyone. As he himself summarised: “There was a bullfighter with desire, with attitude and courage - but with an attitude and desire controlled by the head […] Both the aficionados and the professionals are singing my praises. […] It wasn’t difficult for me at any time to make the effort; it was something natural - I’d so internalized what I had to do, that it wasn’t at all difficult for me to keep progressing […] I had to take advantage of the opportunity in one way or another.”
On his second day in hospital, Cristian’s efforts were rewarded when he was visited by Rafael García Garrido, Plaza 1’s president, together with Víctor Zabala de la Serna and the director gerente of the Centro de Asuntos Taurinos de la Comunidad de Madrid, Miguel Martín, and it was confirmed that the matador was booked to reappear in Las Ventas on June 21 in the plaza’s first corrida after the San Isidro Feria and the Beneficencia. It was a nice reminder of the days when arranging carteles was a more flexible affair and toreros who had done well in a plaza one day were immediately contracted for a repeat appearance.
Let’s hope that, on June 21, the weather is kind and the bulls more amenable for Cristian to put on another good show and, this time, leave the plaza in triumph.
Cristian Pérez (left) during a challenging but successful novillada at Albacete in 2022