Feria de Málaga 2025 (II)
Pieter Hildering
(photos by Spike Botterill)
David de Miranda is carried out on shoulders
Monday, 18 August: Torrealta bulls for Diego Urdiales, Fortes and Pablo Aguado
It’s a mere 33 degrees and I’m having breakfast outside Bar Flor. On the wall next to my table is the plaque that was unveiled in August 2019 as a memorial to Lenny Freedman who died in April of that year. It is here, 45 years ago, on the eve of a corrida in which Manuel Benítez El Cordobés reappeared, where I first met him. Years later, he introduced me to the hotel I’m still staying at, and, for the last two years, I’m in the room he used to occupy. I also inherited his red-and-black-striped almohadilla and I’m sure he would have approved of this evening’s substitution: Diego Urdiales for Morante de la Puebla.
Diego Urdiales Hernández was born 50 years ago in Arnedo and took his alternativa in 1998, from Paco Ojeda in the French arena of Dax. Three years later, Carlos Escolar Frascuelo and Jesús Pérez Gallego El Madrileño confirmed his status on an insignificant afternoon in July in Madrid, which seemed an indication that Urdiales wasn’t high on the list of prominent taurine promoters. I saw him first in 2012 in Valencia in an afternoon of Fuente Ymbro bulls when the late Iván Fandiño took all the credit and left on shoulders through the Puerta Grande. After that, I saw him on three occasions, but he never left a lasting impression. Tonight in La Malagueta, Urdiales’ toreo did make an impact. Confronting his first Torrealta bull, his capotazos were superb and the slow muletazos of his faena were the finest we had seen since the feria started. But, although the sword went in slightly tendida, and despite a majority of fluttering white handkerchiefs, the president’s box refused him a trophy. Unfortunately, his second Torrealta didn’t have the quality for Urdiales to repeat the images he had conjured up earlier, but the malagueñan afición still rewarded him with a resounding ovation. I will not forget Diego Urdiales now.
Diego Urdiales and a spectacular bull
At the start of the first of his two feria appearances, it seemed as if Jiménez Fortes had to find the right gear to get going, and, looking at my notes, he didn’t leave much to report. However my notes on his second Torrealta read: “Fortes pulls out all the stops”. And when Fortes pulls out the stops, he starts taking risks. It means he will move a little closer, will kneel in front the bull and – in general – get over-confident. Some of this showed when he stepped out to perform a quite in between pics and the bull hooked his leg and threw him to the ground. But he is also capable of brilliant capework and can captivate an audience with the scarlet rag. Today, he needed a lot of muletazos to understand his opponent, but it resulted in a wonderful series of connecting passes on both horns. A great estocada got him the ear. As it turned out, the only ear of the evening.
Derechazo from Fortes
Pablo Aguado was dealt the worst bulls of the evening but was still able to perform some delightful capotazos, while his faenas were executed with a heartwarming ease, forcing the bull to charge the panza of the muleta. Aguado is one of the rare matadors in today’s planet of the bulls who confront their bull face on instead of continuously passing it in profile with a lightning speed. He knows what it is to cargar la suerte and is capable of slowing down a bull in seemingly unending passes. This evening, we only got to see some of the magic he is capable of.
Tuesday, 19 August: Victoriano del Río/Toros de Cortés bulls for Manuel Escribano, Andrés Roca Rey and David de Miranda
Victoriano del Río had sent the worst possible group of bulls to Málaga. Although they were beautiful animals, they were armed with horns like knitting needles and all were manso querenciado, which made them unpredictable and dangerous.
Manuel Escribano – filling in for the indisposed Cayetano – received his bull on his knees in the centre of the ring and placed the banderillas with gusto. He cut an ear after a decent faena with a surprisingly obedient toro (although Chris Penning probably would have called it a ‘Wham Bam, Thank You Ma’am faena’ for the speed with which he passed the animal). After receiving the bull with another lance a portagayola, his second faena was a classic lesson in how not to torear a manso bull using the pico de muleta. Every pass was meant to send the bull as far away as possible, and by doing so, showed it the direction to the toril gate by which it frequently took refuge and refused to be moved.
Roca Rey had the worst afternoon of his career with two dangerous, needle-horned mansos (one a Victoriano del Río, the other a Toros de Cortés substitute for an allegedly lame and limping victoriano) with which he couldn’t do a thing as both kept backing away to the security of the wooden fence. His failure with the sword, the matador almost refusing to use the descabello, added to the misery. I’ve noticed this is becoming a trend with many bullfighters. They’d rather wait and wait and wait for the agonizing bull to drop after a faulty estocada – and there are many – than finish it off with the descabello. Using the descabello, they reason, is proof you have failed and therefore diminishes the chance of an ear. So they wait until the second aviso before taking the cross-sword and hope one stab is enough, although it usually isn’t. They should study Roberto Domínguez.
Which left us with David de Miranda.
The 31-year-old matador from Huelva somehow saw possibilities for a showdown with his first bull and toreared it so close and so slow that no light was seen between man and beast. All around ‘OLES!’ erupted from the tendidos, although one could also hear shrieks of terror as the two figures blended into one. The estocada was perfect and de Miranda’s excellent skill to mix art and emotion into an unforgettable highlight of the evening earned him both ears of the bull. But it wasn’t over yet.
An evening of valor from David de Miranda
His handling of the sixth victoriano started off as a replica of what we had seen earlier. The faena, dedicated to Fortes, began with a series of estatuarios, given closer to the horns with each pass, but the bull hooked his leg and threw him to the ground. De Miranda was lucky to roll away from the astifino horns, no doubt thankful that his cuadrilla managed to deflect the bull away from him in time. In spite of his placing the sword too far back, a multitude of white handkerchiefs convinced the president to award the gallant matador one ear. With three ears in his proverbial pocket, he left on shoulders with an exuberant throng that carried him through the Puerta Grande ‘Manolo Segura’ chanting “To-re-ro! To-re-ro!” and into the arms of a waiting crowd.
His presence in ‘La Malagueta’ on August 19 did not go unnoticed with the peñas and other prize awarding bodies, their juries dotted along the burladeros in the callejón. Once the feria was over, de Miranda became the proud owner of the exquisite ‘Capote de Paseo’ awarded by the City Council “by unanimous decision of the jury for his brilliant performance on the bull ‘Enamorado’ that has become part of Málaga’s taurine history” (Huelva Hoy). He also earned the ‘Estoque de Plata Antonio Ordóñez,’ from the Málaga Provincial Council “for his performance throughout the afternoon” (Cope) and the ‘Trofeo a la Mejor Faena de la Feria Taurina de Málaga 2025‘, a new trophy initiated by the Juventud Taurina de Málaga, while La Asociación Tauromundo honored him with the award ‘Best Faena of the Season’ “for his memorable performance at the La Malagueta”.
Wednesday, 20 August: Puerto de San Lorenzo/Ventana del Puerto bulls for Alejandro Talavante, Daniel Luque and Juan Ortega
As I don’t have any notes but still want to inform you on how Talavante got along, let’s take a look at what my colleague at malagataurina.es thought about it: “The bull that opened the evening was weak, broke off the tip of its horn and returned to the corrales. The substitute bull, also from El Puerto de San Lorenzo, was a useless manso and impossible to torear. Alejandro Talavante started his faena with a few low passes, and that was the end of it. The exhausted animal refused to do anything more, no matter how much the matador tried.” It doesn’t get any better with the fifth bull: “Talavante’s second faena was a cheap performance to the gallery, full of molinetes and other adornments far removed from fundamental bullfighting.”
Daniel Luque (who was initially left off the feria cartel) was awarded an ear for a mediocre faena and an outrageous estocada to the lungs to the fifth San Lorenzo. He had already cut an ear from his first bull, so this meant the Puerta Grande. I’ve already wasted too many words on my opinion of Daniel Luque’s toreo. His performances are about posture and pretence. His toreo is about Daniel Luque. For instance, the casual manner in which the sword is thrown away to create a right-handed natural – sadly copied by younger matadors – is all about him, as it adds nothing to the already existing range of muleta passes. Judging by the position he holds on the escalafón, the public likes him and he is very much part of the Espectáculo Taurino. But seeing the triumphant look on Luque’s face celebrating his ‘excellent’ estocada while, in front of me, the dying bull, blood gushing from its mouth, staggered to a sanctuary by the side of the arena, has not done my opinion of the Sevillian any good.
Juan Ortega - “a breath of fresh air”
By far the best faena of the evening came from Juan Ortega, the second half of the remarkable taurine twins from Sevilla (with Pablo Aguado), and a breath of fresh air for those aficionados who are tired of the posing, the fraud and the high-speed performances that seem to have become the staple diet of today’s corridas. Although most of the time his bull would not co-operate, Ortega managed to squeeze out a lovely series of great right-handers and sweeping naturales de frente, ending in a great estocada for which he was awarded the ear. His last performance was hindered by a strong Levante breeze coming in from the Mediterranean. The lack of quality of the watered-down bloodline of the Puerto de San Lorenzo bull didn’t help him either.
Thursday, 21 August: Bulls from El Freixo for Emilio de Justo and Fortes, with Álvaro de la Calle as sobresaliente
Up till now, the second part of the feria had been disappointing, mainly because of the lack of quality bulls. I‘ve always wondered about this. If a matador realised his opponent was ‘less than co-operating’, would he show the public he couldn’t do anything with an unfit animal and risk its wrath, or put on a brave face and use all kind of tricks to get them to believe what they were experiencing was the best they had ever seen and leave the plaza with a trophy in his hands? I can remember, during the last corrida of a Valencian feria some years ago, a voice came on the sound system of the arena saying: “Please don’t reject any more bulls; we have no more sobreros.”
The bulls Julián López El Juli personally brought to Málaga for the mano a mano (not counting the sobreros) were six mansos, querenciados, dangerous, weak animals. I know El Juli brought them personally for I could see him in the callejón, in a burladero below me. I could also see him get smaller every time a bull was dragged out after another disappointing non-experience. When the last bull was hitched to the mules and left accompanied by fierce whistles from the tendidos, El Juli had vanished.
I literally record my notes: Emilio de Justo cut one ear from each of his bulls, but always stood far away from the horns in an exhibition of non-passes that deceived his public every time. La Malagueta may call itself a first category plaza: the majority of its public certainly is not.
Fortes spies another muleta heading his way!
Fortes had a very unfortunate evening. He could do nothing with his three El Freixo bulls, and, to add insult to injury, suffered a tossing by one of them, fortunately without any physical consequences. It wasn’t his evening. The killing went badly and his faenas were uninspired except for one tanda of several right-hand passes, finished off with a media estocada, which brought out enough white handkerchiefs to earn him his second ear of the feria.
Ah, a quick word about Álvaro de La Calle. Ever since he had to replace Emilio de Justo in the San Isidro of 2022, 50-year-old de la Calle has been announced as a sobresaliente in more corridas than he has been billed as an espada. And I believe in all these corridas he has never had to open his capote.
Que Dios reparta suerte.