Feria de Málaga 2025 (I)
Pieter Hildering
(photos by Spike Botterill)
Ignacio Garibay in a media verónica (our correspondent can be seen above the ‘P’ taking notes)
It’s a mere 33 degrees and I’m having breakfast at Bar Flor. It feels good to be back in Málaga after a year’s absence. The serious feria starts in four days with Morante de la Puebla starring in two events. One of which, in my opinion, is the pivotal afternoon of the feria: on August 18, el torero cigarrero will face bulls from Torrealta with local hero Fortes and Pablo Aguado as his companions. The plaza for that evening is already filled to the last seat. No doubt the main attraction of this feria are the two corridas with Saúl Jiménez Fortes (the other one is a mano-a-mano with Emilio de Justo) whose stretch of inactivity seems to have ended. I have a great respect for him since I first met him in a tertulia 15 years ago. Fortes is a matador who gets up and shakes off the dust every time he is knocked down. And to get up after those horrendous injuries he sustained in 2015 and in 2018 takes courage and tenacity. But I’ve also seen his capote and have seen him almost nonchalantly move a bull in wonderful series of naturales. Who else? The usual array of commercially interesting names: Talavante, Roca Rey and De Justo and two (besides Aguado) whom I’m looking forward to: David de Miranda and Juan Ortega.
Even so, the hors d’oeuvre is just as tasty.
18th edition of the traditional Certamen Internacional for novilleros sin picadores
From 10-13 August, 15 students from various escuelas taurinas battled it out for a place in the final during the 18th edition of the traditional ‘Certamen Internacional de Escuelas Taurinas La Malagueta’. Bullfighting schools from Albacete to Vilafranca de Xira and from Aguascalientes to Motril had sent their best pupil to Málaga to represent them in this exciting annual event that opens the August taurine feria. On these four evenings of novilladas sin picadores, organised by the Malaga Escuela Taurina, admission is free. Even in evening heat of the scorching Andalucian sun, these gatherings create a wonderful source for new afición as the bullring is always well filled. This year, a new and charming feature to the sin pics were the very young students of the Malagan school who got the chance to show off their skills with a vaca brava, including a pat on the rump to simulate the estocada.
Unfortunately, Daniel Artazos from the Valencian School was knocked out of the competition in the third semi-final when an eral of Toros de la Plata threw him in the air. He was rushed to the infirmary where they discovered a broken cervical vertebra.
At the end of three interesting and varied semi-finals, the judges awarded local Manolo Martínez, Ignacio Garibay (from the Escuela Yiyo of Madrid and son of the Mexican matador with the same name) and Manuel Domínguez from Sevilla, well-deserved places in the final. Although, in my view, the student from the Algeciras school should also have been there, local sentiment was stronger. The thing is, though, can we really speak of a Malagan School, an Aguascalientes School or a Valencian School? In this case it is not a style of toreo, but purely a geographic location. These schools (they pop up everywhere) appear to deliver students who have adopted the profitable repertoire of toreo as exhibited by the figuras of the day and are less concerned about developing individual talent. I’m afraid the old reference to a distinctive concept of toreo – for instance the meaning of the Sevillian school versus the Castillian approach – seems to have been lost.
That evening, the line-up for the main feria took a turn when it became known that José Antonio Morante de la Puebla (contracted for two important evenings) was wounded in the plaza de toros of Pontevedra and would not be appearing in the Malagueta. The presence of David Galván was also in danger as, some time before, he had been seriously injured in the Peruvian mountain arena of Coracora. Why he took the risk of that contract remains a mystery. It certainly was a bad gamble, knowing the importance of his Spanish arrangements in the major bullfighting month of August. When Cayetano (celebrating rather loudly his well-advertised gran año de despedida) also announced his absence, the hunt for suitable replacements was on.
Derechazo from Garibay in the final
But what a final it was. If someone had told me that those four days of novilladas sin pics was all the August Feria would offer, I would have left Málaga a happy man. Unfortunately, the event became a mano a mano when Manuel Domínguez was thrown by his first bull (rather resembling the Artazos cogida) after producing some promising lances with the capote. The mano-a-mano then turned into a one man show by Garibay as Martínez’ rather predictable and unimaginative performance (even though he left the arena triumphant) was outclassed by the young Mexican. Manolo was no match for ‘Nacho’, whose slow naturales, his sweeping verónicas, his well-placed estocadas and his overwhelming presence on the sand – no doubt thanks to a lifelong experience alongside his father in various Mexican plazas de toros – won the hearts of the Malagueñan afición. His victory was complete when, after an excellent display of toreo, his last opponent, a wonderful little eral from the Cacereñan fields of Antonio López Gibaja, was given a triumphant post mortem lap of honour.
Ignacio Garibay, Manolo Martínez and the mayoral of López Gibaja leave the plaza on shoulders
And when both youngsters, together with the mayoral, left the plaza on shoulders, we were ready for the big boys, but first:
The opening novillada
Novillos from Antonio Rubio, the former matador de toros Macandro, for Ignacio Candelas, Julio Méndez and the winner of last year’s certamen, López Ortega.
Never in my life have I left a taurine event before the last bull was dead on the floor (not counting rejoneo). This evening I left out of sheer boredom. Four of the Macandro novillos were manso, ‘descastado and deslucido’ (according to Diario SUR) while two gave the young novilleros a reasonable run for our money. All three novilleros had exactly the same repertoire either with their capotes or during their faenas (portasgayolas, chicuelinas, passes on their knees, passes behind their backs and endless manoletinas and estocadas traseras). Ignacio Candelas (from Ronda) saw his illusions fly out the window with two infumable novillos. Julio Méndez and López Ortega both cut an ear. It was a dismal evening which could have been worse when two of the lads made the mistake of arrogantly turning their backs on their charging adversaries. Only because they were warned by the public, was serious damage avoided.
The first corrida de toros
Today’s animals were from Manuel Criado, a ganadería originally founded in 1941 with Gamero Cívico bulls but ownership and bloodline have since changed. Like almost every toro de lidia, they now share the Juan Pedro Domecq pedigree. Today, we saw well-built bulls, not too big and with good horns, but some showed signs of preferring to withdraw rather than show their bravura in the arena. One was taken out for allegedly being lame.
David Galván looked physically fine. So the lacklustre dish he served up today can only be attributed to the aftermath of his Peruvian accident. Both faenas were ‘ni fu, ni fa’ (according my dictionary: “an informal Spanish expression indicating that something is neither good nor bad, meaning ‘so-so’ or ‘not special’.”) All very decent but hardly anything noteworthy. The public forgave Galván his two bad swords and invited him to two saludos from the white lines.
Second on the cartel was the espartinero Borja Jiménez, who played his public well. Every pass (with either the capote or the muleta) was done at a large distance from the bull (“There was room enough to park a bus,” someone long ago taught me). He skillfully abused the pico of the muleta during his faena in a shameful way, deceiving the public and making them believe something wonderful was happening here on the golden sand of the Malagueta. Awarding him any trophy for this travesty would have been scandalous. Fortunately, he failed his sword. There were no ears cut. Apart from Alejandro Talavante, I had not yet seen a matador so openly defrauding his public like Borja Jiménez - and Talavante was still to come!
The third espada was yet another victim of the bulls: Víctor Hernández. The 26-year-old Madrileñan came to Málaga only two months after he was twice thrown by a Domingo Hernández bull in Torrejón de Ardóz. He only sustained a bad concussion and suffered no broken bones, and his reappearance in Málaga, after such bad luck, was very much applauded. Every young man who cuts ears in Las Ventas and leaves that arena on shoulders as a novillero, deserves a second chance. After a not very interesting first bull, his last animal had speed, power and a focus for the muleta. His faena ‘parar-ed’ it well, and his sword got him the only ear of the evening.
Murteira hardly grave
Next, we had six bulls from the once awesome Murteira bulls. The brand of bulls that took all the trophies in last year’s feria (the one I was forced to miss). This year they would win nothing, nor take part in any aspect of tonight’s corrida. The fact they were manso, dull, unwilling and complicated could be said of most of them. One of the animals –that was passed out to Molina– was just above average.
Waiting for them were Pepe Moral, Molina and Rondeñan Pablo Páez who was to be promoted to matador de toros.
I first noticed José Fernando Molina (25) as a becerrista in 2017 in this same Malagueta when he entered the final of the international competition. A year later, he impressed me when he cut two ears and a tail in his home town Albacete in the Corrida Benéfica Cotolengo, a beneficiary festival taurino honouring his paisano Dámaso González. Four years later, the by-now novillero cut two ears when he was presented to the Las Ventas audience and again as a matador de toros in the corrida of his alternativa at Albacete.
Molina with his murteira
This evening, Molina skillfully toreared his first bull with much caution, giving the bull time to recover after each series of passes in the faena. It ended in a great estocada for which the public demanded two ears but only got one. The victorious matador was allowed two laps around the ring. His last bull didn’t give him the opportunity to shine much; it was an animal that stopped halfway through a muleta pass or declined to charge at all. According to the local Diario Sur, “Only through courage and hard work, was the albaceteño able to perform a feat that the public and the bullring president appreciated, as he managed to cut another ear after an estocada trasera to an unpredictable bull.”
The faena of Pablo Páez’s alternativa passed without anyone noticing, but he was politely applauded. The worst bull of the afternoon was reserved for the recently promoted matador, who toreared him with much enthusiasm but mostly with isolated passes. He had trouble killing both his bulls and, even though his paisanos gave him a heartfelt ovation, left the arena empty-handed and heavy-headed.
Páez’s padrino José ‘Pepe’ Moral (Los Palacios, 1987) went for a larga cambiada a porta gayola (one of the many we would see this week) to receive both his bulls. His first animal was a terrible manso querenciado that only reacted to the offered muleta because the matador kept flicking it in his face. It resulted in one or two passes before the bull trotted back to his preferred spot. However, a good estocada got Pepe an ear. The fourth Murteira hooked his horns at everything but the muleta. Five stabs to the bone and an estocada tendida finally took him down.
I am fooled
Six bulls were fielded from Benítez Cubero/Pallares for Sergio Galán, Diego Ventura and local horseman Ferrer Martín.
As I’m not a great fan of rejoneo, I usually leave after the third bull has been dragged out. Which is what I had in mind today until, during Ventura’s first appearance, a tendido friend in the row in front of me showed me pictures of the animals that were still to come. One of these bulls had a colouring I had never seen live before in all my taurine years. It was described as a ‘berrendo en jabonero’! A sandy coloured bull with white patches! I coudn’t wait to see that wonderful surprise so, and against my principles, I decided to stay and suffer the consequences. If only I had known! It turned out that, although some of the Benítez Cubero bulls were spectacularly black and white, some even aparejado (the pattern on the bull’s left side being the same as on the right side), the strangely multicoloured creature I was expecting never entered the ring. It could have been a sobrero, it could have been added to the group for publicity reasons: I don’t know. I had not visited the sorteo, so I couldn’t tell if this strange enigma of a beast had really been in the corrals behind the plaza. I came to one conclusion: I had been fooled! All the more reason to stay away the next time a corrida de rejones was announced. For the record: Sergio Galán left empty-handed, as did Ferrer Martín. And of course Diego Ventura left through the Puerta Grande Manolo Segura after cutting three ears and (I must admit) quite spectacularly too!
By now the vacancies created by the absences of Morante de la Puebla and Cayetano had been filled in: to my pleasure, the eminent Diego Urdiales would join Fortes and Pablo Aguado for the corrida on the 18th. The following day, instead of the unwell Cayetano, we would see Manuel Escribano, and Morante’s second vacancy was to be fillled by Daniel Luque. I looked forward to seeing Urdiales, but wasn’t really happy about the other two.
(to be continued)