Mene are called, but few are chosen
El Mene
Cast your mind back to the end of Europe’s 2024 season. Two new novilleros were spoken of highly in the same breath, both zaragozanos - Aarón Palacio and Iker Fernández El Mene. Now, 16 months later, Aarón Palacio has had a successful alternativa and is set to appear in several of the leading ferias while El Mene, still a novillero, has announced he has yet to be signed up for any contracts for the coming temporada beyond a festival at the just-concluded Carnaval del Toro at Ciudad Rodrigo. And this despite the fact that the 21-year-old headed last year’s escalafón de novilleros.
As pointed out in my review of the 2025 temporada for novilleros, despite El Mene’s 37 contracts, he didn’t have a particularly successful year. He won the prize for best novillero at Valencia’s Las Fallas after going out the main gate, and was the triunfador of Algemesí’s September feria de novilladas, but, although he was the only participant to cut an ear in the Certamen Cénate Las Ventas, he had a largely unsuccessful season in the important first and second-class bullrings. “It’s true that it wasn’t a perfect season,” El Mene says now, “[but] I think that, after being the leading novillero in the rankings, the possibility of taking the alternativa isn’t far-fetched. From that moment on, everything will depend on me. I want to take the alternativa as soon as possible.
“'I want to be a figura and that dream is what always keeps me strong. I always think about what I've been able to do so far to keep from feeling low. I am a believer and the rest I leave in God's hands. You have to have faith and patience, because everything comes in time. I'm afraid of being forgotten, that people will end up forgetting about me because I’m not toreando. Right now, what I feel is the support of the aficionados, and that’s a reason to continue.”
It’s not clear to what extent, El Mene’s apoderado, ex-matador Andrés Sánchez, bears some responsibility for this situation. Over the winter, he took on another novillero, Joselito de Córdoba, which perhaps demonstrates that his focus is now elsewhere. Now it has been announced that El Mene has unilaterally broken his contract with the salmantino.
A tricky path ahead
Unfortunately, splitting from his manager may not make things any easier for El Mene. The most likely place for him to take the alternativa is Zaragoza, but a controversial tender exercise for management of that plaza is currently underway and it required tenderers to state their carteles for this year at the point of tender submission, which occurred before El Mene made it clear he had no contracts in his pocket for 2026.
And taking the alternativa does not automatically open the doors to more bullfights. In 2025, 137 youngsters appeared in Europe as novilleros con picadores. There were 17 alternativas, and, to date, only five of these new matadors - Marco Pérez, Tristán Barroso, Aarón Palacio, Fabio Jiménez and Javier Zulueta - have any corridas planned for 2026.
While the novillada circuit, with the backing of the Fundación del Toro de Lidia and the assistance of public subsidies, has been helped in recent years by the establishment of regional competitive structures, apart from the Copa Chenel, which selects from a broader range of matadors in any case, there is no structured encouragement aimed specifically at new matadores de toros. And why would there be when the only way a torero can break through to the top ranks is by showing themselves performing strongly alongside more established compañeros?
Since the norm of lengthy careers for the figuras became established (aided and abetted by the empresas) and the impact of the financial crisis of 2008, which led to a radical downsizing of corrida numbers, there has been little opportunity for a new matador to gain contracts in Spain unless it is in the wake of an extraordinarily successful time as a novillero (as in the case of Pérez and Palacio) or their signing by one of the big empresas (as has occurred with Zulueta). For the rest, it is a matter of acquiring contracts where they can, or looking further afield (France or Latin America) to gain greater experience, or putting their hopes on the possibility of a successful afternoon in Madrid. After a number of years in these circumstances, a place amongst the leading toreros may be won, as the likes of Borja Jiménez, Emilio Justo and Juan Ortega can testify. Again, there were 157 matadores de toros performing in Europe last year, of which probably no more than 10% were earning a decent living.
Taking the alternativa, surviving these ‘outcast’ years and breaking through as a matador is what El Mene must now place his hopes on.
