Successful Benefit Festival and Shameful Action of the Union de Banderilleros y Picadores – Tlajomulco, Jalisco – May 20, 2006
by Jim Verner

The classic statement is followed by the classic question: there’s good news and bad news; what do you want to hear first?

On May 20 there was a festival in Tlajomulco de Zuñiga, Jalisco, in “las puertas de Guadalajara” as the bullfight critics might put it – the most serious plaza de toros in Mexico. To benefit the Fundacion Quiero Ser, an organization that helps homeless and underprivileged children, four Mexican Matadors (Pepe Murillo, Guillermo Martinez, Arturo Diaz “El Coyo”, and Aldo Orozco), one novillero Jose Murillo hijo, and four aficionados practicos (Curro de los Reyes, Raul Ochoa, Carlos Alvirde, and Jim Verner) were announced to face animals from Rosas Viejas and San Pablo. The matadors charged nothing for their performance and the aficionados paid for their bulls (Pesos 7,000 each) to help such a noble cause.

It was also announced that there would be “cuadrillas completas de la union de banderilleros y picadores.” But that wasn’t the case, so let’s start with the bad news. Or perhaps I should call it “sad news” since it illustrates the sad state of bullfighting in Mexico. The union of banderilleros and picadors advised the organizers that they would need to contract one professional banderillero and one professional picador for each participant, at a cost of Pesos 1,700 each – that is about US$170 – and the math is simple: two subalternos at $170 each multiplied by nine participants gives a total of $3,060. Of course, the Fundacion balked at such a demand, and several matadors and novilleros volunteered to act as cuadrillas. Then the union then played their next dirty trick – they told the novillero, Jose Murillo, that if he fought in this festival no union cuadrillas would work for him in the novillada he is scheduled to fight in Puerto Vallarta this week. So a young novillero who shows great promise was left without an opportunity to improve his skills while helping a noble cause. The union simply proved again that it exists to support second rate subalternos, even though it hurts and demeans the fiesta brava.

Now, the good news. It was an excellent festival.

Seven bulls from Rosas Viejas – four toros, all in the 400 to 440 kg range, and three novillos, two about 230 kg and one about 290 kg – were excellent, with the exception of the bull fought by Guillermo Martinez, which was a complete manso. And two animals from San Pablo, one for “El Coyo” and one for Carlos Alvirde, were also good. The San Pablo animals were afeitados, as is proper for a festival, while all the Rosas Viejas animals came out “en puntas” due to a delay in the transport that didn’t leave time to shave the horns. As a result, when Curro de los Reyes was caught by his novillo, his suit was torn to shreds. What could have been a serious goring was luckily just surface wounds.

All participants did well. Of the aficionados, Jim Verner cut an ear and the others took vueltas. Of the matadors, Martinez was applauded, Pepe Murillo and El Coyo cut two ears each, and Orozco had an indulto plus he did well in the animal he killed for the missing novillero. And we must give a special recognition and thanks to those talented and brave novilleros and matadors that served as the cuadrilla – ignoring the demands of a misguided and self-serving Union de Banderilleros y Picadores.

Without taking from the quality of the other performances, the highlight of the festival was the faena by Pepe Murillo. The bull was brave and noble, and Murillo understood it perfectly. With the cape, his veronicas were low, long, and smooth, and with the muleta things were even better. In fact, I would say that Murillo did one of the best faenas I have ever witnessed. Not a wasted movement, as the matador led the bull with perfect temple and mando in derechazos and naturales. Each pass was rematado with such precision that the bull was ready for the next pass at the proper distance and the matador’s muleta was in the perfect place to catch the bull’s attention. Series were ended with proper remates. The faena was not long – unlike so many faenas we see in Mexico, where the matador goes on far longer than the bulls can support – and the final series of manoletinas positioned the bull for the sword thrust. Entering straight, Murillo placed a classical volapie. I remember reading that the best faena of Ordonez’s career was only 40 muletazos. I didn’t count the multazos Murillo made, but I doubt there were many more than that number. I wasn’t lucky enough to witness Ordonez’s faena, but I did see Pepe Murillo’s. And I will always remember it as perfect toreo.

Jim Verner