The Madrid bullring of Las Ventas was born in 1931, under the double sign of the Spanish Republic and social confrontation. They replaced the old plaza on the old Aragon Road, deemed too small: 13,011 seats compared with 23,000 at Las Ventas. Brick and iron, metal architecture and Arab-style arches, the Aragon Road bullring oozed, in the words of writer Perez Galdos, a kind of “industrial sadness”. Manuel Granero, the violinist bullfighter, was killed there in 1922 under the big clock “ Luis Coppel Calle Mayor 6 ”. Neomudejar death.
The project to build a monumental plaza was launched, back in 1919, by torero Joselito and his friend, architect José Espelius. The choice of venue, in a shantytown area with no access road, immediately raised the controversy that is always the mode of expression at Las Ventas, Madrid’s focal point for the “division of opinions”. The land was ceded to the city by the Jardon family in exchange for a fifty-year lease on the arena. The work lasted over ten years, and the architectural style chosen, neomudejar, was already out of fashion at the time.
Begun under the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera, the new Monumental was not fully completed when, in April 1931, the Left won the municipal elections and proclaimed the republic. Madrid’s Socialist Town Hall marks the occasion and, for the benefit of unemployed workers, gives the first bullfight at Las Ventas where, for lack of access, the bullfighters will walk. As for the spectators, it took them two hours to leave after more than three hours of boredom, eight toros from different breeders and eight bullfighters, a filling program that immediately established the plaza’s torrid bulimia. There will be an espontaneo, a very manso toro banderied with fire banderillas and a single vuelta, for the toro Fortuna.
The first toro to be fought there, Juan Pedro Domecq, who was called Hortelano (gardener) and foreshadowed what the Las Ventas racetrack was to become during the Civil War: a vegetable garden. The official inauguration took place under the center-right government of Gil Robles, in October 1934, at the time of the insurrectionary strikes in Asturias and Catalonia. On the bill were six Murube for Lalanda, Cagancho and Belmonte, who made his return to the bullring in a lead and white suit and cut off a tail from the Desertor toro. He would bid farewell in September 1935 by cutting off another tail from a Coquilla toro, five months before the Popular Front came to power.
At this time in Madrid, FAI anarchist bombs were exploding on the Gran Via, the Falange was organizing, Estrellita Castro, soon to be showered with gifts by Hitler, was singing Suspiros de España while Eibar pistol shots were blasting through the nights of Calle de la Cruz. Spain is cracking. Including, and above all, on the social stage where it most examines and judges itself: a plaza de toros. In 1935, at Las Ventas, Nicanor Villalta offered the fight of one of his toros to an officer who, in autumn 1934, had taken part in the terrible repression of the Asturian “October Revolution”. A large section of the public booed him. He was classed as an enemy of the people, and had to wait until the end of the civil war before fighting again. Victoriano Roger Valencia II provoque la grève des taxis lorsqu’il torée à Madrid. La raison ? He had once clashed with a member of the guild. It is said that he was murdered by the “reds” in 1936.
Las Ventas is a sensitive place. On September 29, 1935, Villalta broke one of his toros in the shade: the sun booed him. Fernando Dominguez, uncle of the current Roberto Dominguez, burns in the sun, the shade whistles at him. Curro Caro, the bullfighter of the zenith, the nadir and the consensus, stands in the center, runs the ring and bulls the whole company. He will cut off two ears and a tail, the tail, by his own admission, “thanks to the psychological impact of the brindis”. This was the sixth tail cut at Las Ventas since its inauguration, and the last until the controversial one cut in 1972 by Palomo Linares, which led to the dismissal of the race’s president, commissaire Pangua. Since then, no tails.
The bullring is full during the feria
Sunset over the arena
The matador facing the wounded bull
“ In May, Madrid’s most famous feria takes place, dedicated to the city’s patron saint, San Isidro. The most renowned matadors come to compete in the arena. ”
There was another crisis in 1936, when the Popular Front, an ally of the Republic of Mexico, supported Mexican bullfighters in Spain against the bullfighters’ union, led by the Phalangist Marcial Lalanda. On May 15, 1936, Lalanda, Domingo Ortega, whom the Left accuses of having financed Gil Robles’ election campaign, and the Spanish bullfighters boycott the bullfight where the Mexican Armilita is announced. The race is cancelled, and Lalanda spends the night at the station.
Then he called a general strike. The authorities came looking for him. He hides for a time in the Almudena cemetery. On May 29, Las Ventas is under high tension. Domingo Ortega, the “fascist” bullfighter, was booed and the audience chanted “Armilita, Armilita” when Victoriano de la Serna began the faena of his second toro. La Serna then throws down his muleta, his sword, and kneels before the toro, shouting “Long live Spanish bullfighters!”. He rises to his feet, throwing himself at the toro to stomp it, but deliberately allowing himself to be caught. He is badly gored. Manolo Bienvenida follows his example, but his toro does not injure him.
The history of Las Ventas, after its reopening on May 24 1939 for the “Franco’s victory bullfight”, is more directly related to bullfighting than to history. The Monumental saw its first death, novillero Félix Almagro, killed by a toro from Domingo Ortega on July 13, 1939, and its second on May 18, 1941 when Pascual Marquez, “the treasure of the Guadalquivir Island”, Seville’s darling bullfighter, was gored by Farolero, a toro from Concha Y Sierra. Surgeons will find Las Ventas sand all the way to his heart.
The truth is, Farolero had been chasing Pascual Marquez for over ten days, ever since the bullfighter had ridden up to the Concha y Sierra farm to see his future opponents. A toro had suddenly broken away from the herd and pursued him: number 52, Farolero. Marquez had to flee before asking the mayoral not to take the bloody 52 to Madrid. The mayoral had forgotten the recommendation and, when the draw was made, Farolero obviously fell to “el tesoro de la Isla”.
On June 6, 1944, it was Manolete who made his mark on the yellowish-brick heart of Las Ventas after an outstanding faena against Raton, a toro by Pinto Barriro. In the throes of emotion, Count Agustin de Foxa rises from his seat and exclaims: “Gentlemen, we don’t deserve this!” Three years later, novillero Antonio Bienvenida returns home to General Mola Street on the shoulders of his admirers after three passes changed to the left hand, executed in three successive series in front of toro Naranjito.
On June 17, 1948, Luis Miguel Dominguin caused a scandal by bullfighting, index finger raised in the air to signify that he was number 1, a Galache toro. In 1966, Antonete immortalized Atrevido, Osborne’s white toro, in aficionada memory, and in May 1968, Miguelin launched his Molotov cocktail: he threw himself into the ring in civilian clothes and, by stroking it, ridiculed a stupid toro being tormented by El Cordobes. El Cordobes didn’t care: he cut off four ears on May 21, 1970, and four more two days later. His best detractor, the “engineer from tier 7”, stood up and shouted: “Hoy, si!” (“Today, yes!”) That year, at the Beneficiencia, Paco Camino killed, without staining his costume, seven toros from seven different breedings after seven faenas, all different, and cut off eight ears.
Victorino Martin’s toros made history in 1982 and in 1991, the hinges of the big faux mudejar door had no time to rust: Cesar Rincon triumphed four times. He is one of the 126 bullfighters who have opened it since 1931 and who, on May 2, 1995, were honored by the Communidad de Madrid in this catedra, this bullfighting pulpit where aficionados can yell at bullfighters without ever ceasing to address them as “usted” and “señor”: “Can you señor peon stop making the toro hit the fence?”
Article written by Jacques Durand for the French newspaper Libération.
Statue of a matador
Bullfighting in the arena
At the Plaza de Toros
5 March 2017
Las Ventas, Madrid’s main bullring, between corrida and history
Madrid’s Las Ventas bullring was built in 1931, under the dual banner of the Spanish Republic and social confrontation. They replaced the old plaza on the old Aragon road, deemed too small: 13,011 seats versus 23,000 at Las Ventas. Discover the history of this bullring.
