EL CORDOBÉS - BULLFIGHTING LEGEND

Born in Córdoba in 1936, Manuel Benítez later known
as El Cordobés when he became a bullfighter, was raised in an orphanage in his home town. He was a construction worker, and inspired by a monument to the great matador Manolete in Córdoba, dreamed of being a bullfighter since
his teenage years. He would sneak into the pastures of some Ganaderia (Ranch raising fighting bulls) and prac-
tice by moonlight.

He finally vaulted over the fence as what is known as an espontáneo at a prestigious bullfight and began taking the bull through its paces with a home-made cape until he was dragged away by security.
He started his career as a Novillero (novice) in 1959 and became famous for his high profile antics such as kissing
the bull between the horns. He didn't take the Alternativa,
(a ceremony sponsored by a full ranked Matador, elevating him to the same category) until 1963, when he was already famous.

Banderillas are razor sharp barbed sticks placed in the bull's shoulders by a member of the Matador's "team"
and called Banderillero.
Once early in his career, on the way to the bullring he turned to his banderillero and announced he was going to do something never seen before in bullfighting.
When the time came to place the banderillas, El Cordobés
waved away the banderillero. He was going to place them himself.His banderillero stared in surprise as El Cordobés broke the banderillas to pencil lenght, marched to the mid- dle of the ring and turned his back to the bull.

Slowly he paced his way backwards and as the bull charged, a second before the horns reached his back he
stuck out his right leg to catch the bull's eye and divert the charge. As the bull swerved, he spun and stuck his bande-
rillas into its back. The crowd went wild!

All over Spain, El Cordobés planted his pencil lenght ban-
derillas sometimes kneeling with his back to the bull, jump-
ing up and whirling at the last moment.

Impulsivo was the name of a bull weighing over 1,100 Lbs.
each horn a foot long - and as they should be - straight for-
ward with a slight upward sweep at its tip; slimming down to a fine sharpness at the point.
El Cordobés faced it at Las Ventas, the bullring in Madrid in an event watched on television by thousands of Spaniards and that ended almost tragically with the near fatal goring of El Cordobés on the horns of Impulsivo. Three weeks later, he was back in the bullring.

In 1983 a bull he was about to fight, killed an espontáneo that jumped into the ring (as he had done as a youth).
Maligned by the Press for allowing it to happen, he went into
semi-retirement making occasional appearances until 2000
when he fought his last bull in Las Ventas and then cut off
his Matador's pig tail known as a coleta, ritually ending his
career and going into retirement, after being the highest paid
Matador in the history of bullfighting.