Toreo by the rulebook
In his new book, Belmonte y Antoñete, las dos restauraciones de las viejas reglas clásicas del toreo, Salvador Balil Forgas (who has previously authored books on Pedro Romero and Juan Belmonte) sets out his stall early. The book is divided into two parts, the first being a series of pieces described as “considerations on classical and ethical tauromachy”, while the second comprises a brief history of toreo, highlighting what Balil regards as “its two restorations”.
In the first part, in a piece titled ‘Lo necesario, lo accesorio y lo superfluo’, Balil writes:
“In a faena begun with pases por alto, producing ‘el poste‘, there is no control over the bull, something that should always be exercised, the more so in these initial passes […] Nor does it make sense to start the faena citing a bull kept at a burladero from los medios in order to bring off a pase cambiado por la espalda. This may impress a particular public, for it’s a spectacular suerte, but it’s without any practical effect and devoid of interest. Toreo involves offering the chest, not the back, which, as well as being anti-aesthetic, means one can neither cargar la suerte nor control the bull […] There are many other things done with the bull that aren’t understood well, for instance […] closing a series of naturales with two or more chest passes. The true pase de pecho is the one the matador is obliged to make following a tanda in which there is no other option than to remove the bull from its proximity to the torero by sending it forward - not via the opposite shoulder, unless it’s to please oneself, with the bull already toreado. The objective of the chest pass is to distance the bull from the torero - sending the bull to the opposite shoulder involves the torero moving himself away from the bull because the torero has to forcibly correct himself [at the pass’s end].
“[…] And what is there to say about ‘toreo de rodillas’? Well, very little. When aficionados, or at least most of them, see a diestro begin a faena on their knees, or also sitting on the estribo, they just wait for him to get up so that toreo can begin, cargando and mandando, for in such positions - absolutely grotesque - it’s impossible; these suertes only serve to attract attention, and nothing more.”
Of course, Señor Balil is strictly correct. But how predictable and boring toreo would be if there was no variety and if, from time to time, the norms of toreo weren’t challenged…
Goya’s portrait of Pedro Romero
The argument of this book, however, is that the rules that Pedro Romero set out for toreo almost 200 years ago when he headed Sevilla’s Escuela de Tauromaquia remain those that should govern toreo, namely:
The torero should not rely on his feet, but on his hands.
Facing the bull, the torero should kill or be killed, rather than turn away or back down.
Stand close to the bull and calmly expect it to lift its horns so that nothing is required to save oneself from its hooking.
Let the bulls attack you, for this is the way they open up and reveal themselves
A coward is not a man, and for toreo, men are needed.
With the muleta and sword in one’s hands, one should never flee or run from bulls.
Never leap over the barrera, for to do so is shameful.
You can achieve more in the bullring with an arroba [11.5 kilos] of bravery and a pound [0.5 kilos] of intelligence than vice-versa.
The rules reflect two fundamental concepts of the Ronda school of toreo - ‘la quietud del toreo’ and ‘el honor del torero’. I, for one, have always found the esential meaning of the first of these problematic, given that standing still whilst performing toreo didn’t start to be achieved until almost 100 years later. For the purposes of covering his ‘restorations’, however, Balil distils these rules to ‘cite, embroque y remate’, the three basic elements of a pass.
In the second part of the book, Balil provides a potted history of toreo in which he departs from the views of Pepe Alameda in a number of areas. Specifically, Balil praises Cúchares’ rival, José Redondo El Chiclanero (who once said, “My toreo is redondo, as is my surname”), seeing him as the forerunner of the great Lagartijo; identifies Cayetano Sanz as the instigator of toreando bulls in curved lines and Manuel Domínguez as the torero who pointed out that naturales en redondo could only be achieved with the muleta held low (an indication that such toreo was practised before the time of Joselito el Gallo, whom Alameda reckoned instigated this suerte); and highlights the importance and bravery of Frascuelo as a rival to Lagartijo and of Chicuelo as the torero who first achieved the combination of Belmonte’s positioning and the production of series of linked naturales.
Juan Belmonte citing for a natural with his right leg and the muleta advanced - described by Balil as “the best way of encouraging the bull to come forward”.
Balil’s argument is that his truncated version of the rules of Pedro Romero, i.e. ‘cite, embroque y remate’, were restored initially by Juan Belmonte after the demands of Guerrita improved the toro de lidia for toreros, and secondly, 50 years later, by Antoñete, forming a rebuttal to Manolete’s influence on toreo.
Balil points out that, although he changed the face of toreo, Belmonte did not see himself as a revolutionary, but as a restorer of old, classical rules. He views Belmonte, with his new positioning, as having re-established the cánones of “templar, parar y mandar”, although Balil’s singular definition of ‘temple’ is that of a spiritual approach towards toreo.
Following the death of Manolete, Balil effectively writes off all the toreros who appeared up to 1981 (the year of the veteran Antoñete’s return from obscurity), saying that “all of them took up, to a greater or lesser degree, the legacy of Manolete, without contributing anything significant to it - they continued with profiled toreo, citing with the muleta held back and standing ‘fuera de cacho’, the form of toreo least propitious for temple and cargando la suerte”. He comments on Paco Ojeda, for instance: “A powerful diestro. Once the bull was dominated, he would lengthen the faena, shortening the distance between him and the bull at the same time, producing toreo very close to the animal. To torear in this position has merit, but a good lidia is one that suits the bull: not one that suits the torero”. The only exceptions Balil is prepared to make to this general writing off of toreros of the 1950s, 60s and 70s are Rafael Ortega and Manolo Vázquez.
Antoñete citando in a Madrid festival
The approach of allowing the bull space, rather than crowding in on it, and performing a ‘full’ pass - a cite with the muleta held forward, embroque and remate - Balil claims was reintroduced by Antoñete. And here his history ends.
There is much discussion in the book as to who has left his mark upon toreo, and it is not clear from this history as to whether Antoñete has. No torero is mentioned as having followed on from the madrileño’s example: indeed, in the book’s prologue Andrés Amoros writes: “Generally, we see on many afternoons profiled toreo, without putting the muleta forward or cargando la suerte, without gaining ground on the bull, and with la pierna contraria [which Balil regards as the right leg in a pase natural rather than the left or the exit leg] kept back. With this approach, there is no control and the pass ends up as a ‘half-pass’ or even less.”
So perhaps, given the apparent lack of successors to Antoñete, the book is one more call for a return to what some have called “pure toreo”.
Belmonte y Antoñete is an interesting read, with an extensive use of quotations, and the willingness of any aficionado to put their thinking about toreo into print should be welcomed. I have no disagreement with ‘cite, embroque y remate’ as the three basic elements (or ‘rules’) of a pass. But, to my mind, the book takes insufficient account of the introduction of linked passes and what is required to achieve this - if you like, the importance of Manolete. The Cordoban was able to produce linked passes with far more bulls than his predecessors because he stood in profile and began passes from outside the line of charge. What the best of his successors managed to do was combine Belmonte’s and Manolete’s approaches by citing for the first pass in a linked series in the former’s three-quarters position and then continuing the series by toreando in profile. As John Gordon stated in a recent important article in the Club Taurino of London’s magazine, La Divisa, the emphasis on crossing the line of charge and cargando la suerte by advancing a leg effectively elevates the single pass over linked toreo - a concept that is out of tune with what today’s bullfight public, including many aficionados, come to the plaza to see.