Bullfights return to Lorca
A number of welcome announcements have recently been made about the planned return of bullfighting later this season to plazas de toros that haven’t hosted a festejo for some years (one of which is Mósteles, where I have previously attended a corrida and also a concert by Pablo Milanés). None is more pleasing, however, than the announcement that Lorca’s ‘Sutullena’ bullring is to reopen at the end of March.
I visited Lorca’s plaza in 1995, delighted that staying on an additional few days after attending Murcia’s feria meant I could see Pepín Jiménez perform in his home ring. Pepín had become one of my favourite toreros nine years earlier when I saw him cut an ear during Madrid’s Feria de San Isidro. Here was a matador completely different from the rest. Blond-haired, Pepín excelled in vertical toreo, standing upright and still, the cloth hand held low in pases executed con temple. That Las Ventas afternoon, he produced wonderful derechazos and naturales, the series that were given de frente being particularly outstanding, and the finest estocada recibiendo I’ve seen in over 50 years of my attending bullfights. Little wonder then that, with these qualities, he became a ‘torero de Madrid’ - a favourite of the capital’s demanding aficionados.
Taquilla queues at el Coso de Sutellena
There were long queues at el Coso de Sutullena’s taquillas when I arrived at the plaza, the then empresa, ex-matador Antonio José Galán, sitting on a nearby wall smoking a cigar and looking pleased with the turnout. But my trip to Lorca and its impressive bullring was almost rendered pointless when the opening Baltasar Ibán bull knocked Pepín off his feet in an initial lance.
Fortunately, Pepín was unharmed and got back on his feet to bring off series of lovely verónicas. The faena, too, was exceptionally good, with a concentration on the left hand, the series (sometimes begun with molinetes) ended with chest passes, a number mirando al público. Unfortunately, there were three pinchazos before an estocada and descabello, and so the performance ended solely in a vuelta al ruedo.
Trincherazo by Pepín Jiménez (Lorca, 1995)
Early indications with his second bull were not promising, but, come the faena, Pepín produced further excellent derechazos, naturales, pases de pecho, trincherazos and other remates. Determined to make no mistakes with the sword this time, he was bumped by the bull as he sank the sword in to its hilt. Pepín was awarded the animal’s two ears and the corrida ended with all three matadors - Pepín plus Litri and Manolo Díaz El Cordobés - being carried out on shoulders.
Pepín’s busiest season, 2002, was still ahead of him, but unfortunately at the start of the following temporada, the matador received a bad injury to a knee whilst entering to kill at Aranjuez that brought his career to a premature end.
On May 11 2011, an earthquake hit Lorca, killing nine people, injuring dozens of others and making thousands homeless due to the substantial damage caused to many of the town’s buildings. The Sutullena bullring was damaged, too, and had to be shut. In 2016, alarmed at the amount of time it was taking to bring the plaza back into use, local aficionados launched the #Sutullena Ya campaign, and the following year the Lorca matador, Paco Ureña, carried the slogan on his capote.
Top: Paco Ureña with his capote supporting Lorca bullring’s reopening Above: The condition of el Coso de Sutullena prior to the repair works commencing (image from mundotoro.com)
In 2020, following its purchase of the plaza from its private owner, the ayuntamiento announced a plan to repair and refurbish the bullring, which it hoped would be completed within the following 12 months. In fact, the work has taken almost four years, with the ring due to be reinaugurated on March 30, when Paco Ureña will face six bulls en solitario.
The cartel for the event features a painting by Pepín Jiménez of the bullring standing above the broken rocks of the earthquake and referencing the plaza’s geographical location and its history - its 1892 inauguration, its 1945 remodelling (the building had been used as a prison during the Civil War and for some time afterwards, Lorca having been loyal to the losing Republican government throughout the conflict) and this year’s reopening. It is intended to symbolise the hopes and strengths of Lorca, given what the town has suffered and then recovered from.
Last May during the Feria of San Isidro, a homenaje to Pepín Jiménez took place in the Sala Antonio Bienvenida of Las Ventas, organised by la Unión de Abonados de Madrid. I got there half an hour before the event was due to start to find all seats already taken, and the place was absolutely packed by the time Pepín arrived. There were a number of speakers, including the journalist Alfonso Santiago and Juan Lamarca, an ex-president of Las Ventas, and films were also shown of Pepín performing in the Madrid ring. Finally, Pepín - clearly surprised and moved by the large numbers attracted to an event in honour of a none-too-famous matador who’d last appeared in Las Ventas a quarter of a century ago - spoke of his admiration for Madrid’s plaza and its afición: “For me, the Las Ventas bullring is something very special. I don’t have sufficient books in which to write all the sensations I felt and experienced in this plaza.” He then donated to the plaza’s museum the jacket from a traje de luces he’d had made for an appearance in the 2003 Feria de San Isidro - an appearance that, because of the percance at Aranjuez, never happened.
I was delighted to be able to have a few words with Pepín at the event’s close and to come away with a copy of my photo of that 1986 estocada recibiendo that so impressed me, which the matador had graciously signed.
At a gala to announce the 30 March corrida, the mayor of Lorca, Fulgencio Gil, commented: “We’re a bullfighting municipality, committed to culture and the essence of our roots, the third largest municipality in the Murcia region. As mayor and as an aficionado of tauromaquia, we put our faith in Lorca, in the bulls, our afición and our bullring of Sutullena, which is once again our pride, as it was of our elders.“ If all goes to plan, I will be attending a corrida elsewhere on March 30 this year, but my thoughts during that day will also be of Pepín, Paco Ureña and the people of Lorca as el Coso de Sutullena is reinaugurated at last.