Ceniciento’s August feria in danger
After their town council experienced a change of political control in Spain’s July elections, the citizens of Cenicientos are in danger of seeing their August feria bullfights disrupted.
The news first broke within days of the election results when la Unión de Toreros, together with associations representing picadors, banderilleros and mozos de espadas, issued a statement calling on colleagues to abstain from taking part in the feria due to the now Partido Popular (PP)-led council unilaterally changing the contractual terms of the toreros who had been announced back in March by the previous PSOE administration as taking part in the feria. The planned carteles were:
día 14: Toros de Peñajara de Casta Jijona para Rubén Pinar, Adrián de Torres y Damián Castaño
día 15: Corrida concurso de ganaderías - Gómez del Pilar, Román y Borja Jiménez con toros de Palha, Prieto de la Cal, Murteira Grave, Araúz de Robles, José Escolar y Los Maños
día 16: Novillos de Antonio López Gibaja para Samuel Navalón, Curro Muñoz y Álvaro Serrano.
The associations alleged that the ganaderías for the two corridas had been changed without the agreement of the toreros concerned and, indeed, that the ayuntamiento had said, if the toreros refused to appear with the new bulls, they would not be contracted to perform in Cenicientos in future years. The town’s available finances and the cost of the originally announced bulls appeared to be the issue, although the associations claimed that PP had virtually doubled the earnings of the new mayor and his deputies from 58,000 euros to 108,000.
The new mayor responded with a statement that the incoming council had decided that the feria put together by the previous mayor was not affordable, and that discussions had taken place with alternative ganaderías put forward by the associations. However, their bulls had proved either too expensive or not of the standard Cenicientos’s torista feria was used to, and it had therefore been decided to proceed with bulls of the council’s choosing. The mayor also accused the head of la Unión de Toreros, former matador José Pedro Prados El Fundi, of making threats to those toreros who were now considering taking part in the feria.
New carteles have subsequently been announced as follows:
día 14: Toros de Prieto de la Cal para Alberto Álvarez, Venegas y Joaquim Ribeiro
día 15: Toros de Partido de Resina para Serafín Marín, Jairo Miguel y Cristóbal Reyes
día 16: Novillos de López Gibaja para Samuel Navalón, Javier Cano y Álvaro Serrano (Although two of the participants remain unchanged, this is now a novillada con picadores compared to the sin pics featured in the earlier carteles.)
Whilst the traditional torista nature of the feria remains unaffected, the corrida carteles, both in terms of the matadors and the bulls, are nowhere near as attractive as the original programme. And it remains to be seen whether, in the circumstances, the substitute toreros can gather sufficient subalternos for the corridas to take place. As far as El Fundi is concerned, the strike continues and, by their actions, although they may have introduced new bulls at a lower price, the town council will now have to pay the earnings of both the originally contracted matadors and their successors.