Farewell, Enrique?
Whatever the current standing of Enrique Ponce, who has announced his retirement “for an indefinite period”, his departure signals the possible end of one of the greatest careers in bullfighting history.
After commencing toreando becerras at the age of 9 (40 years ago), Enrique debuted in novilladas con picadores in 1988 at the March feria of Castellón. Two years later, he took the alternativa at the hands of Joselito in his home ring of Valencia and was catapulted into the taurine limelight in the same plaza that July, when Roberto Domínguez and El Soro pulled out of a cartel and the youngster agreed to stay on and fight all six bulls; despite the corrida taking place in rain, Ponce cut three ears and was carried out in triumph.
Thereafter until now (31 years), Ponce has been considered one of the top toreros. He headed the matadors’ escalafón in four years - in 1992, 1993, then gave way to Jesulín de Ubrique until 1997, then returned to head it in the pandemic temporada of 2020. An even greater indication of his popularity was that, in each season from 1992 to 2001 (10 consecutive years), he fought more than 100 corridas in Spain and France. Overall, he has appeared in over 2,000 corridas and killed some 5,000 bulls. He has also proved to be the king of indultados, securing the first indulto of a toro bravo under the current regulations at Murcia in 1992 and chalking up another 52 such performances subsequently.
From early in his career, Enrique was regarded as a torero who excelled with the right hand and someone with the technique to “invent bulls” - to make the most of whatever emerged from the toriles. In his initial years as a matador, he claimed his favourite bulls were those of anastasio lineage, although domecqs eventually became his stock in trade. Unlike some of his fellow figuras, however, he was prepared to step away from the norm - the bulls of Samuel Flores were another favourite, but he also appeared on occasion with miuras, victorinos and adolfos.
In my book Toros & Toreros, I wrote that he will forever be associated in my mind with his padrino Joselito, as the pair appeared frequently together in the 1990s, frequently bringing out the best in each other.
Ponce’s supposed rivalry with José Tomás from 1998 was nothing of the sort, the two hardly ever sharing the same cartel (although, in 2001, I saw the two together at Valladolid alongside an up-and-coming El Juli, Ponce emerging as triunfador de la tarde and of the feria). This was more a rivalry of concepts, José Tomás believing in standing his ground and passing the bull closely, while Ponce preferred to step away from the bull to secure passes, his superb technique tending to minimise the dangers involved. Indeed, he always aimed to accentuate the beauty of toreo, rather than the risks. In later years, though, the dangers grew more real and his injuries increased - Enrique’s most serious goring occurred in Valencia’s Las Fallas in 2019, when he received a cornada grave at the top of his left leg, but also tore ligaments in a knee. It was expected he’d be out of action for the rest of the temporada, but miraculously the veteran returned to the bullring just five months later, just as successful as before.
Ponce was one of the culprits in the modern vogue for over-long faenas and some would say his career was over-long too, although there continued to be some impressive afternoons, e.g. Santander in 2018. But the last time I, as a plaza spectator, saw him - at Arles in September 2019, when he featured mano a mano in Juan Bautista’s corrida de despedida - was an embarrassment, with many in the Roman arena stupefied by his awards of four ears and a tail. When he came out to collect the latter from the alguacilillo, he was roundly booed. The valenciano has appeared to be increasingly toreando at less risk to himself, with one spectator shouting out it was time for him to go during a lacklustre performance by him at Palacio Vistalegre’s recent San Isidro feria. He cut two ears in his final corrida at León last Sunday, although that was the only one of his eight corridas this temporada that, in normal times, would have led to a salida a hombros.
Reasons for the retirement
No reasons for his mid-season retirement were given in the short statement issued on behalf of the matador, but most commentators put the cause down to his personal situation rather than any loss of afición. Last summer, Enrique’s separation from his wife of 24 years, Paloma Cuevas (daughter of his then co-manager Victoriano Valencia), was announced, the matador having begun a relationship with a 21-year-old student, Ana Soria. He is now said to be planning a divorce.
According to the website Vanitatis, Ponce’s various business ventures aren’t doing too well, either. He owns properties for rent in Úbeda, Villacarrillo, Torremolinos and Fuengirola, but the company involved, from making a profit of over 200,000 euros in 2018, posted losses of 27,000 euros the following year and 2020, given the pandemic, is likely to have been worse still. An agricultural company he also owns, based in Jaén, ended 2018 with losses of over 185,000 euros. For a long time, Enrique’s non-taurine business interests were overseen by his brother, Tomás, but this arrangement appears to have ended in 2017.
Olive production is Ponce’s best-known business, the torero owning some 400 hectares with 53,000 olive trees near Navas de San Juan (Jaén). El Corte Inglés is one of the stores that sells his olive oil, each 500ml bottle selling for 19.80 euros. However, this business too has lost money since 2017.
The mundotoro website has looked into whether the reasons for Enrique’s retirement are purely taurine. They point out that, when the pandemic struck last year, it was Ponce who made the most effort amongst the leading matadors to keep la Fiesta going - it was the veteran who “pulled the cart”. This season, though, they claim the mundillo’s focus is on others - Roca Rey, El Juli, Morante, Manzanares, Pablo Aguado, Juan Ortega and Emilio de Justo - presumably affecting Ponce’s contract numbers, earnings and his influence on the carteles themselves. But the facts don’t necessarily bear this out - he is currently 9th in the escalafón with only six matadors having had more contracts than him; his eight appearances have been with bulls from coveted ganaderías - Juan Pedro Domecq/Parladé in the main and Núñez del Cuvillo, Hermanos García Jiménez and Daniel Ruiz; his companions have included de Justo, Ortega, Morante, Roca Rey and Manzanares; and he has appeared in the main ferias to date of Vistalegre, Granada, Alicante and Castellón, would have appeared at Istres but for a shoulder injury aggravated at Granada, and was lined up for several other ferias later in the year.
Taking everything into account his former rival, Joselito, has probably put his finger on it: “In my opinion, Enrique is not in that moment in which you put 100% into your performance with the bull. When you have your mind elsewhere, a bull can catch you and do a lot of damage, not only physically, but also emotionally. And that damage, I assure you, leaves its mark; it is difficult to overcome. If he has taken this decision [to retire] now, I am glad for him, because I haven’t been seeing him at his best for some time now. Although I think he will come back.”
Indeed, most commentators think Enrique will return to the bullrings at some stage, perhaps for a temporada de despedida, although there are precedents of major toreros - Manuel Benítez El Cordobés and Curro Romero come to mind - who simply just stopped.