Pieter Hildering

Four days after celebrating the 50th anniversary of José María Manzanares padre’s alternativa, the taurine world was hit by unexpected news. With the following short message Enrique Ponce, one of the most respected and revered bullfighters of his generation, announced his retirement: “To those who have accompanied me in the past 30 years: The first thing I want to tell you is that I want to thank you for your kindness and unconditional support, especially during the last year of the pandemia in which I decided to defend tauromaquia, put my foot forward and return to the world of bullfighting and all it has given me. At this moment in my taurine career, 2021, I have decided to temporarily retire from bullfighting.” At once speculations arose about the reason the matador, who had been one of the top names in the international world of bullfighting for so long, had taken this decision.

The name Enrique Ponce (Chiva, 1971) started to ring out at the beginning of the 1980s when a small boy of 10, supported by his grandfather Leandro, enlisted in the Valencian School of Bullfighting. His taurine education continued in Navas de San Juan under the tutelage of Juan Ruiz Palomares, who became his manager when Ponce was 12. To the old Valencian aficionados, however, the name ‘Ponce’ had a special meaning. It reminded them of Rafael Ponce Rafaelillo, a much-loved bullfighter of the 1930s and Enrique’s great-uncle, a matador with a ‘refined technique and a pure and elegant style‘.

“Look, two toreros and a niño,” the public in the bullring said, when he first paraded across the sand before taking on two-year-old bull calves. But it wasn’t before long that this ‘niño’ showed his exceptional talent. At the age of 16, and much to the disappointment of the Valencian afición, Enrique made his debut with picadors during the Feria de la Magdalena in the neighboring town of Castellón. Four months later, he was included in the July feria of his hometown. After two years of apprenticeship, he received his promotion to full matador de toros in Valencia in March 1990 from Joselito. Litri witnessed the occasion. The ceremonial bull was called ‘Talentoso’ and came from the fields of Diego Puerta. That afternoon, Enrique cut his first ear as a matador de toros. In the months following his alternativa, and very unexpectedly, Ponce had trouble finding contracts until he surprised the reluctant taurine impresarios with an outstanding solo performance on a windy and rainy July day in Valencia with bulls that had caused the more experienced Roberto Domínguez and El Soro to pull out of the corrida. That autumn, Rafael de Paula and Luis Francisco Esplá confirmed his status in Madrid and Enrique was on his way to conquer the taurine world.

From that moment on, Ponce was in the front line of bullfighting. By the end of the 1990 season, six months after his alternativa, he had competed with established toreros like Espartaco, Roberto Domínguez, Joselito, and fellow Valencian Vicente Ruiz El Soro.

He performed in 25 corridas and cut 22 ears, doubling that amount the following year. Enrique fought his way to the top of the escalafón in 1992 when he performed in 100 corridas (the first of 10 successive seasons when he reached the 100 mark). These were the seasons of record-breaking performances, the loud showmanship years of Jesulín de Ubrique, Litri, Manolo Díaz El Cordobés, and Fran Rivera Ordóñez, but Ponce — with his sophisticated style — was up there with them. He headed the escalafón again in 1993 and '97 and, 10 years after his alternativa, in spite of a next generation straining to take over, was still the afición's main interest, that attention only declining when the new taurine prodigy, Julián López El Juli, made his mark as a matador de toros.

Ponce celebrated his 30th anniversary as a matador de toros in 2020 and it goes without saying that his contribution to the planet of the bulls has been enormous. According to his website, he has pardoned the lives of 35 bulls in Spain and 20 in Latin America. It has made him a rich man. The amount of gold, silver and bronze trophies is countless, as are the ears and tails he was awarded after yet another triumph in the bullring. He acted as the padrino for 75 novice matadors taking their alternativas and was carried through the Puerta Grande of Madrid’s Las Ventas bullring on five occasions, including the exit on September 28 this year after a rather ceremonial last performance. (Oddly enough, in 30 years, he only left once through the equally important Puerta del Príncipe of La Maestranza of Sevilla.) But those 30 years meant a life ruled by the bull, mercilessly dictated by strict guidelines. No doubt being so successful meant continuous mental pressure and arduous physical training. As a top matador, he travelled from Valencia to Badajoz and from Bilbao to Sevilla almost non-stop for eight months a year. And when the Spanish season ended, Latin America beckoned. For a matador like Ponce, who strongly felt the obligation to his public, it meant being present at every feria in every town or village. It also meant performing like they expected him to, day after day, year after year, no matter the quality of the bull.

So, what made him such a special bullfighter, and why did he attract so many people in over three decades? In the first place, the almost natural elegance and effortlessness of his faenas made bullfighting look so simple. The ease with which he confronted the bulls was breathtaking, as were the seemingly simple details in his control of the muleta (his famous cambio de manos and later, his poncinas). In that sense, he was a typical matador for the masses, pleasing his followers and very aware they had paid a lot of money to see him.

Enrique Ponce gave them their money’s worth, but by doing so he also became known as the matador who needed 100 passes to prove his point. Ponce’s toreo became tedious and dull and, although occasionally he could still enchant a crowd, it missed the spark of that young, eager matador. His faenas de muleta went on so long they usually led to one or two avisos from the president, as if he wanted to postpone the most important part of the corrida de toros. Most trophies were lost because of bad estocadas, his life-long weakness.

He turned 50 in December 2021. Forty of those years were dedicated to the world of bullfighting! By announcing his retirement, it seems he has taken the first step to free himself from that world, from what must have begun to feel like an unbearable burden that controlled his life for so many years; to take back control; to do things he was unable to do in the past; not having to confront death day by day, but to discover new things. Life. Outside the bullring. While there is time. Without any explanation. Maybe a young woman from Almería made him realize that.

I don’t think Ponce will be missed; he has already taken his place among the greats, and life on the planet of the bulls goes on. But he certainly won’t be forgotten. Not by me. I became a poncista when I was asked to join the official Peña Taurina Enrique Ponce de Chiva in July 1990. And, in spite of the occasional peculiarities, like the abysmal malagueña corrida when he and Javier Conde were accompanied by a small symphony orchestra and two opera singers of dismal quality, or the evening in Istres in 2016 when he decided to perform in a dinner jacket and bow tie, I have kept a soft spot for Ponce the matador.

Since his alternativa, I have seen him in 113 corridas, leave the arena on shoulders 31 times and –in a total of 55 animals left alive– spare the life of two bulls: ‘Guisante’ from Buenavista (Málaga, August 2000) and ‘Jaraiz’ from the ganadería of Juan Pedro Domecq (2017, again in Málaga). And so I thank him for all those exciting evenings watching him make bullfighting look so easy and I gladly forgive him the boring ones, of which there also were many.

On his very last corrida in Spain, in the bullring of his hometown on 9 October 2024, he served as padrino in the promotion of fellow Valencian Nek Romero. Alejandro Talavante witnessed the ceremony. The first three animals came from the noted ganadería of Garcigrande, and after ceding the first bull to neophyte Romero, Enrique cut the ear of his initial opponent. The next three bulls were from Juan Pedro Domecq and failed miserably, which made Enrique decide to bring in the sobrero. His faena with ‘Triquiñuelo’ – also a Domecq and therefore very much protested when it entered the arena – was Ponce’s farewell gift to Spain’s afición. And after a remarkable faena in which the bull allowed him to perform every detail of his personal toreo, he cut both ears. While colourful fireworks exploded over the Valencian bullring, Enrique was carried out by a large crowd of fans who delivered him to the doorstep of his hotel. Poncismo had come to an end.