Recuperating Concha y Sierra

It turns out Jock Richardson and I weren’t the only ones who thought that the Concha y Sierra bull ‘Tigreso’ should have been awarded the prize for best animal in Zaragoza’s October corrida concurso - the ganadero thought so too.

In addition to commenting on the ranch’s 2024 temporada in a recent interview with cultoro.com, José María López also discussed the path he has chosen to take with the herd, which he acquired three years ago.

Concha y Sierra is one of Spain’s oldest herds, having been founded in 1873 in Huelva Province with vazqueño stock by Fernando de la Concha y Sierra. After his death 14 years later, his widow married the torero Manuel García El Espartero and the herd remained in the family, doing well, until the late 1960s when a number of sales began that saw it end up in the hands of a consortium, King Ranch España. During the 1970s, the bulls’ qualities and reputation suffered badly, and, at the end of that decade, bullfighter Miguel Báez Litri acquired the animals and attempted to refresh the herd with bulls of Conde de la Corte.

In 1979, the then director of la Caja Rural de Andalucía, José Luis García Palacios, purchased the herd from Litri and added to it, initially with bulls of los Herederos de Carlos Núñez and, later, bulls of Marqués de Domecq. However, on the banker’s death, his sons opted to get rid of these additional bloodlines and concentrate solely on the original pure vazqueños. In 2013, the herd was acquired by Frenchman Jean-Luc Couturier and moved from Huelva to France. The animals are now back in Spain, based on José María López’s ranch at Almoguera (Guadalajara).

Despite the difficulties involved, José María López is determined to maintain the herd as pure vazqueños: “In 2021, I brought the animals that were pure Concha y Sierra, as I wasn’t interested in the cross-breeding that had taken place with part of the ganadería. I made this clear to Jean-Luc Couturier - I was only interested in buying the pure stock and no more than that. From the time of maestro Litri through to García Palacios and Jean-Luc Couturier, everyone’s looked to improve the blood via sementales of Conde de la Corte, Juan Pedro Domecq or El Torero, but I want to keep the animals’ purity, otherwise I wouldn’t be interested.”

The task ahead is to avoid consanguinity. “The problem is that there is no means of refreshing the bloodline, so the way ahead is very slow,” says José María. “There are 110 cows in total, which I believe is the perfect number for my project. There are six sementales which are regularly put in with the cows, and we also review the herd for any animal that attracts us because of its reata and appearance. The cattle are kept in about five or six batches, plus the review bulls that enter later. We try to open up the families a lot in order to avoid consanguinity; […] the seed bulls are with the cows for a short time, so the percentage of females covered by each animal is low. There are a couple of bulls that are giving me phenomenal results. One is the son of ‘Boradora’ (3% inbreeding) and the other of ‘Indultada’ (7% inbreeding).”

José María had 11 bulls fought in 2024, including two bulls in Zaragoza and a bull and a novillo in Madrid’s Las Ventas, and was generally pleased with their performance - “This is a genetic treasure and, honestly, it’s been miraculous to see the bulls charge as they have done.” In 2025, he will focus solely on providing bulls for corridas, with just 10 animals available. “I know that recovering this encaste takes time,” José María concludes. “It’s a slow process, I would say about 20 years, but hopefully we can settle the vazqueña blood in the ferias - I am a little tired of the monotonous bull.”

The saga of Ricardo Leos

Meanwhile, from Mexico comes another taurine story of an individual who has chosen to take on an uphill struggle, showing patience and determination in the face of adversity. Ricardo Leos, from Aguascalientes, took the alternativa on January 1 2024 in the bullring of Rincón de Romos at the age of 41.

“I come from a family in which there is no bullfighting background and so the taste came a little late, compared to others who start [toreando] from childhood,“ says Leos. He debuted with picadors in 2001, aged 18, having learnt to torear from spending time with matadors. He began with the matador Armando Mora and then went with Edgar Bejarano, a matador who helped him obtain several contracts. He also spent time at the Armillitas’ house; in the house of the engineer Gerard Martínez, brother of the great Manolo; and on the ranch of the matador Paco Santoyo, who continues to support him.

Unable to attract a manager, however, Leos decided to call a halt to his taurine career, cutting his coleta after his Plaza México debut in 2006 and instead going to work in local and state government. He continued to receive invitations to tientas, however, so the bug never left him. “At the end of the pandemic, I decided to resume bullfighting activity again. I re-registered with the Association of Matadors; I became active once more; and, in this second phase, I came to add about 25 novilladas to the 30 from my earlier stage, making 55 festejos to endorse my alternativa. You can say that my alternativa was cooked on a low heat.”

But difficulties in obtaining contracts have not been Ricardo’s only problem. “Since I was a novillero I’ve suffered an injury to my right side, tendinitis, and, every time I performed, I had to have injections to be able to torear. I did this on the day of my alternativa too.” Since then, he has dedicated himself to resolving the problem through physiotherapy, chiropody and acupuncture.

But, in July, given the opportunity to torear a five-year-old bull a puerta cerrada, Leos was tossed and injured his right shoulder and knee. This meant a further halt to his temporada, ended on Christmas Day when he appeared at Cosío (Aguascalientes), winning an ear. “"The truth is that I feel more than happy to start my doctorate,” Ricardo said of this corrida, “to dress up again in a suit of lights, to feel like a bullfighter and, above all, to sense the bull’s charge, always doing everything for the Fiesta de los Toros with respect and dignity."