Putting a feria together the Pagés way

The empresa of Sevilla’s La Maestranza bullring, Pagés, has been drawing up the plaza’s temporada for the last 92 years (the last 24 years with Ramón Valencia at the helm) and has a well-worn method of doing so.

First, the ganaderías are announced as part of a Christmas message to the plaza’s abonados. This time round, Ramón Valencia’s list was published on December 18 and, as has become the norm, contained little surprise. This year’s season (comprising Easter Sunday, the Feria de Abril and the Feria de San Miguel) has one more corrida than 2024’s, but the only newcomer in terms of the bulls was Fuente Ymbro, all the remaining ranches having also taken part in the 2024 series. In Fermín Bohórquez’s case, his bulls were now returned to their familiar rejoneo slot, although last year his corrida for toreo a pie provided one excellent bull and yielded three ears. In 2024, Victoriano del Río and Garcigrande were put on twice: this year, Núñez del Cuvillo was to join them as ranches given double appearances.

First on the list of toreros - Morante de la Puebla

The next task, the other side of Christmas and New Year, is to complete the cartel for the prestigious Easter Sunday corrida. Prior to this, Ramón Valencia needed clarification as to the situation with Morante de la Puebla, whose last two seasons had been interrupted with mental illness. These discussions proved positive, and it was agreed the matador would sign on for five corridas in all (as in 2024), including Easter Sunday - Morante’s treatment over the winter in Portugal is believed to have gone well, although there remains some concern as to how his 2025 season will eventually turn out. Valencia’s next step was to approach Andrés Roca Rey, only to learn he had no wish to perform on Easter Sunday (not in Sevilla, at any rate - the Peruvian will be toreando in Arles that day). This potentially opened the door for Daniel Luque (a Puerta del Príncipe entrant last April), who otherwise would have been subject to Roca Rey’s continuing veto on joint appearances with the sevillano. But there were also other toreros to consider - Alejandro Talavante (who exited through the Puerta del Príncipe last September) and the sevillanos Juan Ortega (reckoned by many to have performed the best faena in last April’s feria, albeit managed by José María Garzón, currently subject to a legal challenge by Pagés over the contract to put on Santander’s feria) and Borja Jiménez. In the end, Valencia - without approaching the apoderados of Ortega or Jiménez - opted for the combination of Morante de la Puebla, Alejandro Talavante and Daniel Luque with Núñez del Cuvillo bulls. The cartel was leaked by Jesús Bayort of ABC on January 20, this journalist appearing to have a fly on the wall of the Pagés office in calle Adriano over the next two months.

By this time, it was reported that the only apoderado that Valencia had had discussions with on the Feria de Abril carteles, apart from those of Morante, Roca Rey, Talavante and Luque, was Casa Matilla, which is responsible for the matadors Manzanares, El Fandi and Castella.

Things continued in traditional fashion. As Fran Vázquez, Pablo Aguado’s manager, who had yet to be contacted, put it, “Ramón always has his roadmap. He has done this a few times and we understand it perfectly. For now, we haven’t sat down with him; we are waiting for that call to do so.”

By the first week in February, the feria carteles were beginning to take shape - at least, in Ramón Valencia’s notebook. Morante had opted to face bulls of Domingo Hernández, Matilla and Garcigrande in the Feria de Abril (most of which, this year, is in May due to Easter being late) and Núñez del Cuvillo once more in the Feria de San Miguel. Roca Rey had chosen bulls of Victoriano del Río and El Parralejo for the first feria and Núñez del Cuvillo for the second, while Daniel Luque reportedly wanted bulls of Victorino Martín and Garcigrande in the Feria de Abril and Victoriano del Río in San Miguel. Talavante would be content with one or two corridas (Matilla and/or Victoriano del Río) in the early feria, and Garcigrande in September, while Manzanares - a long-time Sevilla favourite - agreed to take on bulls of Jandilla and Matilla in the Feria de Abril and Victoriano del Río in San Miguel.

On February 10, the first set of carteles, albeit not linked to specific dates, found their way into ABC and some taurine websites, including a complete rendition of the San Miguel programme - Morante and Roca Rey would be joined by Javier Zulueta, taking the alternativa in the Núñez del Cuvillo corrida; Talavante would be accompanied by Juan Ortega and Borja Jiménez in the Garcigrande festejo; and Luque and Manzanares would have Pablo Aguado for company, facing Victoriano del Río bulls. The final San Miguel carteles are little different, except for Luque finally opting for Garcigrande bulls and he and Juan Ortega consequently swapping places.

Apart from the managers of the San Miguel participants, however, it was revealed that, despite the media listings that set out Feria de Abril places for Tomás Rufo, Miguel Ángel Perera, David de Miranda, Cayetano, Manuel Escribano, Emilio de Justo, El Cid and Esaú Fernández, don Ramón had still to get in touch with their representatives. It appeared these names featured solely in the empresa’s notebook! As of February 13, a number of other toreros who might have expected to feature in the feria - Diego Urdiales, Paco Ureña, David Galván, Ginés Marín and Fernando Adrián - were also still awaiting a phone call. In the case of Paco Ureña, that phone call never materialised…

Not playing ball - Emilio de Justo

The following day, it was announced that one of don Ramón’s intended participants, Emilio de Justo, was not happy about the plans the empresa had for him, namely to put him on with La Quinta bulls and victorinos, with both corridas scheduled outside of los farolillos - the main feria week. De Justo’s view was that he merited being able to choose one ganadería for himself and that one of his two corridas should occur in that final week. As Valencia refused to countenance this, de Justo declined to take part in the feria.

There were two beneficiaries to this development. Three days later, it was announced that Manuel Escribano would be given three afternoons in the feria (the same number as Morante), facing the victorinos, miuras and last year’s ganado triunfadores, Santiago Domecq, while the third slot in the victorinada was given to El Cid.

By the close of February 17, most of the other places in the Feria de Abril had been confirmed with the toreros involved. Local bullfighters Lama de Góngora and Calerito would participate in the opening Fuente Ymbro corrida; El Fandi, David Galván and Ginés Marín would take on the alcurrucenes (Fernando Adrián, yet to debut in La Maestranza, having declined a ‘take-it-or-leave-it’ offer to be on this cartel); while Diego Urdiales and Pepe Moral (the latter with miuras) were also on board. Only one vacant slot in the Fuente Ymbro corrida (eventually given to Samuel Navalón) and the cartel for the La Quinta festejo remained to be filled.

On February 19, Aplausos announced that Rubén Pinar, José Garrido and Román would take on the laquintas, while Jesús Bayort reckoned the first two places in this corrida had been offered to Curro Díaz and Paco Ureña, certainly a stronger combination. But all remained unsettled as Emilio de Justo’s manager, Alberto García, contacted Ramón Valencia in a final attempt to get his matador into the feria. Emilio, he said, was willing to take on all six of the La Quinta string if the corrida, set for April 29, could be moved into the final week. Bringing one of the corridas out of that week in exchange looked highly unlikely at this late stage, and indeed that proved to be the case, as Valencia finally retained the laquinta cartel in the initial week for the matadors Curro Díaz, Rubén Pinar and Román.

Then there was a final twist in the saga as, on February 21, Jesús Bayort reported there was be no La Quinta corrida after all. Apparently, don Ramón had forgotten a verbal undertaking he had given to the Martínez Conradi family that their corrida would be programmed for the feria’s second week. With Emilio de Justo’s late petition having been turned down, the family issued a statement that “the lack of respect” from Pagés had led them to withdraw their bulls from the feria. This unwelcome news was nevertheless an opportunity for the empresa to introduce a further ganadería to the feria, but no, the decision was made to double up with Fermín Bohórquez bulls instead. Ramón Valencia later disputed the ganadería’s version of events. “I’ve been at this desk for 25 years and I’ve never failed to keep my word,” he said, while denying he’d ever make such an arrangement with any ganadería

The end result

It is one thing for a matador to be put on three times in a month-long feria like San Isidro, but in the fortnight of the Feria de Abril it must be considered excessive. Once again, Ramón Valencia, with his eye primarily on maximising attendances, has played safe with regard to Morante, although it remains to be seen how strong the entradas will be on the Manuel Escribano afternoons. It is good to see the likes of Lama de Góngora, Calerito, Samuel Navalón, Román, David Galván, Curro Díaz and David de Miranda being given an opportunity to shine in La Maestranza, but the treatment given to Emilio de Justo, Fernando Adrián, Paco Ureña and Oliva Soto has been very poor indeed. The lack of variety in the ganaderías is also a reflection of how the feria panders to the figuras. All in all, the carteles are more of Sevilla’s same - a chance to see (albeit possibly only for those present - when the carteles were officially launched, Valencia said there were no plans for TV coverage “at this moment in time”) most of the top toreros and some sevillano hopefuls perform in the expensive La Maestranza in largely uncompetitive circumstances and with none-too-challenging bulls. Yet the 2024 Feria de Abril, constructed on the same model, was one of the most successful of modern times, and it remains to be seen if Pagés can pull it off again. Ramón Valencia will certainly be hoping so, for the lengthy Pagés contract is set to expire at the end of this season and José María Garzón (amongst others) is waiting in the wings to mount a challenge for the future management of Sevilla’s bullring.