The Casta Jijona, Vicente Martínez and the Quintas brothers
(Genealogy from castajijona@gmail.com)
Dealing with the foundational encastes in my book Dialogues with Death (Club Taurino of London, 2006), I wrote, “Castille’s more long-lasting product emanated from the toros de la tierra and the casta jijona, both of which were bred around Colmenar Viejo, although the jijones came originally from further south in La Mancha and were maintained on ranches there as well. Large and thick-necked, these animals tended to exhibit a lot of power and eagerness to attack. The jijones were popular opponents at the start of the nineteenth century, but their performance worsened thereafter, particularly as the corrida’s focus shifted to the faena de muleta; the prolonged fighting and hardships around Madrid during the Civil War of 1936-39 aided this variety’s virtual extinction.”
In fact, aided by ancestry charts, ganaderos’ registers and DNA findings, some eight ganaderías are now accredited as originating from and still containing jijona blood – Arauz de Robles, Hermanos Quintas Parras, Jara del Retamar, Mariano Sanz Jiménez, Montalvo, Peñajara de Casta Jijona, Peralta and Toros Villalpando. Of particular interest in recent weeks has been Hermanos Quintas Parras, as Morante de la Puebla has apparently expressed an interest in toreando these animals which are direct descendants of the famous herd of Vicente Martínez, whose bulls were fought to great acclaim by José Gómez Gallito in the early years of the 20th century.
The Jijona encaste was founded in 1598 by Don Juan Sánchez Jijón de Salcedo of Villarrubia de los Ojos (Ciudad Real) and was particularly prized for the lidia of those times in the second half of the 19th century. Don Manuel de la Torre’s transfer of a jijón herd from La Mancha to Ciempozuelos in 1844 influenced the principal ganaderos of toros de la tierra, based around Colmenar Viejo, to turn to jijona bulls to mix with or replace their herds. One of the earliest to do so was Don Julián de Fuentes, Regidor de la Corte in Madrid, whose herd, passed on to his son Juan José de Fuentes and by then consisting entirely of some 400 jijón animals, was acquired by Vicente Martínez around 1852.
Vicente Martínez was a well-off businessman, living in Colmenar Viejo but originally from Santander, who had no previous experience of bull-breeding. His ganadería established a strong reputation in Madrid from its 1853 debut in the capital, although the quality and strength of his bulls gradually declined until he took the advice of his friend, the matador Frascuelo, who recommended more rigorous selection and the introduction of new blood. The semental ‘Español’, of Pérez de la Concha (Casta Vazqueña) was put to good use from 1875, although don Vicente was reportedly still preoccupied with his bulls’ loss of spirit when he died in 1894.
The makings of the Vicente Martínez herd
Ten years later, Herederos de Vicente Martínez, headed by a son-in-law, Luis Gutiérrez Gómez, purchased another semental, ‘Diano’, from Eduardo Ybarra (Casta Vistahermosa). This bull produced some extraordinary animals that caused the ganadería to be amongst the favourites of the top bullfighters of the early 20th century, principally Joselito and Juan Belmonte. The excellent results of ‘Diano’ were reinforced with the contribution of another Ibarra bull, 'Dubioso' and later by two other sementales of the same origin, 'Vinagrero' and 'Ramito', acquired from Fernando Parladé. Between 1907 and 1918, the Martínez family also sporadically employed as sementales up to 11 offspring of 'Diano', continuing to transmit the qualities they had inherited through their paternal lineage. ‘Diano’ effectively fulfilled his work as a seed-bull for 16 years.
During the almost 90 years of the Martínez herd, both the behaviour and morphology of the animals evolved in accordance with the changing needs of the corrida. Tall, well-armed bulls with red and chestnut coats gradually became more compact and finer, the animals’ coats more varied in colour, frequently berrendo.
In 1925, some of the livestock was acquired by María Matea Montalvo, later going on to form the Salamancan herds of Juan María and Mercedes Pérez Tabernero and Antonio Pérez. But Martinez's other line barely reached the present day. Spain’s Civil War caused irreparable damage to the herd and left it reduced to the bare minimum. Of the 703 heads inventoried in early 1936, only about 60 survived. According to Luis Fernández Salcedo (grandson of Vicente Martínez), at the end of the war there were only a few cows left on the farms, the animals bearing the union initials ‘U.G.T.’!
In 1940, the final sale and partition of the Martínez herd occurred. The Duke of Pinohermoso, the Abad family of Cadalso de los Vidrios (Madrid) and the ganadería of Arribas each purchased cows and two of the six sementales that the Martinez family had left. The Duke of Pinohermoso, who had also purchased the Martínez brand, sold the brand and his jijones on to the Arribas family eight years later. Eventually, they completely eliminated their jijones, replacing them with cattle from 'Los Guateles' bought from Baltasar Ibán. Since 1985, the ganadería has been known as Los Herederos de Antonio Arribas: the brand and antiquity of Vicente Martínez are maintained, but nothing remains of his legendary cattle.
But the Abad line survives. In fact, in 1920, long before the final sale of the Martínez livestock, Román Abad Moreno had already formed a herd with cows and two sementales (named ‘Barrenero’ and ‘Viajero’) of Martínez acquired from the livestock of Pérez y Sanz. Abad, in turn, sold the Martínez animals on to his brother-in-law, Don Paulino Alcázar Blanco, and, when the latter became seriously ill in 1942, he sold 40 cows and a semental, ‘Lagarto’, to Don Alfredo Quintas Sancho. Later on, another lote of 20 cows from Alcázar Blanco’s herd, and a further semental, ‘Perezoso’, were purchased too.
According to Lorenzo Cerón Miranda of the Asociación Casta Jijona, from the middle of the last century to the present, the Quintas family “has remained true to the Martínez concept, not only by conviction or loyalty, but also by simple and pure pragmatism”; despite the fact that it has tried to make some crossings with animals of other origins, only one, a Vega Villar semental of Manuel Sánchez Cobaleda in 1962, offered satisfactory results. However, these were limited, as it did not produce offspring for very long. With a view to refreshing the blood and enhancing the Martínez characteristics, a Montalvo semental was acquired in 1993. The cows involved in producing toros bravos have always been solely and exclusively jijones.
An offshoot of Alfredo Quintas’ jijones began in the 1980s when Fernando Silva bought a batch of cattle from different sources from a cattle dealer and was particularly taken by some berrenda cows in the lote, discovering they had previously belonged to the Madrid rancher. He added them to his Jara del Retamar ganadería, which already featured cattle from José Ortega (encaste Marqués de Domecq), but kept the two encastes apart. Today, Silva’s berrendos, based in Cáceres, are well known, and, being very lively and strong and showing sentido, are regarded as ‘hard’ bulls highly sought after for festejos populares.
The Manuel Quintas Resines novillo ‘Pelotera’, fought in Madrid in 2013 (Las Ventas photo)
The Quintas family’s ganado bravo is generally found in street festejos and minor events as well (although some animals are down to take part in La Comunidad de Madrid’s and the FTL’s Circuito de Corridas of minority encastes due to be announced later this week). Manuel Quintas Resines debuted as a ganadero at Las Ventas on September 29, 2013, in a novillada concurso when the bull ‘Pelotera’ (497 kilos) was fought by Francisco Pajares. Its encaste was given as Martínez-Jijona. El Mundo described ‘Pelotera’ as a “precioso berrendo”, but both it and ABC reported that the novillo was heavily picced en varas and consequently exhausted come the faena.
Manuel Quintas Resines died on June 5 this year. The family finca is at Colmenar de Arroyo (Madrid), where now three different hierros are based – that of Manuel Quintas, Hermanos Quintas Parras and El Estoque – all of them registered with la Asociación de Ganaderías de Lidia. The Manuel Quintas herd is now a mix of Martínez and santacoloma stock; El Estoque comprises animals descended from the Marqués de Domecq herd; and Hermanos Quintas Parras is now the basis for pure Martínez blood.
As I’ve been putting this article together, Morante’s encerrona with Prieto de la Cal bulls at El Puerto de Santa María has taken place and, sadly, fulfilled my earlier prophesy (see ‘Morante widens his scope’). From investigating the Quintas brothers’ Vicente Martínez descendants, it would appear that, were Morante de la Puebla to take on these bulls, it would require some significant advance planning and be an even bigger gamble on the matador’s part.