‘Toros & Toreros’ Extra (6): Manolo Martínez

My abiding memory of the Mexican matador, Manolo Martínez - perhaps helped by one of my early bullfight photos, taken from from a distance in San Sebastián’s tendido with a primitive camera and not at all clear - is of him giving old-fashioned verónicas, the lead arm held high, to his Antonio Pérez bulls. It was 1969, my second year of attending corridas in Spain, and Martínez was on twice in the feria.

“El Mejicano de Oro”, I wrote, “was in luck with the afternoon’s third bull, with which he performed confidently and elegantly to win an ear (with a strong petition for a second). He impressed with his dominating, old-fashioned (and initially awkward-looking) style.” On his second afternoon, facing bulls of Salustiano Galache, there was “more serene, classic work from the Mexican numero uno, who chose to make the majority of his passes in the centre of an extremely wet and slippery arena. The president received a bronca for not registering the majority petition for an ear off his first toro”. I detected no revolutionary aspect to his toreo; certainly, there was no sign of the figure-of-eight accomplishments which Paco Ojeda was to achieve in the 1980s and which martinistas claimed were first performed by their idol.

In those days, there was a lot of foreign involvement in Spanish feria carteles. That same year, I saw fellow Mexican Antonio Lomelín in action as well, and, two years later, another Mexican, Curro Rivera, and the Colombian El Puno. As the seventies progressed, however, toreo in Spain seemed to become an entirely Spanish affair.

Indeed, although he was to remain active in Mexico for another 21 years, Manolo Martínez’s European presence didn’t last long. He appeared in 48 corridas in Spain and France in 1969, cutting 60 ears and five tails, his biggest successes coming at Mont de Marsan, Santander, Málaga, Bayonne, Béziers, Dax, Aranda de Duero and Talavera de la Reina. In terms of 1st class plazas, he secured two-ear triumphs at Valencia and Nîmes and that single ear at San Sebastián. But he also received three serious cornadas in quick succession, a 15-centimetre goring at the top of his left leg in Bilbao being followed by a piercing of the scrotum in Murcia just over a fortnight later and then a 25-centimetre cornada grave in the right leg whilst killing at Cáceres towards the end of September that closed his European season. A third trajectory was not identified in the infirmary and Manolo had to be rushed to Madrid for an operation to save his leg.

The following year, again under Chopera’s management in Europe, Martínez made just 14 appearances (returning to Mexico in between May and August), this time taking in Madrid, where he cut a single ear from two San Isidro corridas, but largely disappointed the capital’s taurine critics. A third corrida he was due to appear in during the feria was cancelled. Triumphs followed at Palma de Mallorca and Málaga, before he cut short his temporada after appearing without success in Bilbao, more or less turning his back on appearances on this side of the Atlantic. The reason, it seems, was the contrast between his treatment in Latin America and in Spain. At Palma de Mallorca in 1969, for instance, just before the paseíllo, the Guardia Civil asked the matador to produce his passport and identification papers! It was also claimed the Mexican used an extendable palillo in order to widen his muleta and keep the bulls at a distance from him. Securing satisfactory contracts, even with Chopera behind him, often required a great deal of negotiation. It’s important to remember this was still Franco’s Spain, with its memories of how Mexico sided with the Republic during the Civil War and the dictatorship’s control over the country’s publications, including the bullfight weekly El Ruedo.

In the years that followed, Manolo Martínez - and, indeed, the bullfight scene in Mexico where Manolo held sway - was regularly denigrated by the Spanish taurine press. Although he fought single corridas at Marbella in 1974 (a mano a mano with Paco Camino) and in Sevilla’s 1978 Feria de Abril, on each occasion facing Carlos Núñez bulls, both festejos were unremarkable - he cut one ear in Marbella - and the criticism continued. He retired from bullfighting after a successful encerrona in Plaza México in 1982, but returned five years later for further extensive Mexican temporadas before finally calling it a day in March 1990. He died in 1996 in California, where he was being treated for liver cancer. Some say this was triggered by hepatitis following treatment for a cornada: others that the illness arose from Manolo’s occasional heavy drinking. Right to the end of his life, there was divided opinion.

This ‘Extra’ series covers toreros not featured in Tristan’s new book ‘Toros & Toreros’, which looks at the last 50 years of bullfighting and contains memories and photographs of more than 60 toreros and over 11 ganaderías.