A Sunday Walk With His Daughter, Before A Substitute Matador Steps In Against Five Bulls.
A sobresaliente stands by, that’s what he does: he waits, for injury or death to a principal matador. Sometimes, rarely, he enters the fight. But against five bulls?
By Arthur R. George © 2022
On the afternoon of April 10, Palm Sunday 2022, for the opening bullfights of the season in Madrid, las corridas de toros, Alvaro de la Calle strolled from his hotel, the Ibis, on city streets the several blocks to Spain’s premier bullfighting arena, Las Ventas. He wore the traditional clothing of a torero, a matador, his traje de luces, a gold and cinammon “suit of lights.” It was his custom, but as unusual a sight as a professional athlete walking in full uniform to a sports stadium.
He had not expected to fight that day, although he dressed and was prepared as if he might. With him was his wife, and he held the hand of his eight-year-old daughter, Triana. De la Calle and Triana usually enter Las Ventas ar the patio de cuadrilla, the area inside arena walls where matadors and their assistants gather and prepare. They go to the chapel there, and when de la Calle finishes praying, he kisses her and she rejoins her mother in the arena.
By the end of the day, when they retraced their steps back to the hotel, the front of his attire, which usually remains clean and unmarked, would be blooded from five bulls he had slain.
De la Calle is a sobresaliente, literally an “outstanding,” a substitute, whose task is to stand by if needed to replace a principal bullfighter who cannot continue due to injury, or death. On Palm Sunday the featured matador Emilio de Justo was hit by the first in a series of six bulls de Justo was to have fought. As de Justo stabbed the bull, the bull caught him and flipped him headfirst into the sand, and then struck him in the head again, breaking bones in the torero’s neck and back.
De Justo could not continue with the balance of the program. De la Calle was summoned off the bench from the alley around the ring to confront the next five bulls, to substitute in a trial that even few principals dare ever undertake for themselves, and a sobresaliente would be unlikely to encounter. Nevertheless, the fights, five of them, fell to de la Calle.
Most matadors fight only two bulls in a standard program; six is infrequent and multiplies the danger, although this year three matadors signed up for the challenge that was once rare. Bullfight journalist Anthony Lorca of El Pais questioned the “various and sometimes unspeakable reasons” such calendars are structured, inferring matadors are lured into such events for calculated business purposes, some to seek glory, some just to keep working.
Lorca speculated that some corridas may frame a matador against overwhelming odds or even mediocre bulls as a reason to impose banishment upon promotional favoritism if the fight disappoints. Matchmaking and manipulation of rankings in American boxing; and the gaming of other contracts, trades, depth charts, holdouts, benchings, backups, understudies, and eternities spent in minor leagues as in the baseball movie “Bull Durham,” may be similar reference points.
TAKING A GAMBLE
Emilio de Justo had been enticed by a place in the history of corridas by daring to fight six bulls in a single day. Unsatisfied by merely being in the top rank of matadors, he wanted more. The challenge was audacious, even sensational. Las Ventas, with almost 24,000 seats, was sold out for a solo corrida for the first time since 2015. De Justo did not anticipate being taken down by the first animal, and he had fought it well until it came at him.
De Justo had become a star after years in obscurity, a matador since 2007 but with only 40 fights over the next eleven years. He traveled to Colombia and then France in a long passage to keep his career alive. He returned to Spain and became more recognized after victories in Las Ventas in 2018, and a string of acclaimed appearances in 2021.
De la Calle had not expected to inherit de Justo’s gamble. De la Calle is 48 years old, born in 1974, a full matador himself, although he works mostly as a sobresaliente. He took his alternativa in 1999, a graduation from apprentice-like novillero status, then was wholly confirmed at Las Ventas in 2006.
Like de Justo, only more so, he struggled for placement. He had only 27 fights in 23 years, his last major fight in Giron, France in 2011, more than a decade ago. He had not even actually fought as a substitute since 2013 when two principals were injured and he took over. He had not been fought on his own since 2016, and even then in a small ring in Mallorca off the Spanish Mediterranean coast and then abroad in Peru.
TAKING CHARGE
An audience lurks “as vigilant and hungry as a predator waits for the slightest weakness.“
When de Justo went down, de la Calle had to take charge not only of the bulls, but also the audience upon the headliner’s exit and the predicament of this unknown replacement. Bullfighting is a spectacle, performed within a celebratory fiesta, and requires skill, but is neither a sport nor a game. Its supporters explain it as a ritual drama emerging out the Spanish character, in which death historically was always nearby. It symbolizes everyman’s mortality, drawing death close in an intimate dance and sending it away, if only for awhile, in the tragic sacrifice of the bull. The matador too is a sacrificial representative.
Matadors who challenge the standard order may be rejected if their performances are not sufficiently grand. They may be scorned as brazen, excessively prideful, or not delivering as expected. Some perform weakly, or crumble mentally under the pressure. The audience may lurk “as vigilant and hungry as the predator waits for the slightest weakness of its unsuspecting prey,” wrote journalist Lorca.
Before de la Calle met his first bull, he placed his montera, the black lambswool bullfighter’s cap, at the door of the infirmary in respect for his wounded compatriot de Justo, part of bullfighting culture. He held firm as he entered the arena, which he said was key to establishing himself before the crowd. The sobresaliente is part of the paseíllo processional into the arena with the matador, with mounted picadors and caped banderilleros assistants who prepare the bull for the fight with lances and barbed darts.
Because he always regards the procession as if he were going to fight, he said that his mind was already prepared. He tried not to show any nervousness, instead presenting himself with the demeanor of a professional, slowly releasing the rush of adrenaline to be serene and calm, his mind centered. Other matadors observed that he remained fresh for successive bulls, each animal drawn from separate farms and presenting different characteristics. De la Calle said that came from maturity. Despite having barely fought throughout his career, he had learned much from being close to the action.
SELF-KNOWLEDGE
While the substitute does not wish injury upon the principal, he knows that his own opportunity for recognition comes only through such harm. There is often a huge gap between the skills of a substitute and the responsibility they inherit. They may not perform frequently enough for optimal skills, but they must be competent. If they are dropped by a bull, and there are no replacements behind them, the show is over. De la Calle is known to be reliable. In 2019 when the renowned but reclusive Jose Tomas emerged for four bulls in Granada, de la Calle was his only reserve swordsman.
He said he tried to empty himself as a bullfighter and leave nothing behind, but had to stay within the circumstances of the afternoon, with dignity and respect, so as not to revel upon de Justo’s misfortune, nor to exceed his own limitations. He refrained from grand flourishes, staying within his fighting style he defines as serious and classic, “a bit cold and dry.” He displayed the vocabulary of his craft, initially with cautious hesitancy, and some rust, but grew more comfortable with successive animals.
Some criticized him for not having done more, passing up a chance to launch into a greater career trajectory. Had he fought more flamboyantly, with greater management of the bulls, he might have been granted trophy ears of the defeated bulls by the president of the event. Without those, he was denied the grand exit from the arena’s main door, a potentially life-changing tribute reserved for the most acclaimed performances.
However, reporter Pablo Lopez Rioboo of the Madrid bullfighting publication Culturo wrote that to have expected a substitute to perform at the same levels as a featured matador would be mistaken. The worlds are as different as they are parallel.
The fourth and best bull of the afternoon, from the fine breeding ranch of Victoriano del Rio, had given de la Calle trouble, even as de la Calle sought to display the bull’s best attributes. Even in its death, the president directed tribute to the the bull, its body drawn behind a team of mules in a final honored circuit around the arena.
The audience, however, as reported by other European journalists, had seen “this anonymous and diminutive bullfighter” as heroic, fighting against the impairment of limits and fears accumulated over the years of dubious waiting. He was overcoming his own faults and lack of experience. They forgave his clumsiness even, with his passion and dedication to the fight. He was the substitute for all their own vulnerabilities. They awarded him with resounding shouts of “Ole!” He gave back by kneeling the sand, offering himself up bravely and humbly to invite and discharge the attack of the final bull.
De la Calle knew what he had accomplished, and dismissed the “sour milk” of critics. He said he other matadors commended him, and counselled contentment with self-knowledge of what he had achieved. It could have been a failure for all; particularly, he had saved the box office for the promoters.
Even without the grand exit, he said he felt respected by the demanding fans of Madrid, and saw proof in that most stayed for the duration of his efforts. He believed that the audience recognized his performance as serious and true. The French newspaper Midi Libre stated that even if de la Calle’s performance did not radically change his career, in twenty years’ time he will be remembered for the day’s dignity, courage, and merit.
De la Calle acknowledged that the day’s success alone, replacing the fallen star de Justo, would not immediately transform him into an equal of the top tier of matadors, yet he hopes for more acknowledgement. De Justo is recovering from his serious injuries, and plans a return. Pablo Lopez Rioboo of Culturo saw de la Calle’s greatest triumph in the affection and recognition of a plaza that empathized with a bullfighter who never gave up or yielded to disillusionment. The torero’s greatest virtue, Rioboo wrote, is the ability not to lose hope, “that flame that continues to burn despite adversity.”
WANTING MORE
Economics had directed de la Calle to the path of sobresaliente as a way to remain visible, but once one steps into that role there is often little consideration for more. There are more numerous certified matadors than available fights. A star system and other financial considerations dictate assignments. Booking companies knew of his skills, he said, but he had not granted prominence, and then never understood why he had been forgotten as a matador and consigned as a sobresaliente.
It haunted him, but he accepted it, and tried to overcome it with training and dedication to a dream that one day a door would open for him. To a television interviewer who probed more deeply, de la Calle dismissed further exploration with the admission: “Look, it’s difficult, right?”
De la Calle never abandoned that dream, even after dozens of afternoons when his uniform was as clean at the end of the day as at the beginning. Many wondered why he continued. Observing serious bulls at close range while standing by kept him aware of the constant possibility that he might be needed. Although he has fought little, he always maintained a hope and confidence that his life would change, that one day opportunity would come, and he had to be ready for that moment.
Some substitutes chase an illusory fantasy, never realized, that they may someday step up in grade. De la Calle is encouraged by the example of other matadors who triumphed late into their careers. He believes that just as their time came after years of waiting, favor could still come to him. However he acknowledges the difficulty to “turn the tables” without more platforms to display his skills.
De la Calle explained to the newspaper of his hometown Salamanca that the figure of the sobresaliente has not always been recognized or well-valued. He had tried to bring dignity to the role, even amid a bias that pigeonholes the substitute. Now his hope is to not spend another 12 or 15 years standing still and not fighting, to emerge out of what he calls the dark world of bullfighting. He is a bullfighter, he proclaims, and what he wants is to fight.
THE JOURNEY RESUMES
His success with the Las Ventas bulls did earn him steps toward reclamation: highlighted as a principal for a small ring in Cuellar, one-fourth the size of Las Ventas, in August, and in September to occupy a reserved spot in Arles, France, held open to acknowledge a special achievement made across the season. He also was hired for additional stand-by contracts behind other matadors’ singlehanded menus of six bulls in May and July, and four bulls between two bullfighters in June.
The July fight was in Pamplona against six Miura bulls which had stampeded through the streets that day in the “Running of the Bulls.” Miuras are considered among the most deadly, and many matadors avoid them altogether, let alone take on six at a time. The principal there, Antonio Ferrera, often specifies de la Calle as his back-up, for his dependability in the event of a breakdown. De la Calle had replaced an injured Ferrera in 2013, saving that day, and Ferrera has not forgotten him. Ferrera fought the Pamplona Miuras on his own, de la Calle standing by, unneeded.
His pay for fighting five bulls on Palm Sunday was the same as if he had fought none: the sobresaliente is paid the same, about the equivalent of 3500 dollars, for standing by as well as actually fighting. De La Calle had sixteen contracts as a substitute last year but never was needed to intervene; that earned him about $50,000 across the calendar. He also operates a school to educate boys in the taurine arts, developing young novilleros.
De la Calle’s father and brother have been bullfighters, and his family has supported his commitment through the long years. His wife Eva, he said, is a bullfighter’s wife and fully understands his struggle and dedication. The bullfighter who does not fight has no life, he has said, and that keeps him preparing physically and mentally, training every day.
De la Calle’s wife and daughter normally sit overlooking the main doors, the Puerta Grande, and opposite the gate by which bulls enter the ring. From there they had watched everything, the applause of the audience, even the disappointing denial of wins that would have opened that main door. Nevertheless hundreds of spectators surrounded him afterward, with their own congratulations and delaying his departure for hours.
Finally, his wife and daughter received him back. They are the people who have always been with him, he said, and the day belonged to them as well. Together, as after many days before, the three again modestly walked back alone past the brick walls of Las Ventas to their hotel, the boulevards by then dimmed and quiet. Images of their tranquil journey, after the tumult of the day, went viral on Spanish media. De la Calle clasped Triana’s hand, holding her close.
