How future bullfighting stars grow

Bullfighting is a popular entertainment not only for hot Spaniards, but also for numerous tourists from all over the world. But few people think about where the bullfighters get that grace with which they leave the horns of an angry bull. We will tell about it.

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1. Despite the fact that the number of children and adolescents who learn the basics of bullfighting in Spain is measured in thousands, the profession of a bullfighter is considered rather dynastic. That is, the future rulers of the arena do their first exercises with a red rag in their very early childhood at home under the strict supervision and instructions of their father, a former matador, who most likely ended his career due to an injury.

2. And this is precisely the first step in becoming a future favorite of the public - everything else comes later, through training and regular practice, which, however, turn out to be powerless if the child has no talent. And the best confirmation of these words can be the experience of Jairo Miguel Sanchez, the rising star of the Spanish bullfight. An experience that vividly illustrates the process of climbing a torero almost from the cradle.

3. Having received the first knowledge at home, the young bullfighter continues his studies at bullfighting schools - here he develops a base under the strict guidance of highly experienced retired matadors who pass on their knowledge to the younger generation. Of the nearly five dozen such institutions, the Royal Academy in Seville is considered the best in the country, where Jairo Miguel Sanchez also studied. All schools that train bullfighters are funded by the state, the number of students in each is about one and a half hundred boys and even girls, ages are from eight to fourteen years. Bullfighting in Spain is not considered a sport, so visiting specialized educational institutions only in your free time from school - youthful bullfighting is more of an interest section, and most of the students studying it will choose other specialties and will visit the arena exclusively as spectators.

4. The game form of practical training and the experience of teachers make the bullfighting school extremely popular among Spanish children. It may seem that in the course of training, retired bullfighters do nothing but spin around students with horns in their hands (the only thing missing is shouting “I gore!”) Or roll a banderilla on children - a special simulator, which is a wheeled wheelbarrow with a head model bull. In fact, everything turns out to be much more subtle. In order to succeed in the arena, the bullfighter cannot be content with just the fact of killing the bull - he must crank out the whole performance, shining with good technique, standing out with courage and giving all the best emotionally.

5. For all its seeming simplicity, learning the art of bullfighting includes not only specialized knowledge, learning how to handle a muleta and a sword, but also elements of choreography, acrobatics and even acting. As the famous Spanish bullfighting bull breeder Juan Pedro Domec once said, a bullfighter is an actor who does not have a script, which is why he is obliged to improvise all the time.

6. The term of study at the bullfighting school is four years. And only at the end of the course, young bullfighters can take part in amateur performances, only stylistically reminiscent of adult fights. Meanwhile, Jairo Miguel Sanchez plunged his first bull with a sword at the age of ten, for which his parents received a fine of three thousand euros.

7. In Spain, it is officially allowed to take part in traditional bullfighting only from the age of sixteen, and unofficially - even from the age of majority, only an exceptionally talented and popular bullfighter can enter the sand of the arena earlier. And this popularity and its basis - the experience accumulated by years of practice - can only be obtained in battles with bulls. Therefore, the parents of the most promising guys, who have already decided to link their fate with bullfighting, drop everything and go with the future stars of cruel entertainment to Mexico, where you can enter the arena at any age. So Jairo Miguel Sanchez turned professional at the age of eleven.

8. And this is not the limit of the minimum. Mexican bullfighting prodigy Michel Lagraver, nicknamed Michelito, the son of a famous French bullfighter, held his first full bullfight, killing half a dozen bulls on the spot in front of four thousand spectators in the town of Mérida, at the age of ten. The first bull in public fell from his hand, and at all when the boy was nine, and in the year that separated these two events, he took part in a good hundred competitions. And it is for this experience, which cannot be replaced by training, that future bullfighting stars from all over Spain come to Mexico.

9. Many are concerned about such a young age of the participants. First, children are in serious danger. Michel Lagraver received his first injuries at the age of thirteen - at a Sunday fair in Mexico City, a bull kicked him in the chest and sent him to the hospital with a serious injury. Jairo Miguel Sanchez was stabbed in the lung by a bull, nearly piercing his heart, when he was only fifteen. Secondly, children mercilessly kill bulls, but the young bullfighters have one answer to all public objections through the mouth of Michelito: “No one can stop my fight. I just want to be able to fight the bulls. I was born a bull slayer, and that is how I will die!”

10. Everything is quieter and calmer in the south of France, where bullfighting is, of course, less common than in Spain or Latin America, but still enjoys some popularity.

11. Solalu and Nimo, ordinary boys living in the city of Nimes, at their twelve and ten years, respectively, the exploits and defeats of their peers in the Mexican arenas can only dream of. Here they are just slightly strange children with unusual hobbies - while their peers are chasing a soccer ball through the streets and hanging posters with Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo on the walls, they are waving a muleta in the yard and decorating their rooms with posters with Spanish bullfighting stars. Which they are unlikely to become, because the circle in the local arena, although good by local standards, is not on par with the Royal Academy in Seville, and the French age restrictions are even tougher than the Spanish ones. They may not conquer Las Ventas, but they have the main thing - this is the same artistic passion of genuine bullfighters.