![]() ![]() There haven't been many bullfighters from Tijuana, especially because of that. ![]() "And everything is so different farther south. "I grew up with Halloween and Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny," he says. Outraged parents called his mom to complain. John's Episcopal School for bringing the ears of a bull he'd killed into class for show and tell. In the fourth grade, he said, he was almost expelled from St. Some young Mexicans look north for a future. Learning about the corrida, the Spanish word for bullfight, gave him a connection with the country he left behind. Top 10 Bullfighting Aficionado ExperiencesĪs a boy, Amaya felt lodged between two cultures.I'm going to hear their music."Ī: Their fees are negotiated by agents and promoters, but the top matadors, such as El Juli, who is generally considered the best in the world, can make more than $75,000 an appearance. If you're going to a country where bullfighting is part of their culture, you have to go see it not as in I'm going to see a show but I'm going to see something that's part of them. And, when you go, I always tell people, you have to look at it in the point of view of: say you're going to Russia, you want to go see the Kremlin. I just think if you don't like it, you don't have to see it. Matador Alejandro Amaya: "Bullfighting is so primitive that people love it or hate it. Veda Stram with The Animal's Voice: "I think it's absolutely cruel, and I think it's a decadent kind of entertainment. Few things in the world spark such a difference of opinion.Ĭonsider these two when making up your own mind: If he played baseball, he would be considered a major leaguer, though not an MVP candidate.Ī: That depends. Q: Is Amaya one of the top fighters in the world?Ī: Yes. In Mexico, where there haven't been many stars to capture the imagination the past few years, the bullfight is struggling. This ain't the American League Central.Ī: In Spain, the bullfight thrives. There is no arc it is a never-ending circle. ![]() They hurt.Ī: Bullfighting goes year-round, moving all over the world. Year round, the young man packs up the swords and the capes and goes after the bulls. An hour ago, he'd been training on his mentor's ranch, a sprawling time machine owned by 57-year-old Eloy Cavazos, who is Mexico's real-life Rocky Balboa.įighting bulls means the matador lives in the future and the past, moving from the new to the old and back again. The Monterrey skyline towers in the distance, the Mercedes making its way back into a modern world. Maybe he's proving something to his critics, or to himself. He's pushed in front of those bulls by something else, something not even his friends can put their finger on. He has movie-star good looks, with long slender fingers and delicate lashes above his blue eyes. Fifty or more times this year, he'll risk it all in a ring. He's fought with his heart broken, with his ribs broken, hurt so bad he could barely breathe. Ritual is the first thing to go in a frantic life. Now he fights too often, all over the world, to make the trip. When his career was still new, he'd carry any trophies he won to the statue of Christ near the top of one of them. He shakes it off, looking at the mountains to his left. Alejandro Amaya rarely sleeps well, often haunted by dreams where he is chased by rampaging bulls. ![]()
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