Celebrating the Legacy of Chicuelo: A New Book on the History of Bullfighting

“Amazement and fodder for scholars.” This is how he defines David Gonzalez Romerodoctor in Literature and Communication from the University of Seville (US), to Manuel Jiménez Moreno, a bullfighter who went down in history with the name Chicuelo and of which this Wednesday the Royal Cavalry Mastery has hosted the presentation of the book that glosses his bullfighting figure.

With the title of Chicuelo, the art of inventingthis work, coordinated by Diego Carrasco Fernandez and sponsored by the noble institution, it focuses on the important contribution that the Sevillian bullfighter makes to the art of bullfighting. A contribution that, according to González Romero, highlighted in his intervention, has barely been taken into account among the different books on the history of bullfighting.

González Romero has begun the presentation of the book with the figure of Chicuelo as the “precursor” of a new way of bullfighting that has reached the present day. An importance ignored for a long time. “The precursor to being one has to go unnoticed,” stressed the doctor in Literature and Communication who has used the expression on several occasions “astonishment and pasture of scholars” to refer to this transcendence about which so little has been written until the appearance of the aforementioned book.

“The creator of harmony”

“He was the creator of drawing and harmony in loose steps. He introduced cadence into bullfighting. In Chicuelo we find inner rhythms that no one can do without,” said the presenter, who has elaborated on other contributions from this bullfighter with more than a century of history.

“Manolete would be the hero, but the agitator who adapted bullfighting to an assembly was Chicuelo,” has defended González Romero, who has also pointed out about the bullfighter that, unlike what happened with Gallo and Belmonte, “he did not live in any era.” “specificity of bullfighting.” Of course, he is the bullfighter who has “a larger collection of photos.”

The presentation of the new book concluded with a forceful statement about this literary novelty, which has already become an essential work in the history of bullfighting. “With this book, Chicuelo goes from being the precursor to the inventor of the bullfighting that we see in the bullring today”. A figure, therefore, that must still be talked about in the present.

The Journal of Bullfighting Studies

The event, which took place in the poster hall of the Maestranza bullring, was chaired by the elder brother lieutenant of the Real Maestranza, Santiago de León and Domecq; the count of Peñaflor de Argamasilla, Luis Manuel Halcón and de la Lastra; y Fatima Halcón Álvarez-Ossoriopresident of the board of trustees of the Bullfighting Studies Foundationwho has taken stock of all the scientific and cultural activity carried out last year by said entity.

The event has also served to present number 52 of the Bullfighting Studies Magazinewhich was written by the critic Francisco March Celayaa Catalan who defends his status as a bullfighter in a community where this cultural festival has been prohibited for years.

2023-11-09 05:46:23
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