The bullfighting season in Seville opens this April 5, Easter Sunday, with a grand poster, headed by Morante de la Puebla as the main protagonist, Andrés Roca Rey and David de Miranda, who will fight bulls from the Salamanca cattle ranch.
Reappears the bullfighter from La Puebla del Río after his imaginary retreat from the past, on that solemn, surprising and emotional afternoon, in which Morante went to the center of the ring, and with his face sad and wrapped in tears, he cut his ponytail to the astonishment of all the spectators.
There were no explanations beyond that “I can’t take it anymore” to the men in his gang; He left on his shoulders through the Puerta Grande, and already at the hotel he expressed his first hint of regret: “I didn’t cut my ponytail, I took it off,” it seems he muttered that night.
Be that as it may, the ceremony of his farewell to bullfighting from the rings; , because one of the geniuses of this unique art was retiring; and for the businessmen, because they lost the great incentive to attract the public to the squares.
The bullfighter cut his ponytail on October 12 in Las Ventas on a solemn, surprising and emotional afternoon
The event produced such a commotion that very few realized that ‘the genius of La Puebla’ is already an expert in farewells and reappearances.
In 2004 he announced in Seville that he was suffering from serious psychological problems, and that he would travel to the United States to undergo electrocompulsive therapy treatment (commonly known as electroshock). That was his first withdrawal.
Three years later, the second, because he had lost his hope after cutting off a single ear in the ring with six bulls in the Madrid Charity Bullfight; the third, “because presidents and veterinarians have bored me”; and suspended his commitments up to three times: , and .
All his temporary withdrawals have been related to the fact that they force him to undergo permanent treatment and that they decisively influence his mood to dress in lights.
He returned to La Maestranza in the after a long and hard medical treatment in Portugal, in the company of his friend and agent Pedro Jorge Marques, and he cut off both ears of a bull belonging to Domingo Hernández, and was chosen as the winner of the Sevillian cycle together with , who left on his shoulders through the Puerta del Príncipe on May 10.
He returned to green his laurels in the two afternoons he had booked at the San Isidro Fair: , in which the erratic handling of the , and the , when he came out on his shoulders through the Puerta Grande for the first time in his career as a matador.
And from San Isidro to the Autumn Fair: second Puerta Grande on October 12 and farewell to the arenas in style.
Six months after that event, the questions remain, all of them wrapped in the absolute silence of its protagonist: why did he decide to retire? What happened that day? Did you have it prepared or was it a momentary outburst? Nothing is known about it.
Morante left in the fall and reappeared in April without the reasons for both decisions being known yet.
Likewise, it is not known what weapons of seduction the new businessman from La Maestranza has used to convince Morante to abandon his retirement and put on the suit of lights again. Special persuasion skills? Sudden nostalgia? A blank check? It is not known.
The only certain thing is that, with permission from the authorities and if the weather does not prevent it, as it says on the signs, at half past six in the afternoon of this Easter Sunday, April 5, the gang door will open, and Morante will step on the yellow albero for another year while the crowded stands will anxiously wait for the genius Uncover your essence jar.
At his side, , an undisputed figure in the current ranks, and David de Miranda from Huelva, revelation of the April Fair of 2025. In the corrals, a Garcigrande bullfight, comfortable with pitons – surely yes – and with high doses of nobility in the guts.
