Morante de la Puebla will make his fifth Paseíllo in Seville this year, on September 27 at the San Miguel Fair. This was announced by the Lances de Futuro company, which had left a spot free on that day’s lineup pending the decision made by the Sevillian right-hander.
Morante has not even waited for the end of the April Fair, and forty-eight hours after his resounding triumph last Thursday he has been included in the lineup scheduled for the end of September: Garcigrande bulls, the same cattle breeder from last Easter Sunday, along with the bulls Daniel Luque and Borja Jiménez.
The Sevillian right-hander reappeared on Easter Sunday in Seville after his frustrated withdrawal on October 12 in Las Ventas. He returned on Thursday, and will do the parade again tomorrow, Monday, April 20, and on June 4, the Corpus Christi holiday, which would fulfill the four commitments signed with the businessman José María Garzón, and now he adds the September celebration.
This is an unmistakable sign of the good spirits of the bullfighter, who has already signed a good number of celebrations for this season and has hurriedly signed up to close the season in La Maestranza, waiting for it to finally be included in Madrid in the bullfight on October 12.
By the way, there is still controversy – and also confusion – about his frustrated exit on his shoulders through the Puerta del Príncipe after his triumph described as historic against a bull by Álvaro Núñez, from which he could not cut the maximum trophies due to failing with the sword.
Having dragged the last bull, a large group of young fans grabbed the bullfighter with the intention of taking him out through the glorious door from which the Guadalquivir River can be seen, but the National Police prevented them from leaving the ring that way during a struggle that lasted no less than five minutes.
What happened during that time? Why was the exit prevented and who gave the order not to open the door?
Let’s face it, with the Bullfighting Regulations of Andalusia in our hands, it was not possible to comply with the wishes of the exalted fans who carried their idol.
Article 56 is clear in this regard: “The exit on shoulders through the large or most important door of the bullring will only be allowed when the sword or rejoneador has obtained at least two ears in the fight of one or two cattle, unless the custom of the bullring has higher requirements. However, in the first category bullrings, two ears must be cut off from the same bull to allow the sword or rejoneador to exit on the shoulders through the big or main door.”
No one would have been surprised if Morante came out through the Puerta del Príncipe since he had raised the greatness of the party to the highest level.
Morante had not cut any ears in a square, furthermore, where it is customary that three people have to walk to exit through the Puerta del Príncipe. Of course, it is no less true that it was a special situation, a historical performance, as has been written, an anthology of the history of bullfighting, a bullfighting upheaval that has shaken the foundations of bullfighting.
This being the case, no one would have been surprised if Morante had received the highest honors, since he had raised the greatness of the festival to the highest level. But it wasn’t like that. Someone prevented such a historic event from happening.
The only person who could make such a decision was the president of the celebration, Macarena de Pablo Romero, the highest authority at that time, who declared in an interview on Canal Sur, the Andalusian regional television, that no one had consulted her on this matter, when it was she, without any consultation, who should put order.
Apparently, during the tense struggle between the fans and the forces of public order, Morante’s representative, Pedro Jorge Marques, approached the delegate of the Government of the Junta de Andalucía in Seville and bullfighting official in the province, Ricardo Sánchez, present in the alley, and asked him if there was any problem with his bullfighter leaving through the Puerta del Príncipe, and Sánchez replied that there was none. Time passes and the door does not open, and when the procession gives up and heads towards the group group, Marques reproaches Sánchez for his inhibition with harsh words.
But who finally makes the decision? It was not the Real Maestranza or the National Police, which lack any jurisdiction in this regard; Everything seems to indicate that it was Sánchez himself, advised by the other two presidents of the Sevillian plaza, Gabriel Fernández Rey and José Luque Teruel, also present in the alley, and in the absence of Pablo Romero’s Macarena, who had already left the box.
In the end, Morante de la Puebla, on the shoulders of his fans, walked out through the so-called main door, through which the bullfighters enter and leave in La Maestranza.
The exit through the Puerta del Príncipe would have been contrary to the regional regulations, but what happened in the arena was also contrary to all human work. Surely, despite his failures with the sword, Morante had earned to see the Guadalquivir on his shoulders.