lauramcphee:Matadora Conchita Cintrón, Arles, France1949 (Brassaï)One of the world’s premier rejonea
lauramcphee:Matadora Conchita Cintrón, Arles, France1949 (Brassaï)One of the world’s premier rejoneadores and the most-respected matadora in bullfighting history, Cintrón retired at the age of 27 after a legendary bullfight in Jaén, Spain.In the final moments of this performance, she rode over to the presidente’s box and asked permission to break the Spanish law forbidding a woman from dismounting her horse and fighting the bull on foot. Her request was denied.But instead of peacefully exiting the arena, Cintrón dismounted anyway and rushed the unsuspecting young male understudy assigned to kill her bull. She grabbed his sword and muleta (the small red cape used in the final act of a bullfight) and shocked the crowd by caping the bull and preparing it for the kill. She lined up the animal with the sword and then, in dramatic fashion, let the blade drop to the sand; the bull charged, whereupon Cintrón softly simulated the kill by touching the bull on the shoulders as it thundered by.The audience erupted into cheers, throwing hats and red carnations at her feet. Cintrón walked calmly away from the bull and was arrested at ringside. With the audience on the verge of rioting in protest of her arrest, Cintrón was pardoned and released. It was one of the most dramatic moments in bullfighting history.As Orson Welles, who wrote the introduction to Cintrón’s autobiography, Memoirs of a Bullfighter, concluded, the matadora’s career “ended in a single burst of glorious criminality. You can’t keep a lady waiting forever, and there came an afternoon when she decided that she’d waited long enough.” -- source link
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