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"The Capital of the World" is a short story by American writer Ernest Hemingway. The story takes place in Madrid and follows Paco, a young waiter apprentice, and his desire to become a matador.
The story opens in a hotel called the Pension Luarca in Calle San Jeronimo. The main source of residency in the cheap hotel is a group of second-rate bullfighters, who, for the most part, were all great at some point, but some obstacle or circumstance has ended their careers with no likely hope in sight. Of the bullfighter residents in the hotel there is one banderillero, two picadors, and three matadors. The other main characters in the story are three waiters, all with different things they plan to do the evening the story is set. Also included is the dish washer Enrique, who contributes to the story's tragic end.
The work has a back story for each character telling his or her almost consistently sad tale. Of the three matadors, one has prematurely ended his career because of being badly mauled in the ring, and is now afraid to go back in. The second one has done nothing to himself to hurt his career, but is constantly ill, only making appearances out of his room for meals. Finally, the third matador’s career has ended because his once original routine has grown old and people have lost interest.
The other toreros' stories do not display quite so much detail. One of the picadors drinks himself into a stupor every night, while the other is a large man who rarely gets work with a matador for very long due to his argumentative nature. The banderillero is a middle-aged man who, unlike most of the others at the hotel, still has a sufficient amount of promise. The other characters who come to the attention of the reader later in the evening have stories as well, especially Paco, the waiter apprentice from Extramadura. The three waiters, all with different thoughts on their mind, prepare to serve dinner in the dining room.
The first waiter finds himself anxious to leave early for the anarcho-syndicalist political meeting later that night, so Paco agrees to cover for him so that he may leave early. The second waiter, a middle aged man, has no real plans for the evening other than to serve tables. Finally, there is Paco, a boy who aspires to become a bullfighter like the people he serves at the restaurant.
After the dining hours come to a close and people start leaving, Paco and the middle-aged worker head back to the kitchen and start drinking a bottle of wine with Enrique, the dish washer. After the middle-aged man leaves, Enrique starts talking to Paco about how dangerous bullfighting is, but Paco insists that he wants to be a bullfighter someday. So to prove his point, Enrique gets a chair and puts knives on it, charging at Paco as a bull would. Paco dodges the knives at first, but after he cheats death several times, a knife pierces his leg, severing the femoral artery. He soon dies, his head "full of illusions".
First published in Esquire in June 1936 as "The Horns of the Bull", it was changed to its present title in the short story collection The Fifth Column and the First Forty-Nine Stories , published in 1938. [1]
A bullfighter is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. Torero or toureiro, both from Latin taurarius, are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter, and describe all the performers in the activity of bullfighting as practised in Spain, Portugal, Mexico, Peru, France, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and other countries influenced by Portuguese and Spanish culture. The main performer and leader of the entourage in a bullfight, and who finally kills the bull, is addressed as maestro (master), or with the formal title matador de toros. The other bullfighters in the entourage are called subalternos and their suits are embroidered in silver as opposed to the matador's gold. They include the picadores, rejoneadores, and banderilleros.
The Sun Also Rises is the first novel by the American writer Ernest Hemingway. It portrays American and British expatriates who travel from Paris to the Festival of San Fermín in Pamplona and watch the running of the bulls and the bullfights. An early modernist novel, it received mixed reviews upon publication. Hemingway biographer Jeffrey Meyers writes that it is now "recognized as Hemingway's greatest work" and Hemingway scholar Linda Wagner-Martin calls it his most important novel. The novel was published in the United States in October 1926 by Scribner's. A year later, Jonathan Cape published the novel in London under the title Fiesta. It remains in print.
Juan Belmonte García was a Spanish bullfighter. He fought in a record number of bull fights and was responsible for changing the art of bullfighting. He had minor deformities in his legs which forced him to design new techniques and styles of bullfighting.
The Story of Ferdinand (1936) is the best-known work by the American author Munro Leaf. Illustrated by Robert Lawson, the children's book tells the story of a bull who would rather smell flowers than fight in bullfights. He sits in the middle of the bull ring failing to take heed of any of the provocations of the matador and others to fight. The Story of Ferdinand was published in 1936 by Viking Books. Later, after the Spanish Civil War, it was viewed as having a political agenda. During World War II, the British Air Transport Auxiliary started flying into Europe after D-Day and their pilots, who were non-combatants, used Ferdinand the Bull as their call sign. The book has been adapted into two films, the 1938 animated short Ferdinand the Bull and the 2017 animated feature film Ferdinand.
Rafael Guerra Bejarano was born in Cordoba. He was a professional Spanish bullfighter who achieved fame during the 1890s. His uncle, José "Pepete" Damaso Rodriguez Rodriguez, also a professional bullfighter, was killed in Madrid by a bull called Jocinero, on March 6, 1862. In 1878 he started a long apprenticeship as banderillero (banderilla-man) and second swordsman. He became a full bullfighter on September 29, 1887, in Madrid. His sponsor (apoderado) was the bullfighter "Lagartijo" Rafael Molina). On that occasion "Guerrita" said "I trust rather the benevolence of the public than my own merits and will try to fulfil my task by doing my best".
Sidney Franklin was the first American to become a successful matador, the most senior level of bullfighter.
El Fandi is statistically one of the most skilled matadors in the world. Currently, he is ranked number one among all bullfighters in Spain.
Alfonso Enrique Ponce Martínez, also known as Enrique Ponce, is a Spanish bullfighter.
Spanish-style bullfighting is a type of bullfighting that is practiced in several Spanish-speaking countries: Spain, Mexico, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, as well as in parts of southern France and Portugal. In Colombia it has been outlawed but is being phased out with a full ban coming in effect in 2027. This style of bullfighting involves a physical contest with humans attempting to publicly subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull. The most common bull used is the Spanish Fighting Bull, a type of cattle native to the Iberian Peninsula. This style of bullfighting is seen to be both a sport and performance art. The red colour of the cape is a matter of tradition – bulls are color blind. They attack moving objects; the brightly-colored cape is used to mask blood stains.
"The Undefeated" is a short story by Ernest Hemingway and first published in the German magazine Der Querschnitt. It was featured later in Hemingway's 1927 story collection, Men Without Women. The story deals with an ageing bullfighter’s return to the sport after an injury.
Antonio Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez is a Spanish torero or bullfighter.
Bullfighting is a physical contest that involves a bullfighter attempting to subdue, immobilize, or kill a bull, usually according to a set of rules, guidelines, or cultural expectations.
Fiesta is a 1947 American Technicolor musical drama film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Esther Williams, Ricardo Montalbán, Mary Astor and Cyd Charisse. It was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The screenplay was written by George Bruce and Lester Cole.
The traje de luces is the traditional clothing that Spanish bullfighters wear in the bullring. The term originates from the sequins and reflective threads of gold or silver. These trajes are based on the flamboyant costumes of the 18th-century dandies and showmen involved in bullfighting, which later became exclusive to the bullfighting ritual. Later adornments include the montera hat, more elaborate embroidery, and decorative accessories.
Le petit picador jaune is an oil on wood painting by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, which he created in 1889 at the age of eight. It is considered to be the earliest known surviving work by the artist. The painting is a colourful representation of a Spanish bullfight, a subject which Picasso repeatedly returned to throughout his career.
Ferdinand the Bull is a 1938 American stand-alone animated short produced by Walt Disney Productions and released on November 25, 1938, by RKO Radio Pictures. It was directed by Dick Rickard and based on the 1936 book The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf. The music was by Albert Hay Malotte, most known for his setting of The Lord's Prayer, commonly sung at weddings.
Paco Cano Lorenza, also known as Canito, was a Spanish photojournalist from Valencia, who specialized in torero photography.
José María Dols Abellán, known professionally as José Mari Manzanares was a Spanish bullfighter, son of the banderillero Pepe Dols and father of José María Dols Samper, likewise a bullfighter.
Francisco Camino Sánchez, known in the bullfighting world as Paco Camino, was a Spanish bullfighter and bull breeder. A bullfighter of the highest order, he dominated tauromachy and was twelve times borne shoulder-high out through the Great Gate at Las Ventas in Madrid, a record bested only by Santiago Martín Sánchez.
Joaquín Rodríguez Ortega, professionally known as Cagancho, was a Spanish bullfighter much of whose career was spent in Mexico, although he did sometimes perform in his native Spain, and one of his performances there, in Almagro, Ciudad Real in 1927 even gave rise to a now well known expression in the Spanish language. Rodríguez also found himself appraised in English when he and his craft were described by Ernest Hemingway in his non-fiction work Death in the Afternoon, along with many other Spanish bullfighters of the early 20th century.