One person who had thought about it, obviously, was Angelita herself, the daughter of a Spanish policeman, who had campaigned almost three years to overturn a law prohibiting women from performing as matadors. Seriously gored three times while fighting bulls in South America, she is no stranger to the dangers of the corrida. "I saw death close up three times," she says, "and it's the ugliest thing I know. But that's one of the risks of this profession."
The youngest of six children, she saw her first bullfight at the age of 9 in her native seaside city of Alicante. Soon she was practicing matador's moves with any of her friends who would consent to play bull. But by the time she was 13 both her parents had died of leukemia, and Angelita had to drop out of school. Working in a cannery, tilling the fields, selling potato chips on the beach—none of it dulled her passion for bullfighting. She would sneak into corridas whenever she could, and once even leaped into the ring to show her skill. Practicing on her own with a cape and muleta, she eventually drifted into movies as a stuntwoman. Only last summer she was hurling herself off horses in an Alain Delon film shooting near Madrid.
Rebuffed repeatedly when she tried to obtain a bullfight in Spain, Angelita kept up her fight in the courts. Meanwhile, she was befriended by famed matador Manuel Benítez ("El Cordobés"), now retired, and his wily manager Paco Ruiz. Under Ruiz's deft prodding, more than 100 top matadors, managers and bull breeders—all with an eye on bullfighting's waning appeal at the box office—petitioned the government on Angelita's behalf.
Eventually the government yielded. But sadly, at her debut in Jerez de los Caballeros last month, Angelita's skills did not match her persistence. Although she was assigned a small, young bull with partially clipped horns—"a goat," sniffed one purist—she badly botched the fight. Managing to get off a few good passes, she more frequently seemed uncertain and fearful. Once, after the bull turned quickly, she was forced to hide behind the protective fence that encircles the ring. When it finally came time for the kill, Angelita hacked away at the unfortunate beast repeatedly, requiring some 20 sword thrusts to finish him off. Predictably, there was little sympathy for Angelita from many of Spain's macho fans. "If they're going to have a woman in the ring," muttered one ex-bullfighter disdainfully, "they'd better get another woman."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
