Cultural events in Las Ventas (2017)
Throughout the season, the presentations of books of bullfighting content in Las Ventas have been a constant in the cultural activity of the Monumental Madrid, being the scenarios chosen the rooms Antonio Bienvenida and José María de Cossío. There were also presentations of posters, tributes to outstanding figures of bullfighting, colloquiums were organized and various prizes were awarded.
Poster presentations
On April 1, the Center for Bullfighting Affairs of the Community of Madrid presented, in a packed Antonio Bienvenida Hall in Las Ventas, the poster for Palm Sunday. At the table were the rancher Victorino Martín, the matadors Alberto Aguilar and Gómez del Pilar, and the manager of Plaza 1, Nacho Lloret. The event was opened by Manuel Ángel Fernández and was moderated by Gloria Sánchez-Grande. Nacho Lloret, manager of Plaza 1, highlighted the company's commitment to the start of the season: "Plaza 1 knows where the Madrid fan is and what it is like. The bull is the basis of everything and to begin with there was no better statement of intentions to do it with a bullfight by Victorino Martín ".
Book presentations
The first presentation took place on April 30, with the book "Chete. The silver man with the soul of gold ", written by Shelly Frape, born in Oxford (England) more than half a century ago, but with a professional life spent between his native country, the United States and France.
The May 16 book was presented "And after Fuentes, nobody?", work of the Colombian writer Nicolás Sampedro Arrubla, although resident in Barcelona from 2003, who from an early age was interested in the investigation and practice of bullfighting, coming to fight without horses.
Edited by Avance Taurino with the collaboration of the Provincial Council of Valencia, on May 17 the book was presented "Taurocultura: A tour of the magic circle of Culture and Bullfighting", written by Enrique Amat and in which there is an extensive review and analysis on the contribution of bullfighting to fields as diverse as literature, film, music and other artistic manifestations.
The Antonio Bienvenida Room was also the setting chosen for the presentation, on May 19, of the book "The Square of a thousand stories", first literary work of José Moreda Maroto, great screenprinter from Valladolid.
The 23 day of May was presented the book "Pepe Luis Vázquez, cult bullfighter", by Carlos Crivell and Antonio Lorca and edited by El Paseo. A text with more than 300 pages through which its authors shed numerous episodes of the professional and human career of this period bullfighter, nicknamed the Socrates of the Sevillian neighborhood of San Bernando, who arrived with "Manolete" at the top of the postwar bullfighting ladder.
The next day, May 24, it was the turn of the book presentation "Chestnut, soul of steel", written by journalist Javier Lorenzo and edited by Círculo Rojo. The work began to take shape in April 2016, after the reappearance of the Salamanca bullfighter Javier Castaño, only 19 days after the right-hander was informed that he had overcome the testicular cancer that he was diagnosed at the beginning of the year.
On Monday 29 May in an event where literature, bulls and flamenco mixed, was presented the book of the painter, sculptor and writer Jesús Cuesta Arana entitled "Juan Belmonte, for the faces of time".
The last of the books presented in the Antonio Bienvenida Room was "The python and the scalpel", the work of Jean-Pierre Scheiner, who for more than three decades has held the medical services of the bullring in Arles (France).
The José María de Cossío Room also served as a setting during the San Isidro Fair for the presentation of two books. The first of them, "The ins and outs of the Festival of the bulls", whose author is Ángel Gómez Cañas “Cañitas”, took place on May 22, and was attended, in addition to its author, by the former Minister of the Interior, José Luis Corcuera. The second book presented, "Half a century of bullfighting in Jerez" journalist Jerónimo Roldán, took place on June 6.
Other cultural and informative events
The May 12, the VI Edition of the "Road to Sales" contest, organized by the company Plaza 1, with the collaboration of the Bullfighting Center of the Community of Madrid. The event was led by Curro Vázquez and Víctor Zabala, artistic director and deputy manager of the company Plaza 1, respectively, and Manuel Ángel Fernández Mateo, managing director of the Bullfighting Center of the Community of Madrid.
On the occasion of the fourth anniversary of his death and with the impulse of his widow, María José Delgado, on the 13 day in May, a tribute ceremony was held to the bullfighting artist-ceramist, Alfredo Ruiz de Luna, that during many years shaped his work in tiles and mosaics in different corners of the bullring of Las Ventas.
The figure of "Manolete" and the centenary of his birth was also a reason for the homage celebrated on May 20 by the Bull Ring Friends of the Dynasty Welcome. The event consisted of an interesting lecture by the professor and amateur Rafael Comino Delgado under the title "Manolete: The man and the bullfighter" and the subsequent intervention of Miguel Mejías "Welcome", the former bullfighter Manolo Navarro, Javier Hurtado, TVE bullfighting journalist Jorge Espinosa de los Monteros, president of Bibliophiles Taurinos de México and Juan Lamarca, first vice president of the Circle.
The 21 day in May, the Antonio Bienvenida Room, was also the venue chosen for the delivery of the XIV edition of the trophies "Puerta de Madrid", granted by the Bullfighting Federation of Madrid that counted on the presence of the counselor of Presidency, Justice and Spokesman of Government of the Community of Madrid, Ángel Garrido, and the managing director of the Center of Bullfighting Matters, Manuel Ángel Fernández Mateo.
On 27 day in May, the Mexican Doctor Rafael Vázquez Vayod, chief surgeon of the Mexico bullring, presented the project "Advanced Prehospital Management of injured bulls", and was accompanied in the presentation, among others, by the chief surgeon of the Las Ventas bullring, Dr. Máximo García Padrós.
On Friday 2 in June, the managing director of the Bullfighting Center of the Community of Madrid, Manuel Ángel Fernández Mateo, together with the mayor Alalpardo (Madrid), Miguel Ángel Medranda, the director of the School of Bullfighting of the Community of Madrid " José Cubero Yiyo ", José Pedro Prados" El Fundi ", the manager of Plaza 1, Nacho Lloret, the artistic director of this company, Curro Vázquez, and the journalist Germán Estela, presented the I Bullfighting Campus of the "José Cubero Yiyo" Tauromachy School which was held in Alalpardo between the 3 and 8 days in July.
On June 4 Sunday, Canal Plus Toros commentator, Maxi Pérez, starred in an interesting conference in which, under the title "Julio Robles, my memories" , rescued much of his experiences around the figure of this bullfighter, abulense birth but Salamanca adoption, which became one of the great figures of the ladder of slaughterers in the decades of the seventies and eighties of the last century.
The June 7, awards were handed out "Golden Ear" and "Hierro de Oro" of the 2016 season, which the "Clarín" program of Radio Nacional de España, awards each year.
The cultural and informative events carried out during the San Isidro Fair in the Antonio Bienvenida Room ended on June 17 with a discussion organized by the El Toro Association of MadridIn addition to its president, Roberto García Yuste, the president of the Association of Spanish Bullfighting Bibliophiles, Rafael Cabrera Bonet and the journalist Carlos Ilián. At the event, the development of this long cycle was analyzed, first organized by the new company Plaza 1, just when the Fair has been 70 years since its opening in 1947.
The cultural and informative events in the Sala Cossío began on Saturday May 20 with the live broadcast of the radio program "Al hilo", a space made entirely by young amateurs, without a script or predetermined fixed structure, but always bullfighting. On this occasion, they analyzed, together with the public, the development until then of the San Isidro Fair near the Plaza de Las Ventas.
The same place hosted during the 27 and 28 days of May the celebration of the XVII Bullfighting Congress that annually organizes the Bullfighting Federation of the Community of Madrid.
The second of the days was developed under the title "Bous Week in Algemesí: Fair of novilladas, seed of the future" and it was also attended by Jorge Fajardo, journalist Carlos Bueno, the president of the Algemesí Taurine Commission, Carlos Esquer and the mayor of the town, Marta Trenazano.
On Wednesday 31 of May it was the turn of the presentation of the X Contest of Novilladas without Picadores "Ribera del Tajuña", whose organizers took advantage of the celebration of the San Isidro Fair and the setting of the Cossío Hall to give greater prominence to this contest that is held annually in the Madrid towns of Valdelaguna, Tielmes, Perales de Tajuña, Villarejo de Salvanés, Morata de Tajuña and Valdilecha.
The next day, 1 in June, the business project was presented "Learn from Bulls", idea of José María Ramos who, after a long professional career in the teaching and business world, in addition to being a great fan of the world of bullfighting that has even led him to become a practical fan, has decided to create this project that aims to bring knowledge del toro in its most varied aspects.
