The Torments Of An Ageing Toreador

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31306, 28 February 1967, Page 22

The Torments Of An Ageing Toreador

<N.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) CARACAS.

Time and pride are punishing the bullfighter, Antonio Ordonez, as the bulls have never done, United Press International reported.

Once he was indisputably the best in his profession, the darling of Spain and Latin America.

Ernest Hemingway wrote a book about him in 1959. And when Ordonez retired in 1962, he was considered one of the five greatest bullfighters of the century. Today, overweight and 35 years of age, Ordonez is fighting again. He is the oldest

of the active bullfighters. His name on the programme is still enough to fill the bullrings at prices starting at 10 dollars for a seat in the sun (the cheapest). But the successes of his "dangerous summer,” as Hemingway called it, have degenerated into a succession of humiliating afternoons. Ordonez recently completed a series of 17 bullfights in South America, where the bulls are smaller, the spectators less demanding, and the pay better than in Spain. Yet he won little but verbal abuse from fans and critics alike, and in his January finale in Caracas, he suffered the ultimate humiliation.

Spectators in the Nueve Circo bullring spat, cursed and threw toilet paper at him.

Although both his bulls charged bravely, Ordonez had caped them extra cautiously and, for him, sometimes awkwardly. He killed the first bull after only a few passes, going in with the sword three times before it fell. When he lined up as quickly to kill the second, the barrage began. The first roll of toilet paper hit him, wrapping dangerously around his legs and cape as he lunged forward for the so-called “moment of truth.” The sword struck the bull’s shoulder bone, and Ordonez came out of the encounter trailing toilet paper around his ankles and still holding the sword. He killed with the second sword, then left the ring under a hail of more toilet paper, seat cushions, fruit, empty beer cups and verbal obscenities.

Afterward, at his hotel, Ordonez had a ready reply when asked why he had risked his reputation by returning to the bullrings. “The aficion (bullfight fans) wanted me,” he said.

Like other aging bullfighters and athletes before him, Ordonez is ensnared by an immense pride that compelled him to return.

His reflexes are slowing and his legs deteriorating under the scars of more than two dozen horn wounds. Only occasionally can he dominate the bull with the long, classic passes he once did so naturally that they seemed effortless. Yet he said he intends to continue fighting, hoping to recapture the adulation he once knew and to protect his image against the challenge of younger bullfighters. Ordonez received 23,500 dollars (£8200) for appearing in Caracas, but he said the money does not motivate him. “Money alone could not bring me back,” he said. “I already have enough. “It was the aficion that did it—their demands, their comparisons.

“And it was my own feeling —my own involvement—with the whole thing, the bullfight.”