Juan Belmonte
Joselito and Juan Belmonte
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Juan Belmonte García |
| Nickname(s) | El Pasmo de Triana |
| Born |
April 14, 1892 Seville, Andalusia, Spain |
| Died | April 8, 1962 (aged 69) Utrera, Andalusia, Spain |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Bullfighting |
| Position | Matador |
| Bullfighting career | |
| Début novillero | 21 July 1912 Sevilla, Andalusia, Spain |
Juan Belmonte García (April 14, 1892 – April 8, 1962) was a Spanish bullfighter.
Born in Seville, his family moved to the Triana neighbourhood when he was three, according to the biographer A. Diaz Canabate. Belmonte began his bullfighting career in 1908, touring around Spain in a children's bullfighting group called Los Niños Sevillanos. He killed his first bull on July 24, 1910. As an adult, his technique was unlike that of previous matadors; he stood erect and nearly motionless, and always stayed within inches of the bull, unlike previous matadors, who stayed far from the animal to avoid the horns. As a result of this daring technique, Belmonte was frequently gored, sustaining many serious wounds.
One such incident occurred during a November, 1927 bullfight in Barcelona, Spain. Belmonte was gored through his chest and pinned against a wall. Several other toreros rescued him. Among the spectators that day were the King and Queen of Spain and the Infanta Beatriz.
Belmonte's rivalry with Joselito (a.k.a. Gallito), another contender for the appellation "greatest matador of all time", from 1914 to 1920 is known as the Golden Age of Bullfighting. The era was cut short when Joselito was fatally gored on May 16, 1920, at the age of 25, at a bullfight in Talavera de la Reina, a small town not far from Madrid. Belmonte then had to carry alone the weight of the whole bullfighting establishment, which proved to be unbearable, and which in 1922 led to the first of his three temporary retirements.
In 1919, Belmonte fought 109 bullfighting corridas (bullfights), a number unmatched by any matador before, until the 1965 bullfight season when Manuel Benítez Pérez ("El Cordobés") performed in 111 corridas, surpassing Belmonte's record. The Mexican matador Carlos Arruza fought 108 corridas in one season but it is said that he refused to pass Belmonte's record out of respect for the maestro.
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