David Galván, exquisite inspiration

Bullfighting is an absolute mystery, and proof of this is what happened in the third of muleta of the fourth bull of the afternoon. Unexpectedly, beauty, magic, enchantment, solemnity were present…

And it was a surprise because the bull had shown textbook meekness, he fled from the capes, he nodded his head on the horse, he ignored everyone who confronted him, he ran around the ring of the plaza in a cowardly flight, and waited. in banderillas, despite which Juan Carlos Rey excelled.

When David Galván took the crutch, the feeling was of a very good job of dressing and goodbye. But then, the mystery arose, inexplicable, without a doubt. The man from Cádiz called with his right leg bent, and the bull, as if enchanted, responded nobly to the call, so that there were several muletazos full of beauty and an extraordinary chest pass. In view of which, Galván insisted in the same way and even drew two trenches that were posters of real ancient bulls.

He called again, already upright, with his right hand and a powerful muleta strike emerged, an elegant change of hands and another change of chest as surprising as the first.

At this point, the square was rubbing its eyes at the beauty of the spectacle that was being held in the arena. A deep natural, later; two low shots and two trenches before returning, once again, to the enjoyment of the bent leg in front of some lines lit by the emotion of the mystery.

It was not a typical task. Pure heterodoxy, a tray of delicacies, a display of harmony, the mystery of improvisation. Or, perhaps, it is that David Galván was inspired while he was working, that anything can be.

The truth is that Las Ventas enjoyed a few magical minutes, a different, improvised, surprising, extremely exciting painting…

Until then, the celebration had taken very different paths. The bullfight of El Torero, very well organized and difficult for the shortlist, had put the three bullfighters in serious difficulties. Galván himself first encountered a highly mobile bull, but without dedication, and his work was irregular and intermittent, and the impression was left that the matador lacked skill to master the animal’s lackluster charge.

A different case, regarding the bull, was that of Álvaro Lorenzo. This was his first bullfight of the year, he was risking everything this afternoon, and he lost. The best lot went to him, and victory was not possible. Fair in strength and very noble was his first, to which he applied superficial and unhurried bullfighting; and a fat bull of triumph was the fifth cast, repeater in the muleta to which he went with fixity and humiliation. Lorenzo did what he could, but it was not enough in either of his two bulls; many passes, almost always following the lead, and without the necessary depth to convince the pitch.

Ángel Téllez has not come out with a good face either, forgotten since his victory in this square in San Isidro in 2022. He has been lucky because he suffered two tremendous somersaults in the sixth that could have cost him dearly, but he has not managed to excite again. His first one, very demanding and difficult, needed a powerful crutch that did not exist, and the last one did not offer him any ease, with an ugly style and very short attacks. Téllez’s work was overwhelmed by the imperative need not to let the opportunity pass by; He wanted to give it his all, and nothing turned out the way he designed it.

A square was left filled with the inspiration of an artist who has not been taken into account until now by the large fairs. But what David Galván did deserves a reward. It is not every day that a miracle occurs and the mystery of bullfighting fully emerges.