Is there a birthday in your family this week? Michael Coy has been trawling through the archives, looking for interesting Spanish personalities whose birthday will fall – or would have fallen – around today’s date.
Jose Tomas – 20 August, 1975
WHAT is the stereotype of a bullfighter?
Well, he’s not bright (matadors don’t have ‘thoughts’): he’s probably a southern country boy, clean-shaven, a gregarious back-slapper – and he has no time at all for those romantic notions of nobility and sacrifice: he’s in this game to make a lot of money, fast, without getting hurt.
That’s why Jose Tomas Roman Martin is a bit special.
He’s a walking contradiction.
This bearded, intellectual madrileño is a ‘loner’, who wants no part of the industry which he dominated for so long. He hates it.
And he doesn’t allow fans to pray over him, or even touch him. So don’t try it.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Jose Tomas’s persona is his intense sincerity. As a torero, he seemed to want to die in the ring.
In an idealistic world, the bull has not had his horns ‘shaved’ before the fight (this widespread practice of removing the horn tips seriously reduces the bull’s ability to do damage).
Similarly, no-one will have ‘accidentally’ dropped a sack of grain on the bull’s back, injuring his muscles.
Unfortunately, these things are almost universal in the modern bullfight.
But Jose Tomas did it properly.
He insisted on facing pristine animals, and putting his life on the line.
In the early 2000s, when he was king, the true fans worshipped him (he qualified as a full matador in 1996, and ‘cut his ponytail’ – retired – in 2012).
Here was someone who wasn’t cynical, wasn’t simply trying to get rich quick.
It may sound corny, but the essence of the bullfight was once rather noble. A man (small, puny) faced down a bull (aggressive, brutish, powerful) and defeated it through his intelligence, and that spark of the divine which we once believed resided in us.
Fans, thrilled to find a ‘torero’ who did it as it should be done, flocked to him.
Your Spanish friends will never tell you this, unless you press them on it, but they believe in a spirit. It’s called the duende.
The duende is terrifying, but he’s not exactly a devil. He loves strong flavours.
When a bullfight reaches a moment of high danger, or when a flamenco singer’s passion seems to stab you in the heart, your Spanish friends will grab you, and say: “The duende is here!”
It’s literally true that, when Jose Tomas was appearing, people bought their tickets with a equal mixture of relish and dread.
Given the risks he routinely took, this could be the corrida of his death.
Whatever the outcome, the duende was sure to be there.
Though he received some grievous wounds from the bulls over the years, he didn’t die.
Contrary in all things, Jose will quietly celebrate his 51st birthday this Thursday.
He now lives in Estepona, with his partner, and has no intention of ever entering a bullring again (there are rumours of a million-euro fee for one ‘comeback’).
If you happen to be in Estepona, and you see a slim, intense guy eating in a restaurant, you might feel the wings of the duende beating. You’re looking at THE José Tomás!
But don’t touch him.
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