José Tomás

José Tomás in Almería , 2008

José Tomás Román Martín (born August 20, 1975 in Galapagar , Madrid ) is a Spanish torero . He is considered one of the best contemporary Spanish matadors.

José Tomás is known as a matador by his two first names. He is considered a "rebel" among modern bullfighters, as he repeatedly violates the traditions of corrida . He is one of the few who does not pray in the arenas chapel before the fight ; and he refuses to symbolically dedicate the slain bull to the Spanish king. The admiration for him goes so far that he is referred to in newspapers as the best bullfighter of all time and even "Messiah". Tickets for his fights, which are always sold out, are traded in Spain on the black market for several thousand euros. In 1999 he was named "Matador of the Year" in Spain for the first time.

José Tomás is particularly popular for his spectacular style, which often leads to his injuries. At the age of 26, he resigned after several injuries due to the constant pressure of danger. However, in 2007 he returned to the arenas in Barcelona . In the same year he was awarded the Medal of Fine Arts by the Spanish Ministry of Culture , which is awarded annually to 25 people, including a bullfighter. In 2009, José Tomás was so angry about the same award for what he considered to be the “unworthy” matador Francisco Rivera Ordóñez that he threatened to return his medal.

José Tomás during the corrida

In 2008 in Jerez he was injured in the neck and in Madrid he suffered wounds on the thigh, hand and foot. Both times he still had to be operated on in the arena, but he still managed to kill the bull beforehand. In April 2010, he was in the fight in Aguascalientes ( Mexico ) from the bull Navegante seriously wounded when the horn of the bull, the artery severed his left thigh. Emergency surgery combined with a large blood transfusion saved his life. José Tomás processed this experience in his book Diálogo con Navegante , which he wrote together with Mario Vargas Llosa . Only after fifteen months of convalescence did he return to the arena on July 23, 2011 in Valencia .

literature

• Carlos Abella: Jose Tomas: Un torero de leyenda / a Legendary Bullfighter. Grupo Anaya Comercial, 2009

Web links

Commons : José Tomás  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Video of a fight ( YouTube video)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Bullfighting finds a messiah as ban looms in Barcelona . The Guardian, October 11, 2009
2. ↑ ^{a b} bullfighter José Tomás: "Better to be dead in the arena than in the car" ( Memento of the original from July 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Spain's General Newspaper, April 25, 2010 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Torero José Tomás: Spanish Heroes Twilight . Westdeutsche Zeitung, June 18, 2008
4. ^ Edward Lewine: Death and the Sun: A Matador's Season in the Heart of Spain. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007. pp. 105ff
5. ↑ Quarrel in the afternoon . Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 27, 2007
6. ^ "Torero war" in Spain ( Memento from June 21, 2009 in the Internet Archive ). Kleine Zeitung, March 10, 2009
7. ↑ Pictured: Superstar matador gets gored by TWO angry bulls The Daily Mail, June 16, 2008
8. ↑ Zabala de la Serna, Isabel Longhi-Bracaglia: José Tomás, estabilizado tras una gravísima cornada en la Feria de San Marcos . In: El Mundo . April 25, 2010 (Spanish, elmundo.es [accessed May 17, 2019]).
9. ↑ José Tomás recibe la cornada más grave de su carrera. In: El Periódico de Aragón. April 26, 2010, Retrieved May 17, 2019 (Spanish). 
10. ↑ Star torero seriously injured in a bullfight . Die Welt, April 25, 2010
11. ^ José Tomás, Mario Vargas Llosa: Diálogo con Navegante . Fundación José Tomás, 2019.
12. ↑ El mito vuelve a la arena . El País, July 24, 2011