The aim was to boost their fledgling bullfighting careers with a little clandestine late-night practice.
But the three men’s moonlit session lasted just minutes, before sparking a police chase concluding in the would-be matadors facing a demand for €53,000 (£39,000) in damages.
“When the police caught two of us, they asked us what we were doing,” José Luis Madrigal told El País. “I told them; well, bullfighting. We want to be bullfighters.”
Madrigal, a novice bullfighter who lives in Talavera de la Reina, a small town 70 miles from Madrid, said he and his two friends had previously approached the bull rancher to ask if they could practise their skills on his cattle, but were turned down.
So the trio hatched a plan to meet at 9pm on the night of a full moon earlier this month. They parked two miles away, making their way to the ranch on foot. They had just pulled out their red capes when they realised they were surrounded by police. “They caught us within minutes,” said Madrigal. “We know what we did wasn’t right. But you do these things out of desperation.”
Madrigal insisted that he and his friends had been attempting to practise on female cattle, “because females cattle don’t hurt anyone”.
The lawyer representing the bull rancher and the Spanish police argued that the trio had actually been practising on bulls. Pointing to a Spanish law that dictates that bulls involved in any kind of bullfighting must be slaughtered to avoid the risk of them anticipating the bullfighters’ moves in future fights, the lawyer said that the owner had been left with little choice but to kill about 20 animals, leading to the demand for €53,000.
As news of the trio’s arrests spread, many reacted in surprise to a practice they thought had long disappeared. Decades ago, before the proliferation of bullfighting schools, late-night clandestine sessions were common. Two well-known matadors, Juan Belmonte and Manuel Benítez – known as El Cordobés – reportedly got their start honing their skills by moonlight.
“This idea of aspiring matadors taking to bull ranches in the night is a very old tradition,” Oropesa’s mayor, José Manuel Sánchez told La Tribuna de Toledo following the arrests at the bull ranch in his municipality. “But it’s been an long time since we’ve seen anyone do seen this.”
