El Cordobés

Manuel Benítez Pérez (born 4 May 1936), more commonly known as El Cordobés (The Cordovan), is a famous matador of the 1960s who brought to the bullring an unorthodox acrobatic and theatrical style.

Career

Born into poverty, his father had to go to jail for his political ideas during the Spanish Civil War. His mother died shortly after and a year later, his father was let out and died in Cordoba. Reared in an orphanage, a construction-worker and petty criminal, at the age of twenty-three Benítez lived in a village near Córdoba and dreamed of being a bullfighter.

One of the original and dangerous techniques practiced by El Cordobés was first shown to the world at Anjucar. In stark departure from formality, he waved his Banderillero (Columpio) away, broke his banderillas down to 'pencil length', and standing with his back to the bull as it charged, moved his right leg out moments before the bull was upon him, causing the bull to swerve and allowing El Cordobés a moment to slam in the banderillas from just behind the left horn. This maneuver was repeated in bullfights across Spain, sometimes with even more dangerous variations, such as standing with his back to the barerra and driving in the banderillas after the horns passed either side of him.