Word: cordob
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...practically already seen the movie. The familiar saga about the slum kid who fights his way to fame and wealth in the prize ring is here re-enacted in real-life Spain, where the classic path out of poverty into glory is the bull ring. The hero is El Cordobés (real name: Manuel Benítez), at 32 the most celebrated bullfighter in the world, if not always the most admired (TIME, June...
...frame through which El Cordobés' life is seen is his Big Fight - the 1964 Madrid corrida in which he was elevated to the status of matador de toros and in which he survived a near-fatal goring. Every tense moment in this corrida is the cue for a flashback: the future El Cordobés growing up in an earth-floored hovel where he sometimes has only grass to eat; serving a grueling apprenticeship at village fiestas where the only available medical care is a slosh of alcohol in an open wound; rising under the tutelage...
What happened was that this guy they call El Cordobés, who is the bullfighting champion of Spain, sort of a Sugar Ray Robinson-type with flashy clothes and cars and goodness knows how many mill in the bank, was out there doing a fancy two-step with this bull about the size of a Volkswagen, when all of a sudden another guy climbed into the ring. His name was Miguelin; he was a rank contender, but he thought he ought to be champ. So what did Miguelin do? He strolled up to El Cordobés' bull...
...this time Willie was fast becoming a real aficionado, which is what they call the smart money in Spain. He bought a new book called Or I'll Dress You in Mourning, a biography of El Cordobés, by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, who also wrote Is Paris Burning? (a proposition on which Willie would lay even money at the moment). At night, while Myra was washing her hair, Willie read about how El Cordobes, born Manuel Benitez, now 32, got to be champ-fighting 133 bulls in a single summer, a lot of them bums that...
Finally Willie was ready to make his big estocada (killing). Converting his traveler's checks, he headed for Madrid's annual "Benefit Bullfight," where El Cordobés was scheduled to face two bulls. Betting on first-round knockdowns, Willie collected a bundle. The first bull was so weak that his knees buckled as soon as he spotted the champ's cape. The second was obviously in the tank; he stuck his head in the sand and calmly awaited the knockout. While the oldtime aficionados in the stands whistled El Cordobés out of the ring...