How to explain the incomprehensible? Rafael de Paula He didn’t know seconds before the throw what his muletazo would be like; not even the posture with which he would emerge victorious. But suddenly everything aligned and in less than a second the entire history of bullfighting emerged. What the hell: purity and magic and mystery and lyricism They were the consequence of deep knowledge.
He was born in the Santiago neighborhood, in Jerez; Lola Flores, in San Miguel. But when he gave it a go he could be more eccentric than La Faraona. For the remains, the ‘interview’ he gave, already retired, minutes before a bullfight in La Maestranza, where he formed the taco so many afternoons. He didn’t say anything at all, but the tone in each of his expressions continues to hypnotize.
We prefer it, however, in front of a bull. The gypsy from Jerez made unpredictability his great asset. Artist bullfighter, of the lineage of Romero y Finite of Córdobawith whom he said goodbye in 2000, but with other elf. What they call the truth in bullfighting in Paula was the miracle. And miracles, as we know, happen unexpectedly. Blessed in the afternoons of glory, he was also beaten when nothing happened.
“The most helpless bullfighter who has ever set foot in the ring.” This is how he remembers it Felipe Benitez Reyeswith whom he maintained a loving friendship. The writer, who dedicated an extraordinary book to him in 1987 –Rafael de Paularepublished by Renacimiento in 2019 with a prologue by Carlos Marzal and drawings by Pedro Serna, tells El Cultural that Paula “had been dragging from a very young age a disability in the knees“, so “he was always at the mercy of the bull.”
“People attributed this to fear, but it was not fear; it was a consequence of their own fragility, their lack of defense against the animal,” explains the author of Chance and vice versa. On the other hand, he tells us about the alleged heterodoxy for which he will be remembered among bullfighting people. And his wide range of resources, his unique way of accepting the challenge that placed him every afternoon between life and death, has its roots precisely in orthodoxy.
Sponsored by Juan Belmonte, “he defended the purity of bullfighting, the classical canons,” explains Benítez Reyes. And the transgression that he displayed during sixty years of alternative was actually related to his way of being: “a very accentuated character,” points out the writer. And he adds: “It seemed like it was an anomaly”.
But was Belmonte his teacher then? Not quite. It owes it, we would say, the slowness in its peak moments, filled with an inspiration that is difficult to compare. Even the baroque style that certain muletazos exuded. And the plasticity of its veronicas.
“I’m at the Belmonte school“, he admitted in an interview. “On the other hand, I would be incapable of following that of Joselito, who was the authentic colossus of bullfighting,” he noted. However, Belmonte “does not need, like Joselito, to fight all the bulls in the world.”
Rafael de Paula stood in front of hundreds and will only be remembered by a few. Perhaps because of some incident that, in the middle of a fateful afternoon, justified an entry. “I’m afraid. Afraid of death. I’m a coward”he assured. But it was also known “the one who has fought the best of all time.”
It is not by chance that artists from different disciplines wanted to approach the myth. One of the few myths thus considered before the withdrawal. On one occasion, The World he put the bullfighter in luck with the playwright Angelica Liddellrecently recognized with the National Theater Award. The artist, who brought a bull on stage in her work Love deathhe surrendered to the master without conditions. “Yours is an art without fear of the spiritual. I admire it a lot,” he told him.
Paula took his glove to define what, for him, bullfighting was: “If we talk about bulls, the word spectacle doesn’t fit. Bullfighting is an event. Whoever says spectacle is ignorant“.
And what did you think of the current bullfighters? “Morante is the only one who has what the others don’t have”he sentenced. In the rest he warned “too many lies. The way bullfighting is carried out is full of falsehood and lying men. I have a sense of serious bullfighting, but these people now, where have they gone?” take it the art? Where to?”
The place where Rafael de Paula took bullfighting does not exist. There is no mecca in which to go and pray the incomprehensible. We assume that he accompanied Morante and a few other chosen ones at some inspired moment in his career. Who knows if it will illuminate someone else again or, like the best fragrances, it has evaporated and only exists in memory.