The clock in the Plaza de Bilbao goes backwards. Or it’s late. As if it were the clock of the party itself. Time does not pass by Miguel Ángel Perera -19 years of alternative now-, owner and lord of this Tuesday afternoon with superlative importance. A display of mettle, power and courage of lead that ended with a single ear because of the treacherous sword. Only because of her did he not abandon Vista Alegre in flight after beating the fierceness of a bull that he threw with everything. A barbaric battle with that violence of extremely complicated submission.
When the bugles sounded, the arena had been watered an hour ago. And, of course, with this heat, the dust that was already raised in the first bull was annoying. After his death, while Miguel Ángel Perera was listening, they reconnected the hose to the hydrant. I wrote in Pamplona, precisely in the Fuente Ymbro bullfight, that Ricardo Gallardo’s luck is called Perera. And this happened again with a bull that, like those from Pamplona, he enhanced the virtues -fixity, promptitude, nobility- over the shortcomings -counted and measured power, precise and waning zeal and an injured hand-. The mettle as a weapon of mass seduction to grant him everything he lacked. MAP knocked him down with a sword blow, and they applauded him in the drag.
But the truly important bull was the next one, by name Enlightened. The sustained rhythm of his attack, the irrevocable humiliation until the end, the bravery of category and the expensive style of his left python. I confess that at the start I didn’t see his neck and, as Leo Valadez and Juan Leal’s kicks were high shots, I got confused. It was just extraordinary. Every moment seemed to be sublimated. For Leal, who replaced Daniel Luque, you see the level, Maribel, it would have been better for him to stay at his house. She still wanted to go around the ring, when the one who deserved it was the bull.
It was the third very long and very messy movement, without bad condition, but with bad support, powerless and faltering. The Mexican Leo Valadez got involved with him.
Miguel Ángel Perera offered to complete his afternoon the other side of his concept, that of the powerful, tremendously important bullfighter, with a bull that required the license. From more shot than he delivers, always hiding something. The bullets whistled, the repetition of the machine gun, violent, thrashing, sometimes from within. So much so that the wide horn seemed to wear it sooner than later. Perera imposed a rocky stillness, not a resignation, the crutch always on, command and government, everything from below. And not once did the volcanic and aggressive Fuenteymbro touch the trick. Once again, the mettle as a weapon of mass seduction. Else. He climbed the emotion of the authentic. Until in the last series on the right hand MAP completely blew it up, making Vista Alegre roar. Such was the power of the guy that the bull finally seemed to surrender, swallowing his rage, a blind fury. The metisaca at the bottom was unfair for such a true task and such an important bullfighter. Which is already written.