From the gruesome scene that closed the bullfight on July 25, with Roca Rey embedded against the boards, the way in which Cayetano Rivera threw himself at the remove with a clean body, at the cost of his own integrity, drew great attention. In tenths of seconds the bull, a toraco, by the way, went from releasing the Peruvian’s hold to making another with him: Cayetano was flying through the air, also with the misfortune of falling against the boards. It was the other miracle after RR was born twice on the same day.
But it is that the youngest of the Riveras had already made the removal of his partner in the first bull of his lot, grabbing it with one hand by the cob of the python to take it away, also with a clean body: “Cayetano has two balls. I don’t know He thinks twice. I always tell him to go out with the cape, but he says that without a cape he arrives faster,” explains his attorney Curro Vázquez.
The teacher of Linares, an iconic bullfighter from Madrid, tells how he lived through the mishap at Roca Rey and the scene of terror shared with his principal: “I couldn’t sleep at night. Like when you’re very tired. It could be fatal. If the bull instead of cradling him -with a horn on each side of the body-, he supports a python in the abdominal area, just as he was pushing against the boards, we would now speak of a tragedy. The luck is that he did not defeat. He pushed as if he were in the horse. Already in the morning in the corrals he had hit another bull like that in the corrals”.
We asked him about Cayetano: “He has a broken rib, so that hurts, and many bruises.” And then we questioned him about how big and serious the bullfight was: “Four bulls were damaged in the field and in the corrals, and the rancher (Antonio Bañuelos) instead of saying that he had not brought others on top, with three bulls above the category of this square. It was big and bad. It was well done, that’s right”.
Today everyone is talking about the miracle of Roca Rey, which will undergo medical tests in Seville. But also of the values that adorn bullfighters, capacity for suffering and dedication, yes, but also of unlimited generosity to be able to throw yourself between the pitons of a bull to save the life of a partner. Cayetano Rivera, that is.