Javier Núñez lives without living. He knows that the very high bar of the San Fermines of 2022, when his bullfight won the Feria del Toro prize, reissuing the 2019 award, is almost impossible. His bulls, the bulls of La Palmosilla, the bulls of the wind, have traveled from Tarifa to Pamplona. Nine exactly, just in case. They will repeat with the same shortlist that triumphed with his iron: Rafaelillo, Manuel Escribano and Leo Valadez.
“It is difficult to isolate yourself from the noise that Pamplona generates. Well-intentioned people call you to wish you the best. ‘At least like last year’, and of course their expectations are high. I prefer to have my feet on the ground. Repeating last year is very difficult. There have to be many circumstances. Not only that the bulls charge, but that the bullfighters are fine with them, that they understand each other…”, says Núñez, remembering that the three bullfighters and the mayoral came out on their shoulders.
This Friday they collect the trophy of the House of Mercy in the section, for the second consecutive year. Although the previous one was the Carriquiri to the bravest horse: “Entering the Bull Fair is very complicated, and staying even more. I review all those that debuted and left, many of them better herds than ours… It is a pride to come a third time. We feel that we have entered the heart of Pamplona, its people, who come to see us throughout the year”, concludes the farmer.
He studied in Pamplona. Here he finished his law degree and from here he keeps his best friends: “Memories overwhelm me. I have one in each corner. I recognize its neighbors. It is going back to the past. I live it with great enthusiasm, and a lot of responsibility. We have not dealt nothing until this July 7th. Starting the season in Pamplona is starting on a very high mountain pass“.
His father, the great Josele Núñez Cervera, former president of Coca-Cola in Western Europe, also feels the tingle. The colors of his former companies wave in the currency of La Palmosilla: the sky blue of Dow Chemical and the red of Coca-Cola.