Nicanor Villalta, the bullfighter who died on Three Kings Day dreaming of a maxim: “In bullfights, emotion, emotion and emotion”

He was born in the small town of Cretas in Teruel at the end of the 19th century, took the alternative in San Sebastián, cut the first golden ear of the Corrida de la Prensa a hundred years ago now and holds the record for trophies cut in Madrid. Between the old square and Las Ventas, Nicanor Villalta is crowned with a total of 54 ears as a true hero who, according to him, always maintained “a constant challenge to danger” before the bulls. He was one of the most outstanding figures of the so-called Silver Age of Bullfighting, which began after the tragic death of Joselito in Talavera in May 1920, with a tall and gangly physique, which he replaced with courage and dedication that made the public surrendered to him. His maxim was to get as close as possible. In 1930, the Aragonese bullfighter was enjoying one of his best moments, recognized by fans and critics, he was one of the most popular bullfighters, which earned him to be chosen as one of the Triunfadores del Ruedo, a collection of books that he drew the personality in the squares and outside of them of the figures of the moment. The writer, playwright and bullfighting critic Adolfo Sánchez Carrere analyzed Villalta in an interview in which the right-hander answers with the same sincerity that he behaved before the bulls. In a parallel with the current era, he insisted that bulls with too much weight, «with two reloading punches, the beast is over!, and there is no one who fights them. How many times do I let my bugs get stung only by the reserve, or almost not stung, so that they retain power and bravery in the last third!». -What is the most exciting moment of the whole fight? Sánchez Carrere asks him. The answer is beyond doubt. For me, the moment of strongest emotion is the one in which, with crutch in hand, I pass the bull around my waist at the distance desired by me. -What are they, how many centimeters? -Neither. -That is looking for the exhibition, and, with the exhibition, the shock of the spectators-, the critic replies. -And what is bullfighting if not, a constant challenge to danger to achieve the strong and chilling emotion that constitutes the base and the fundamental effect of the Fiesta? The bulls, look where you look, are not, in the end, more than that: emotion, emotion and emotion. Villalta retired in 1935, but the passage of the Civil War and some bad investments forced him to return to the ring in 1939. He dreamed of an idyllic retirement and a future very different from the one he lived in: «I will leave the bullfights before the bulls can with me Already, by then, I will have my settlement in the field, and I will spend the rest of my life there, dedicated to agricultural tasks, because my parents were farmers ». MORE INFORMATION noticia No Zaragoza City Council recovers its bullfighting prize, eliminated by Podemos noticia No Cartels: only Morante at a Feria del Pilar with the figures turned away Life awaited him another way. He said his final goodbye in 1943 in the Plaza de Zaragoza, where “they always demanded more of him”, and he lived in Madrid, where he was an adviser to the Plaza de Las Ventas until his death in 1980 on January 6, the day of Kings.