Ortega and Aguado's duel unleashes passion in Las Ventas

There's no question of arguing about the interest in Roca Rey's first afternoon at the San Isidro Fair this Friday, but serious fans have placed more interest in the duel between Juan Ortega and Pablo Aguado this Saturday. Both from Seville, and contenders for Morante de la Puebla's throne in the lineage of artistic and astonishing bullfighters.

All the tickets for the event were quickly sold out. And there are quite a few of us fans who attended the "duel" without any obligation to take sides, but the Las Ventas event has both caused a schism between Orteguistas and Aguadistas and has provoked a heated reaction from the more sectarian Madrid fans. Let's just say that the mullahs of the "seven" and other fanatical sectors of the bullring are wary of the mano a mano as if it were a colonization of Seville, an idiosyncratic occupation. Even more so when Juan Pedro Domecq's bulls are being fought, whose prestige at La Maestranza is viewed with reservations and prejudices among some Ventas season ticket holders.

There are quite a few of us fans who attend the 'duel' without the obligation to take sides.

All these related reasons contribute to the afternoon's passion. And an antagonism has intensified between Ortega and Aguado's supporters , which is reflected in the competition of the duel. It's a matter of scrutinizing who bullfights the slowest. Who best represents the essence of Seville. Or who best handles the cape... In fact, the conditions of the mano a mano and the requirements of the suerte de varas at Las Ventas guarantee the competition of the quites and lend enormous interest to the drama of the first section. With a little collaboration from the "juampedros," it will be appropriate to observe that the Triana-born Ortega and the very Sevillian Aguado —the Guadalquivir separates them and brings them closer together—have in their hands the mystery of the verónica, the delantal, and the chicuelina.

Are you for Juan or are you for Pablo ? The question transcends clans and "families," as if it were impossible to reconcile Ortega's extreme temperament and Aguado's overwhelming naturalness. The differences in personality and concept are distinct , but both—both the other and the one—represent and stimulate a bullfighting technique of plasticity and aesthetics that harks back to the exemplary path of Morante. The "monster" of La Puebla appears in the Isidrada, but the two evenings on which it is lined up—May 28, June 8—suffer from less polished posters than when this Saturday of Passion takes place. The candidates—Ortega and Aguado—are weighed down by their status as successors. And it would make sense for the mano a mano formula to be repeated based on the Ventas precedent. So far, it has only happened once. And that was in Torrejón de Ardoz two years ago. They both left the ring on shoulders, although the number of ears was more favorable to Pablo Aguado (four) than to Juan Ortega (two).

They both left the ring on shoulders, although the number of ears was more favorable to Pablo Aguado (four) than to Juan Ortega (two).

It was a dress rehearsal, an experiment of great interest... but short duration. We fans need this kind of encouragement, just as we find it urgent that the three-man list announced on May 1 in Seville — Morante , Ortega, and Aguado—be repeated at the bullfights. However, expectations are thwarted by the business and professional disagreements between the bullfighters involved and their managers, in a sort of cold war.

This better explains the growing tension of the Saturday duel, the impact of the resale. And the unpredictable factor that characterizes the hostility of the sectors of Las Ventas most resistant to the Seville tradition. It's worth remembering that both Ortega and Aguado stood out in Las Ventas before any other major bullring. The Triana native did so in an August bullfight with hardly any audience (2018), while Aguado's astonishment became apparent on the afternoon of his confirmation as an alternative, seven years ago at the autumn fair.