Spanish bullfighter (born 1938)
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Santiago Martín Sánchez (; born 18 July 1938), known as El Viti (), is a retired Spanish bullfighter. He holds the record for the greatest number of times that any bullfighter has been borne on shoulders out through the Great Gate at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid (the greatest honour in the bullfighting world), namely fourteen as a matador, and two others while he was still a "novillero".
Biography.
Early life.
Santiago Martín Sánchez was born on 18 July 1938 in the village of Vitigudino in the Province of Salamanca. He was thus born into the Spanish Civil War and would spend his whole life until the age of 37 living under Francisco Franco's military dictatorship. This would include the greater part of his bullfighting career. He grew up in a simple, rural family. His father ran a workshop for farm carts.
His nickname, El Viti, quite obviously, derives from his boyhood town's name, Vitigudino. The nickname was bestowed upon him by the local schoolteacher Don Manuel Moreno Blanco.
El Viti's family had no background in bullfighting whatsoever. Nonetheless, El Viti has been the first great bullfighter to be raised in Salamanca, at the height of the livestock-raising boom in that province.
Whether he was ever a benchmark for classical bullfighting and a standard of the "Castilian school" as well as pure bullfighting elegance, as writer Gonzalo I. Bienvenida says of him, or always characterized by the sobriety and good craftsmanship of the so-called "Salamanca school", as Alba de Tormes would have it, he travelled back and forth across the Salamancan countryside as a youngster to attend "capeas" (rural, somewhat less than professional-level bullfights), and he first donned the suit of lights in August 1956, at the bullring in Ledesma. Another source says that he first stood before a bovine adversary at Vitigudino on the occasion of the Feast of Corpus Christi in 1955 (and therefore on or about 9 June that year), although nothing is said about him wearing a suit of lights that day.
Beginnings as a "novillero".
El Viti had his début with "picadores" in May 1957 at Ledesma, alternating with "Ávila" and the Mexican Roberto Ocampo. Yearling bulls were laid on by the Zumer Brothers' ranch. He became known as a "novillero" (novice bullfighter who fights yearling bulls) at the old Vistalegre bullring in Madrid's Carabanchel district in 1959.
At a 1959 engagement at Madrid's old Vistalegre bullring, El Viti reaped one ear from each of the yearlings that he fought. It was one of nine "novilladas" (novice bullfights) at which he appeared that season, five of which were held at Vistalegre.
On 18 July 1960 came El Viti's presentation at Las Ventas. The young bulls were furnished by Juan José Ramos and Brothers, and he was alternating with Tomás Sánchez Jiménez and Antonio de Jesús. The result of his performance on this afternoon was the first of a record number of triumphant rides on shoulders out through the bullring's Great Gate. Because he had performed so well, he was held over for the next five afternoons.
The 1960 bullfighting season brought 35 "novilladas" El Viti's way, but not all ended in triumph: he was wounded by yearling bulls twice that year, once in Alicante and another time in San Sebastián.
While El Viti was still a "novillero", a yearling knocked him over at the bullring in Fréjus, France in 1958, leaving him with a broken left arm. This injury left him with a slight but permanent defect that prevented him from fully stretching his arm out, but instead of hindering his art, it gave him a unique and inimitable style in his natural bullfighting (that is, when the bull is released on the same side as the hand that holds the muleta):This little defect made El Viti's natural bullfighting sensational, because he had to offset the lack of elbow extension with wrist movement. Thus, the bull always went inside and never moved too far. El Viti was a brave man, because to do bullfighting so slowly without taking advantage of the touches and wrist movements with one arm in the "virulé" style, you have to be a hero. ;br ;—Domingo Delgado de la Cámara, "Revisión del toreo" (2002)
Career as a matador.
El Viti took his "alternativa" in Madrid on 13 May 1961, during the "Feria de San Isidro" ("Saint Isidore's Fair" — a yearly event at Las Ventas), with Toledo's Gregorio Sánchez standing as "godfather", while Diego Puerta bore witness. The bulls were laid on by the Alipio Pérez-Tabernero ranch. The actual bull used for the ceremony was named Guapito ("Little Handsome One"). That afternoon, he cut an ear from each of two bulls, and he also rode out through the Great Gate on shoulders together with the day's other two bullfighters. El Viti himself was borne shoulder-high all the way to his hotel.
On 30 December 1962, he presented himself at the Plaza México in Mexico City, where his "alternativa" was confirmed. Standing as "godfather" this time was Jorge "Ranchero" Aguilar, while Antonio del Olivar bore witness. The bull used for the ceremony was Voluntario (ironically "Volunteer") from the La Punta ranch.
El Viti appeared at 61 bullfighting engagements in the 1962 season, but he did not get through them all unscathed, sustaining two serious gorings, one in Palma de Mallorca and the other in Barcelona.
The date 18 March 1962 was special for the residents of Vilvestre, a little town in El Viti's part of the country, for El Viti made a triumphant return to the town to star in an historic "corrida" that all the townsfolk would remember. A poster advertising the event can be seen at right.
In 1963, El Viti fought at 73 engagements, and the next year, at 77. Although a bullfight in Pamplona on 10 July 1964 ended in great triumph and he was awarded the bull's tail, he rejected it, along with Diego Puerta and Paco Camino. In 1964, he topped the (bullfighters' rankings). In 1965, he was awarded the "Oreja de Oro" ("Golden Ear") at the Plaza México for his performance on 4 March, with a brave "faena" (series of passes before the bullfighter slays the bull) with the bull Limoncito ("Little Lemon") from the Las Huertas ranch. Also on the bill that day were Alfredo Leal, Antonio del Olivar, Madrid's Victoriano Valencia, Manuel Benítez "El Cordobés", and Gabino Aguilar. Later the same year, he was once again badly wounded in Palma de Mallorca. In 1966, he found himself at 68 bullfighting engagements, but at one of them, held in Bogotá, he suffered yet another serious goring. He saw 64 engagements the following year, but the woundings kept on coming; there were three, in Barcelona and Málaga in his homeland, and at the Plaza de toros de Acho in Lima over in Peru.
Remembered particularly well is a "faena" at the Vistalegre bullring on 19 May 1968, in which he alternated with Gregorio Sánchez and Ángel Teruel as they fought bulls from the Lisardo Sánchez ranch. It was a total success, after which El Viti cut a bull's tail off and the fans took him up onto their shoulders and bore him for several kilometres to the Bridge of Toledo.
He was also a favourite bullfighter among the demanding public at the "plaza de toros de la Real Maestranza de Caballería de Sevilla", even though he was not Andalusian. Greatly influenced as he was by Juan Belmonte's aesthetic, he for years represented the seriousness and neoclassical tradition in tauromachy, being considered by critics to be one of history's best-skilled bullfighters with the muleta.
Furthermore, he was acclaimed for the "faena" at the Plaza México on 4 January 1970 with the bull Aventurero ("Adventurer"), from the Tequisquiapan ranch (Alfredo Leal reaped two ears — but also a serious goring; Solórzano hijo rounded out the bill).
On 12 December 1975 at the Santamaría Bullring in Bogotá, he was the star in an unprecedented feat that has never been repeated. Each of the three bullfighters on the bill that afternoon, not only El Viti but Palomo Linares and Enrique Calvo "El Cali" too – one after the other – granted a bull from the Vistahermosa ranch an "indulto" (a "pardon"), thus sparing the three beasts the sword and sending them not only back to the bullpens, but also back to the Vistahermosa ranch.
On 17 April 1969 at the Maestranza in Seville, El Viti had a triumphant afternoon alternating with Palomo Linares and Ángel Teruel as they fought and slew bulls from the Lisardo Sánchez ranch. He reaped two ears.
First and foremost, however, El Viti was the king of Las Ventas, the world's most important bullring, at which he has been the one to open the Great Gate the most times: he was borne on shoulders out through the gate fourteen times as a matador and twice as a "novillero", thus sixteen times in all, and twice each in the years 1960 (as a "novillero"), 1965, 1966, 1969, and 1970. All together, he cut 40 ears as a matador at Madrid's great bullring.
Being borne out through the Great Gate at Las Ventas.
El Viti's sixteen trips out through the Great Gate at Las Ventas – two as a "novillero" and fourteen as a fully fledged matador – were on these dates; details of each bullfight's outcome are included:
El Viti's number of rides on shoulders out through the Great Gate as a matador is 14, as against Paco Camino's 12 and Antonio Bienvenida's 11. He is also one of only two bullfighters to have crossed the Great Gate's threshold on two consecutive days (the other being the Colombian César Rincón).
Later life.
The 1979 bullfighting season was El Viti's last. He saw great success at the Maestranza in Seville on the afternoon of 24 April, before Curro Romero and Tomás Campuzano (who was taking his "alternativa"), and was awarded the Maestranza Trophy for the fair's best muleta work. His penultimate appearance took place on 14 September on home ground, in Salamanca, sharing the billing with Niño de la Capea and Julio Robles as all three fought bulls from the Atanasio Fernández ranch. He cut two ears. He retired from the bullrings in Valladolid, at the end of the bullfighting season on 16 September 1979. It all ended rather sadly; he was not successful, and he even got abuse from the crowd on his last bull. El Viti had fought in more than 800 "corridas". For some years he worked as a livestock farmer, raising Spanish Fighting Bulls, the very beasts that he had faced in bullrings across Spain, France and Latin America.
A statue in El Viti's honour stands in Salamanca on the bullring's esplanade. It is a bronze, life-size figure standing on a granite pedestal and holding a muleta with the left hand, hanging down and behind the figure somewhat, and holding a montera up with the right hand. The whole is 2.30 m tall. The sculptor who created it was Narcisa Vicente Rodríguez, from Salamanca, and her work was unveiled on 8 September 2000. The plaque – also bronze – simply reads "SALAMANCA A S.M. 'EL VITI' SEPTIEMBRE 2000" ("a" simply means "to").
Another statue in El Viti's honour stands at a square bearing his name in the little town where he was born, Vitigudino. It was unveiled by El Viti himself on 18 June 2011.
On 1 July 2022, El Viti's wife, Mari Carmen García Cobaleda, whom he had wed on 28 November 1968, died after a long illness. She was a bull-rancher's daughter from Castraz, and was El Viti's inseparable companion.
Style.
El Viti has been called the "standard of the Castilian school" and "one of history's most elegant bullfighters".
Much of El Viti's style of bullfighting – and perhaps even his great success at the pursuit – may be explained by his own thoughts on bullfighting. In a letter entitled "Torear es amar" ("Bullfighting is Loving"), which he wrote for Felipe Garrigues's book "Sonajero", published in 1998, he said, among other things:For me, the bull has been a companion. The best collaborator at all levels, because he is the one that has given me the opportunity to love my friends, my colleagues, to respect other bullfighters. Hence the zenith of the relationship, of consideration, of respect... I have never dreamt of bullfighters, I have dreamt of bulls..., what I had to do with the bulls..., the way to fight